How to paint/stain a pine wood box?

[Chalet School Fan]

I want to make a keepsake Christmas Eve box for my grandson. I got the idea from Pinterest and I have bought the perfect pine box on EBay. I want to paint or stain it red. Then decorate it with die cuts before varnishing it. I've never done anything like this before so I thought I'd ask if anyone could give me advice on how to tackle the project.

[tricia]

I have altered several wooden boxes and before I start with paint or staining, I paint a thin layer of gesso all over. I find doing this helps the paint or stain to hold its colour. All too often I found the paint would soak into the wood and I would end up using quite a lot. There are good crafting paints around, I use Paperartsy chalk paint and Tim Holtz distress paint. Once I am happy with that stage then I will set to and decorate.

[Chalet School Fan]

Thank you Tricia. That is really helpful. I've got some red Paperartsy paint I bought for a different project, but haven't actually used it yet!
I had originally planned to cut out letters with my Cricut, stick them on and then apply a coat of varnish. But I'm sure I'd mess up the vanishing, so I'm now planning on buying wooden letters to paint or stain and then stick on.

[Mitzi]

I haven't done any of this kind of thing, so I'm not speaking from experience, but pine is often quite knotty. If yours is, I'd think about getting some knot sealer to treat it first, so the resin doesn't keep seeping through the paint.

[tricia]

I buy wooden letters etc from Calico Craft Parts online. I have used paper to cover my boxes, normally Grapic 45 as that is a heavy paper, and have cut out items from them. They have been glued into place and I have used a thin layer of mod podge over the embellishments. If you look on my blog you will see I did a steampunk box and the top has embellishments on it. Although I did forget to add that I had put mod podge on the paper embellishments.

[Chalet School Fan]

Thanks for that Tricia. I have used Mod Podge before when I covered large 3D cardboard letters with decopatch papers and that was very effective. Might be a better idea than painting as I have lots of Christmas papers which would look good. Or possibly paint it dark blue, add stars and a moon and Santa in his sleigh - the various possibilities are endless now!

[tricia]

When I first started altering boxes many was the time that I would paint, then not like it so paint over then smudge it down with two or three colours. I do like covering with paper though and if you don't like it then gently wet it down and remove. Plus using paper does mean you don't need to gesso it up front. I use mod podge for gluing the paper it gives me a little leeway for movement before it dries. Good luck, would love to see the finished article or even pics as you go along.

[LTC]

We used to paint TONS of pine objects. You can seal them with acrylic varnish -- brush-on or spray -- if you are going to paint it. After that, sand it with a fine-grit sandpaper until every part of the surface is smooth. Acrylic paint works well, as will chalk paint. I like to brush the entire painted surface with the decoupage medium, let it dry and sand it again before starting to add the pictures; it's not essential, but it seems to help protect the paint even more.