First, your supplies. I choose a photo box because it has a nice finish, smooth and fairly strong, but a shoe box would work fine too. You will also need decorative paper, Elmer's glue, hot glue, x-acto knife, metal ruler/strait edge, small wooden dowel, pen, paint (I used spray paint, but any paint will work), robe, cord or ribbon, beads or plastic bottle caps (for feet) and extra cardboard. I put in a mirror, I bought at an auto shop for replacement mirrors. You can cut it and it fairly inexpensive. Without the mirror, painting beads I had laying around and using card I already had, the total cost was $3.99 for the box but I had a 40% off coupon and $.59 per piece of paper, I used 4, totaling $4.75 plus tax.