December Crafts- Decorate wooden boxes

Decorated Wooden Boxes

Here are instructions for decorating wooden boxes with scenes from nature. If you are fond of Esla Beskow books or similar, you can easily use them as inspiration. Just make sure you give yourself enough time for the different stages. Light-coloured wood, simple line drawings, and added colour seem to work best. The wood finish tends to darken the wood. For white, you might need to use an acrylic paint.

What you need:

• paper for rough sketches
• medium lead pencil (HB)
• eraser
• a wooden box (one you have made or one purchased unfinished from a craft store; light-coloured wood ideally)
• a wood sample * (This could be the bottom or the box or a different piece of wood entirely. It is for testing the finish on the paint before using on the box.)
• wood-burning tool or a hard pencil (2H, 3H, or 4H)
• watercolour paints and paint brushes
• white paint (craft or acrylic)
• non-toxic wood finish—e.g., Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish (from Lee Valley Tools)

Steps

1. Sketch your drawings on paper and try different arrangements of designs on the box top and sides. If the box combines woods of different shades or textures, plan to have each illustration within one consistent area of wood OR use the variation as part of your design.
2. When your plans are final, lightly sketch your drawings on the box with the HB pencil. If you must erase, do so lightly. Too much erasing will roughen the wood and change the way the wood absorbs paint. (*At the same stage, draw on a wood sample.)
3. If you are using the wood-burning tool, attach the fine point and heat up the wood-burner. Use the fine point to carefully outline your sketch and then work in any shading you want. If you are using a hard pencil, use the pencil both to score and darken the wood. (*At the same stage, burn or score/darken the wood sample.)
4. Before painting, lightly erase any leftover pencil markings and brush away the erasings.
5. With watercolour paint, a brush, and only a little water, start colouring your decorations. Use the white last. Avoid using too much water: it will saturate the wood and make the colours bleed. (*At the same stage, paint the wood sample.)
6. Before the next stage, let the box (paint and wood) dry completely.
7. Following the instructions on the non-toxic wood finish, try the finish on the wood sample to test the paint for bleeding. If the paint bleeds, stop. Try an alternative product on a sample until you find one that does not make the paint bleed. (Clapham’s Beeswax Salad Bowl Finish worked for me but your results might vary with the polish, the watercolour paints, or the wood.)
8. Gently apply the finish to the box, inside and out.
9.