Elegant Jewelry Box

Hey there, Crafters! 

              As Erika mentioned in her last post, we've had a lot of new unfinished wood come in to all of our stores. We were checking out all of these awesome new items that have been added to our selection, and this pretty little decorative box popped out at us. Already elegant with its hinged doors and little shelves we decided it was just begging to be dressed up and made even more up-scale with a few amazing products.

First, I stained the entire piece using our Gel Stain in Oak. I absolutely love working with this particular product, as it’s so easy to use. My favorite method is to use a very slightly damp sponge; it makes application go super quick and by having just that tiny bit of moisture it accents the grain of the wood even more. Since I wanted the stained look rather than a one-toned painted look, I wasn’t worried about the variance of light and dark shades. I think it adds a certain depth to it!

            Once my stain was as I wanted it, I needed to give it a bit to dry so I moved on to preparing these gorgeous leg fixtures by Tim Holtz. I am a big fan of gold and will try to fit it in where ever I can, and what’s better to dress something up than a gorgeous metallic accent? Since I knew that I’d be adding gold to the box, I wanted to make sure my legs tied in nicely. I went ahead and treated the legs with Metallic Lustre's Gold Rush. This is another product that’s super easy to use, and very versatile as it’s made for use on a number of different surfaces. To apply it, you can use a sponge, cloth, piece of felt or, (if you’re like me,) your finger. The consistency is almost like a dry paste; I simply applied a small amount to the high points on the legs using the pad of my index finger, creating a relief effect. If necessary it can be buffed once dried but in this case it didn’t even need to do that! 

           Even though it only took me a few minutes to prepare the legs, by the time I was done the stain was dry enough to work on. I set up for my next step by determining how much gold I wanted on my finished piece, (a lot,) and where I wanted to put it (everywhere!) I knew I might get a bit over-excited with the gold so I chose to tape off the areas I didn’t want to risk gilding with painters tape, but that’s totally optional. I then applied the same Metallic Luster in the same way, with a bit of a heavier hand because the wood is porous and will absorb a bit of it.

         The trickiest part of this whole project was actually attaching the legs, only because they are a bit too tall to allow the doors to swing open if you attach them flush with the base...which I found out the hard way! To resolve this, I applied hot glue to each corner, pressing it flat using the handle of my paint brush with a bit of wax paper to add the 1/4 inch I needed. A bit more hot glue, and I was able to affix them with ease! 

        At this point we have a beautiful, fully finished box. It could easily be left just as it is or coated with a sealant and look wonderful as a jewelry or keepsake box. I wasn’t ready to end the fun, though so I decided extra embellishments were in order!

        Tune in next time to see the rest of this project, where I’ll be wood-burning a gorgeous piece of french scroll work on to the corners, applying a custom decoupage background and maybe even changing out the clasp before wrapping it up with a glossy finish! 

Want to make your own elegant keepsake box? Come visit us and we'll be happy to get you set up with everything you need! Thanks for reading! 

-Chelsea @Mapunapuna