Handilady Crafting Projects

Wooden fruit and vegetable crates are much too good to be thrown away once emptied, so rescue them and dress them up with vibrant colour and ribbon to make a great set of boxes for candles or table-linen (linens).

A gilded sun graces the lid of a plain wooden box with a touch of celestial mystery. This luxurious effect is easy to achieve using Dutch metal leaf. Delineate the area to be gilded with Japanese gold size to provide an adhesive backing, then apply the Dutch metal leaf as a transfer.

This unusual box is almost as pretty in two halves as it is when assembled. For maximum impact, choose two contrasting or complementary colours for the two halves so that the pattern of the curves stands out.