handmade sensations: Crayons wooden box DIY

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Crayons wooden box DIY

Well, well, well. When I was starting this blog and defining what it will be about and what I want to show you here, I've never even supposed I'll be doing DIY projects. I was so in love with sewing and knitting that I almost forgot about my passion to other types of crafting. It was all the new connections and meetings that brought me here - to my first DIY post. One day I realized all my inspirations and new ideas are circling around home decor DIY.
So I looked around and found soooo many things to be done at my appartment! I've decided to start with an easy one though, and the one mostly important and necessary these days. My daughter's crayons box - plain and simple.

This is the project based on a real need to replace this paper destroyed box...

...by a solid wooden one, that will survive all the little girl's experiments.

This part will be also the beginning of my painting adventure, which I have started few weeks ago, but couldn't get to the level at which I may show something to the public - you, to be clear. I made painted some things, but oh boy! you wouldn't like watching them!

My DIY story has started with a wooden box (found at LeroyMerlin which is my favorite place lately), and accesories for painting, which at the beginning was a can of white paint for wood and a paintbrush. Yes, I meant white paint, even if you see no white at all on the final view. Well I am a beginner, so at first I painted the wooden box with white and was going to add colorful stripes on the top. As soon as I started doing that I realized it's a crap. I've tried fixing it, with no effect whatsoever. My trick for fixing the problem - buying a new wooden box :-(

With the new wooden box I've started once again. I made stripes out of masking paper tape (the one you use when painting your walls) - the width of the stripes depends on the tape - that's clear. I've also secured the edge of the box that I didn't want to paint. The free space between stripes I painted with a simple acrylic paint, colour mixed by myself: black, white, green and blue.

When the paint was dry I removed the tape and got quite nice two-stripped down part of the box. I left a space between the stripes unpainted (due to my experience with the first wooden box). If however you would like to paint it as well by another colour, make sure you secure the painted stripes with paintwork (a kind of lacquer that will secure your acrylic paints on the wood). In order to paint the resting space you need to put the masking tape on the painted stripes. With paintwork on them you may be sure the painted stripes (even if dry already) will not come unstuck with the masking tape when removed.

Now the experiment with the top of the box! First project assumed three stripes in different colours - the same width as on the bottom part of the box. So I prepared the top and even painted it. But the view after removing the tape was scandalous!

Again - I had to find a way to fix it, this time not so easy buying a new one, as the bottom part was really looking good and I didn;t want to loose it. So I made the stripes wider (luckily I could make it). Just have a look how it went out!