Wooden Crafts-Jewelry Box

It is weird being on the other side of the holidays. I started doing all of this is October, where I had the upcoming holiday guide my choices for projects. Now there is a whole month of nothing but cold and this is where things are going to start to get interesting.

During our trip to the craft store last week, while browsing the wood crafts aisle, my daughters attention was quickly drawn to the cute wooden birdhouses and boxes waiting to be decorated. When she saw a small heart shaped box she practically begged me to get it for her. I agreed, so that she could have hers to decorate while I got a larger jewelry box and decorated it more intricately.

Supplies:

-Wooden Jewelry box

-Acrylic paint

-Two sheets of felt

-Hot glue gun

-Fake jewels, optional

Before working with either box, I fully sanded all of the sides and edges until smooth. A medium grain sandpaper is recommended. My daughter pretty much just wanted to paint hers, so I gave her some paint and a few brushes and let her go for it. Meanwhile, I felt like playing around so I tried out a few different paint options before going with my chosen color. I wanted to see if I could make a more rustic looking box first. Using a dark brown and a wide brush, I filled the lines on my box with paint. I intentionally made this look rough and uneven, and even added a few streaks of dark brown across the wood as well. The streaks looked pretty good, so I added a few more, and even added a few in light brown for some variety.

I almost just left it like this. This was definitely one of those 'less is more' moments. I knew I had a plan though, so I painted over it with a thin coat of white paint. This time I was going for an antique-y look. I wanted the paint thin enough that you could kind of see the wood underneath. I didn't like this one as much, but it did have the antique look I was going for, so yay, I guess?

Okay, here is where I actually decided to get to work. I mixed white paint with a few drops of dark blue and a drop of violet. The result was almost a periwinkle. I painted on two coats, including the inside edges. The ridges where I had previously painted dark brown I touched up with black. While I let the paint dry, I began cutting my felt for lining the inside of the box. I cut of pieces that were the length, but double the width so that I could fold them over and have a thicker layer of felt. I felt like it also made for smoother edges. When the paint was fully dry I used my hot glue gun to attach all of the felt pieces to the inside of the box.

I got a bag of wooden letters and I was so excited to put my daughters initial on top of the box, but when I looked through the letters, the K was broken. I glued it together but it still looks a little wonky. I painted it pink (even two layers of paint didn't help) and when the paint dried I glued it to the top of my jewelry box. I also glued on the little jewels randomly across the top and front.

My daughter had me glue a glittery ribbon around her box, then added some more glitter to the top of the box. Before she finished, she threw some extra glitter inside her box, because she wanted it to be 'as pretty as she could make it.' Hers really did come out great, and she had a blast doing it. I enjoyed making my box as well, although again, I didn't actually get to really work with the wood as much as just decorate it. Although I do really want to get another box so I can do my less is more paint again.