Tips on covering a box please?

Craft Talk
1

Hi all!

I want to cover a cardboard box with fancy wrapping paper to display some cards in a cafe (long story short I wanted a box with a section cut out of the front to better to display the front card but couldn’t find one so bought a box and cut the front out)

So I’ve got the box, I’ve got the paper. Not sure what type of glue to use. My first thought was decoupage glue but I don’t want a varnished look. I just want the cover paper to look natural.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

Dominic

2

How about double-sided tape or double-sided tape sheets? Like this http://www.stix2.co.uk/double-sided-sticky-clear-sheets/a4-sheets-of-double-sided-adhesive-5-sheets-per-pa
or wallpaper paste.

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3

I’d use pva or a prit stick, it doesn’t need to be all over, just a few spots along the edges. If you google ‘how to cover a cardboard box with paper’ and check out images there’s lots of different ways.

I like Bizzy Lizzy’s idea of double sided tape :slight_smile: so it depends on what you’ve got to hand or if you want to buy supplies.

Jan :slight_smile:

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4

I’ve used whatever glue I’ve got and hand along with some double side stickie tape.

If you don’t want the glossy affect and have non glossy paper just make sure you don’t get glue on the outside of your pretty paper.

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5

Pinflair book binding glue is good for paper, it has a lower water content than most PVA glues so is less likely to leave wrinkles in the paper it also dries to a clear matt finish if you get any on the front of the paper. I believe Mod Podge also do a matt glue/sealer but never used it so can’t comment on how good it is.

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6

Hello, thank’s for all your ideas and tips.

I have completed the box to a standard I’m happy with - blemishes are there but you’ve got to be looking for them quite hard and most are on the inside where no one will see because the box will be full of cards so I’m happy.

I decided to try pritt stick as I had some already and would start by attaching it to the base - so if it looked not so great no one would see it but it looked good so I started on the sides (I’d carefully cut the paper into the perfect shape to come up the sides of the box then over and down insode the box).

This is where things started going wrong. You see the box I’d bought cheap from TK Maxx was stripy and the stripes showed through the paper I bought so I’d decided to paint it white, didn’t have any white paint to hand but found a bottle of artists gesso - I don’t even remember why I’d bought it. Spent several days painting one side of the box, letting it dry, painting another layer, etc, then on to the next side - didn’t paint the base because no one will see it.

So learned the hard way that pritt stick doesn’t like gesso! It must react in some way and just becomes an unsticky sort of putty that has to be removed by rolling a finger across the surface.

Then I found a Bostik Sticky Pen (which was was bought for making cards but was too messy for sticking fiddly little things like eyes so never got used) which I’d dismissed as being too runny - but spread it really thin with a spare finger which I then held away from the box as I carefully pressed the paper down. I kept having to stop every few minutes to wash my hands.

I finally did all the main gluing but had some edges where the paper hadn’t fully stuck down. I dug out a something called the Quicky Glue pen (which is a ball point but with glue instead of ink) - which I’d also bought in my early days of crafting before I discovered that pritt sticks better.

The glue comes out pail blue in a thin liquid line but dries clear, I tried running it down one of the back edges and it looked good, so moved onto the front where for some reason it didn’t turn out so well and I ended up with a sticky-edge box.

Out comes the cornflour (couldn’t find any plain flour but had a massive tub of cornflour - go figure) which I suck on the sticky patches hoping for the best - well it looked as bad as you’re imagining but after some desperate/delicate wiping with a clean tissue looked just about alright.

Probably should have gone down the DSST route as suggested but didn’t have any in the house and wanted to get started.

Did some serious considering as regards to the pinflair and looked at it on Amazon but couldn’t shake the worry that it might also not stick to gesso (why did I use gesso?!?) so didn’t take the plunge.

Thanks, rant over

Dominic

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