Faux Finished Storage Boxes by Kathy Stoffel

1. Purchase papier-mache boxes. With the lid on the box, drip Golden’s clear tar gel in a circle to create a burl wood pattern (See picture a)
, or create a grid design with the resinous, stringy, acrylic gel. Use a plastic fork or palette knife to get a nice string (Mary Jo McGraw’s CD, Exploring Art Materials from www.pagesage.com).

2. After the tar gel is applied to half of the box, set aside to dry…carefully remove any tar gel that bridges the box base and lid so that you can remove the lid after the gel dries.

3. Set embellishments into the tar gel, if desired.

4. Let the tar gel dry over night. Apply tar gel to the other side of the box using the same technique.

5. Paint the box with acrylic paint (See picture b)
 (burnt sienna, primary yellow and naphthol crimson for the burl wood box; Hooker’s green, primary yellow and titanium white for the alphabet box).

6. Within 15 minutes or so of painting, use a clean paper towel to gently wipe the paint off the tar gel (See picture c)
.

7. After the paint is dry, stamp letters into the squares of the alphabet box using StazOn black ink.

8. Wax the box with paste shoe polish (cordovan for the burl wood and brown for the green box). Wipe on the polish and rub it in taking care to cover all of the crevices.

9. After 5-10 minutes, buff the polish to the desired finish.

10. Paint or stain the letter tiles. Paint the inside of the box base and lid.

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