Hello and welcome to my tutorial.
Today I will be decorating another wooden box. There will be quite a lot of steps to follow but I’m sure even beginners can do it.
First I paint my box with flower white acrylic paint which is this lovely ivory finish. All art supplies can be purchased in our little online shop at www.aggiescraftshop.co.uk You can find links in the description under my video.
When my paint is dry I can start gluing rice paper. As you can see I use the whole sheet of paper instead of measuring and cutting it. Make sure to apply glue on your box first and then on top of the paper smoothing it towards edges. Sadly glue which I’m using is not so good for rice paper so choose another one. I always apply glue under the paper because I had situations when I applied it only from the top and it didn’t soak my paper properly. Obviously this wasn’t visible at the time of gluing and I ended up with air bubbles after several weeks.
I use sand paper to remove overhanging edges. I will be using the rest of my paper inside so I use scissors to cut top of my roses where I can’t match the background and I tear the rest with fingers. This time I make sure to use the right decoupage glue to attach my paper to the lid. This is one of the best glues I used I have to say and it works with napkins as well as rice paper.
Now we can start working with stencil and paste. I spray my stencil with temporary glue and wait few seconds for glue to dry and becomes sticky before placing it on my box. This way I’m sure it stays in place and paste will not leak under it. Then I use spatula to apply my structure paste and I remove stencil immediately. This will take you some time because you can do it only one side at a time. You can use any structure paste.
When everything is dry I use mixture of paints to match sides of my box with the lid. Be prepared for lots of mess when doing so and do everything at one go because there is no way of matching those colours again. I usually mix them as I work my way around the box adding little beat of red here and little beat of green there and so on. Try not to take to much paint on your brush specially when you work around the paper. I also paint roses with pink paint to give them extra sharpness. This way they will looks like hand painted.
To expose 3 dimensional structure of my reliefs on sides I use brush with short bristle and the same flower white paint. I apply very little paint on my brush wiping excess on kitchen towel and with almost dry brush I go over my reliefs. This is called dry brush technique if I’m not mistaken but I’m self-thought so what do I know.
Outside of the box is finished so I can start working on the inside. I use two shading sponges to create shading around my roses. I apply paint with smaller brush and I tap with larger sponge to blend my paint. I add little beat of water to my paint but working with blending medium is much better.
In the mean time I use cream paste and moulds to create some ropes. Make sure to fill your mould properly by pushing paste inside so there are no air bubbles. This is one of the best pastes I used so far but it takes at least 24 hours to dry so creating 4 ropes took me 4 days. I didn’t fill my moulds quite well on purpose to create old look. Dry product is very flexible and you can bend it or cut it with scissors. I’m very pleased with this paste I have to say.
I use the same mix of paints to paint my ropes. Make sure you plan your work ahead as painting sides of the box and painting ropes will need to be done at the same time because you want be able to match colours in two goes.
Why waiting for my ropes to dry I apply one coat of triple thick varnish. You can use any varnish you want but I like this glossy finish.
When my ropes are dry I use express glue to attach them to my box. I apply glue on the box first but it’s better to apply it on the ropes. I also splash some dots inside so everything blends better and finish with another coat of varnish.
Enjoy:)