Renew, Create, Restore: Dollar Store Gift Boxes

Inspired by Debbiedoo's Dollar Tree Christmas Link Party I headed out to Dollarama (Toronto's equivalent to The Dollar Tree). I found these great wooden boxes for $2 each and thought they would be perfect to wrap gifts in because they could be used over and over again.

The first one I wanted to be able to use again any time of the year so I stained the main box with Special Walnut, including the inside. I then topcoated it with two coats of polyacrylic. Don't worry if you get a bit of stain on the "ribbon" you can just use sandpaper to sand it off.

Next I painted the ribbon with an antique white, but in future I would skip this step as it wasn't necessary and who wants to make extra work for themselves? I then used my finger to spread white glue on the "ribbon" and sprinkled epsom salt onto it. I left it to dry overnight and now I have a elegant, sparkly gift box. (total cost $2 for the box, everything else was left over from past projects).

For the next red and silver box I used some leftover homemade red chalk paint which I had used on my Union Jack Trunk to paint the box. I topcoated the box inside and out with polyacrylic in satin finish. Inexpensive silver paint from Dollarama dressed up the ribbon and when dry I used white glue and silver glitter again from Dollarama to create some drama. ($2 for the box, $1 for the glitter, $1 for the silver paint = $4 total with supplies left over for future projects).