One of my Christmas gifts from Donna was a Home Depot gift card, which of course was very well appreciated.

However, the card came in a little wooden box with a sliding lid. Inside the box was a molded plastic thingie (like in pen boxes and similar items) to hold and display the card. So of course it got me thinking.

She said the box cost $3.95. It's a little on the crude side, but I wonder if it could be adapted to something. Oh, yes, it has the Home Depot logo printed on the lid.

George,
I have been fascinated with these since I first noticed them a few months ago. They also have a metal one that looks like diamond plate. I haven't come up with anything yet. Let me know if you get something, and I'll do the same.
Don

Ya got it.

We magicians seem to be fascinated with containers -- don't we? I have a small collection of various containers just "waiting" for inspiration to hit me.

A few years ago AOL kept sending out their CD's in a die-cut box that opened like a book. I liked the box and kept it in my collection. Then I came across an idea for a reading show. I covered the box with a fake cover for a book and then had something hidden inside the "book" which appeared when opened. It worked slick, and I still use it.

Sorry, not actually on topic, but it just got me thinking how magician's see the world through a very different lens.

I haven't seen the box you're talking about, but I once made up a small wood box that opened like a drawer box, but at both ends. All the sides were a different color. The inside bottoms were magnetic plates. I then proceeded to "build" a magic box as part of the effect. I would open the box and take out a single nail, then shut the box and hand it to a helper. Then I took the nail and pounded it into a pine wood tube. The idea was that I was constructing a magic box, and I had holes drilled out where the nails should all go, with some ticky tacky stuffed inside so it looked as if the nails were actually holding the box together, but they could be easily removed for resetting and transportation.

Anyway, The box took 12 nails to complete, so after pounding in the first nail, I would ask the helper for another nail. He would not be able to find one in the box, so I would tell him to look in the other side. No matter which side he looked in, there was no nail (two nails were palmed in my hand from a holder under my Wizard robe - but you could have it under your jacket- much like the old cigarette holders. A magnet under your jacket can hold lots of nails for this purpose, too!). I would take the box from him and while turning it over, would load the two nails into the box where they would cling to one of the magnetic bottoms. I palmed in two nails at a time so I could remove 1 and the next one was for the helper to find. So that's pretty much the way the routine went, with the helper sometimes able to find a nail, and if not, I could palm in two more, find one and leave one for him for the next time. When the box was finished, I discovered that it was nailed shut on all sides. Then I would vanish a baseball (the box was just big enough to hold a softball or a baseball) and I would ask the kid to look for the missing ball. I would give him the little box and have him shake it, and you could hear the baseball inside, so out would come a screw driver and we would pry off the top (it actually removed easily so I had to make it look difficult) and discover the baseball inside the sealed box.

After all that typing, I hope the small Home Depot box can be used for the routine!