Making a Wooden Box Out of Cardboard

I had thought for a while that I wanted to make a cardboard box and apply veneer to the outside to make it look like a wooden box and when I saw the topics for this months competitions I decided the time was now.

Materials needed:-

Cardboard

Real wood veneer ( I bought an offcuts pack from ebay)

Glue ( I tried Wood Glue and CA but found CA much better, especially with activator)

Craft knife and / or Scissors

Hinges (if you want a hinged lid)

Paint (if you want to paint the inside

Please watch the video for additional hints and tips

Firstly cut out the 4 sides to the size you want them

remember to allow for the thickness of the card

Glue the sides together, initially I used wood glue but it was difficult to hold together in the right position while it dried. I found CA glue with activator much better.

Make sure all of the joints are a square as you can get them.

Now Cut out the base and Lid to fit the sides.

Note: I did my lid later and it was much more difficult to fit because I'd already applied veneer to the box.

Glue the base to the sides using CA Glue and Activator

When adding the veneer, I cut to an approximate size using scissors and then applied CA glue to the box and activator to the veneer. This worked well, allowing the veneer to stick firmly, you will see in the video that there were a couple of edge pieces where I did this the other way around, applying the glue to the veneer and activator to the cardboard.

When cutting the veneer, I found it best to use scissors for the vast majority of the cutting, saving only very delicate trimming for the sharp craft knife

When applying veneer, cut once piece at a time then glue on, do the sides before the tops and bottoms for the best end result.

When you applied all your veneer, you need to give it a good sanding for a night smooth box and good finish.

Note: Veneer is thin and it wouldn't be too difficult to sand all the way through so take care.

I used a couple of tiny brass hinges to give mine a hinged lid.

I painted the inside black rather than adding veneer to the inside

I used a Danish Oil finish to give it a little protection and to bring out the grain a little. You may also need to fill any small holes with a mixture of wood dust ( from sanding) and Wood Glue.

So there we have it, a wooden box made out of cardboard.

Let me know if you made one or if you have any suggestions for improvements