BOX OF DELIGHTS

This unfinished box contained (rather yummy) chocolates and was a Christmas gift last year. I'd held onto the box ever since, believing that inspiration would strike in terms of what I should do with it ... and as you can see it did!

It was only once I'd learned the metal embossing techniques that I realised this would be a perfect way to cover up the logo on the lid. The wood was actually unfinished so first I gave it two coats of light wood stain to make it a more interesting shade, and followed this up with two coats of matte varnish. The result isn't actually completely matte, but is exactly what I wanted in terms of a very slight sheen but not shiny.

Then I cut a metal panel to almost cover the lid and worked on this as a unit. As you can see I worked from the outside edge in, gradually covering the whole piece. Because quite a lot of the design is very 3D this was also the first time I used fine grade Polyfilla (that's Spackle to those of you in North America) on the reverse to fill the depth of, for example, the celtic style border. This ensures that the design won't become flattened in use - and it really works, although it does make the panel quite rigid. I carefully kept the filler away from the edges where I'd need to tape it down.

The panel was fastened on with the extra strong tape - a band of it right around the outside edge, then a criss-cross of tapes across the piece. The result is very secure and I don't think the panel is going anywhere! Although I've stained and varnished the inside too, I haven't quite decided how to finish it yet - perhaps line it with some sumptuous scrapbook paper?? I'll probably decide once I know what I want to use it for!