Day 2 Cover those boring boxes and folders!

This craft has always been one of my most favourite things to do, it's perfect to do whilst sat watching the telly, but it's also messy enough to not be boring. What is it? Decoupage!
I keep all of our paperwork and documents at home in plain old ring binders, and anything sentimental  that I can't bring myself to throw away (which is virtually everything) I keep in old shoe boxes. But when we moved into our flat, the only place to keep these folders and boxes was on a bookshelf in the living room in plain view, and they did not look very attractive. But rather than invest in new decorative boxes and files from the high street, I decided to cover the ones I had.

What you need:

• The item that you want you cover (boxes,folders etc.)
• Paper to cover them in (I used pages from a spare copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare that I had kicking around, but you could any type of paper really)
• Craft glue
• Paint brush

Firstly you need to spread an even layer of glue on to a patch of whatever it is you're covering. I found it was best to work in small sections at a time so the glue didn't dry before I had a chance to stick anything down.

You will also need to paint glue over the top of each page or piece of paper as well to make sure it sticks properly and you get a smooth finish.

Keep layering up your pages until you have covered the entire object. I had to do a few layers on some of my boxes  because the colour of the box and some of the writing showed up under just one layer. Alternatively I guess you could paint the box or folder first, but I had loads of pages spare and I quite like the layered look.

Once your box or folder is completely covered, paint another coat of glue over the whole thing just to make sure everything is stuck down properly and to protect the paper a bit, let it dry and you're done! Easy Peasy.

My finished boxes and folder

I'm really pleased with these, they do have some bubbles in where I didn't put enough glue on or smooth the page down enough, but I quite like the look, I think they go with the yellowyness of the old book pages. I am going to cover the blue cord handle of the bigger box, probably in some vintage scarp fabric that I will just wrap round it and tie at the ends. This craft is massively addictive, I'm now going on a decoupage spree round the flat, covering everything in site in old book pages!