DIY: Handmade Candy Boxes

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

A handmade gift is a treasure and deserves to be treated as one. Present your holiday candy, cookies, or other sweets in a container that will live on after the contents have been reduced to crumbs. One way to package an herbal gift is in a box like those shown above which owe their simple charm to “antique” herb drawings decoupaged onto the surface. Long after the sweets are gone, the boxes will still be useful for holding paper clips, potpourri, jewelry, mementos, notes, stamps, or loose change.

Decoupage is the French word for “cut out”, and virtually anything that can be cut out can then be applied to a surface.

Any hobby or craft store offers a selection of inexpensive unfinished boxes made of heavy cardboard or lightweight wood in different sizes and shapes to fit your needs; the technique of decoupage is adaptable to any container made of almost any material, even metal. Ours are decorated with illustrations from a clip-art book of old-time plant woodcuts, but any kind of artwork may be used, including pictures from magazines, catalogs, and greeting cards, even fabrics and photographs. Découpage is the French word for “cut out”, and virtually anything that can be cut out can then be applied to a surface. As you become familiar with the technique, ideas will present themselves. Because the illustrations that we chose were black-and-white, we added soft color with oil-based colored pencils.

It’s often easier to come up with a pleasing design to decoupage when the background color on the box is white, off-white, or another light shade that doesn’t compete with the design. We used standard decoupage materials: acrylic gesso, which after many coats will produce a smooth, slick surface; acrylic paint for the background; and a decoupage finish, which adheres and seals the design onto the surface. All are soluble in water, making cleanup easy. A layer of antiquing finish “aged” our boxes to make them more compatible with the woodcut designs. Antiquing shows up best on a pale, muted background.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print