PaperCrafter bonus projects: decorative boxes

• For all boxes: start by lightly sanding your selected wooden boxes with sandpaper to remove any chips and to prevent splinters. Smooth over the boxes with a tissue so you can detect any rough areas where the napkin snags. Once satisfied, paint the boxes with several coats of white opaque paint and leave to dry.

METHOD: Gold rope

• Select a napkin from your assortment with a nautical rope design or similar border to fit a small 7.5cm x 7.5cm box. You’ll need to remove the uppermost layer from a 3ply napkin, but it is easier to do this after you’ve cut out your design. Cut four borders for each side of the box.

• Once all sections are cut out and the top layer of each piece has been teased off, position them on the box and mark if necessary. Leave 1cm of space below the tissue border, apply a thin coat of glue to the box and carefully position one tissue border on top of it, ensuring the design is central.

• Use your fingertips to very lightly smooth any air bubbles from the tissue border, starting from the centre and working outwards. Leave to dry and seal with another coat of glue. Repeat this for each side, making sure the rope meets at each end to give a neat border.

METHOD: Seagull scene

• Select a pretty 3ply napkin that would make a suitable lid for a 9cm x 9cm square box. Carefully cut your napkin to this size, taking care not to tear it. Remove the uppermost layer from your cut-out and put to one side.

• Take awhite painted box and apply a thin coat of glue to the entire surface of the box lid, bearing in mind that you’ll have to apply the tissue layer in time before the glue dries.

• With care, hold the tissue layer in one hand and beginning in one corner of the box, allow it to fall down and position it in place whilst smoothing air bubbles with the fingertips of your other hand at the same time, gradually lowering the rest of the tissue onto the glued lid.

• Once the tissue is in place, smooth out any air bubbles with your fingertips, again starting in one corner and working outwards. Finish with another coat of glue and leave to dry.

METHOD: Washi wonder

• Take your white painted box and choose a complementing washi tape. Begin at the front of the box and cut lengths of washi tape for each edge of the box.

• Prevent cutting the washi tape lengths longer than each edge, as the overlap may distort the look of where two pieces of washi tape already ‘overlap’ at a right angle.

• Apply washi tape in this way to each side of the box, taking care to smooth it down with your fingertips and also at the edges where two pieces of tape meet at the join. This will make sure that the tape doesn’t come away. Seal with a thin coat of decoupage glue over the tape and around the edges.

• If your box has a lock, the washi tape border may come too close to it. If so, use a pencil to lightly mark the washi tape you wish to take away and remove with a craft knife. Don’t forget… PaperCrafter issue 70 hits the shops on Friday 28th March!

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