Trinket box

What you'll need: Plain wooden jewellery box or similar (available from craft suppliers), small screwdriver, sandpaper (120 grit), pencil, ruler, removable masking tape, paintbrushes, scissors, 50cm square of suede or similar fabric, A4 piece of foam board, hot glue gun, small hair rollers (from discount variety stores), Resene testpot paints. I used: Resene Virtuoso, Resene Apple Blossom, Resene Just Dance, Resene Soulful, Resene White.

Instructions

1. Remove the lid and clasps from the box, using a small screwdriver, then give the box pieces a light sand to get rid of any surface coating that might prevent the paint adhering well. Wipe clean.

2. With your pencil and ruler, draw a design of your choice on the lid. I went for an Aztec-type feel (see pic A). (Diamond shapes and sharp angles work best.) Draw your design on both top and bottom of the lid so it is seen when the box is opened up.

3. Paint the lid with your chosen Resene paints in sections, placing masking tape along the edge of each section before painting to give perfectly straight, clean lines (see pic B). Allow each colour to dry before taping and painting the next section.

4. While the lid is drying, measure the inside base of your box and cut a piece of suede to cover the entire base. (Don’t glue it in yet.) Next, measure the inside width and depth, and cut a piece of foam board to these measurements to create a divider. Cut out a piece of fabric to cover the foam board divider and glue it on with your hot glue gun (see pic C).

5. For the ring dividers, cut strips of suede the same width as the hair rollers, and long enough to wrap around a roller twice. Hot-glue the fabric to your rollers (see pic D). Don’t worry about covering the ends of the divider and hair rollers as these will be hidden when glued into the box.

6. Set aside the divider and rollers and paint both the inside and outside of your box base with two coats of Resene paint. Once dry, lightly pencil and rule up a pattern for the front panel of your box (I left the other sides plain). As done for the lid, use masking tape to ensure clean lines and paint the pattern section by section.

7. When the paintwork is completely dry, glue the measured piece of suede onto the base. Now glue in the rollers hard up against each other, along the right inside edge of the box. You want them packed tightly so your rings will sit upright without falling through the gaps. Lastly, glue in the divider so it’s aligned against the ring rollers (see pic E).

8. Finally, reattach the lid and clasp. If you don’t want to use the original clasp, you could instead cut a small rectangular piece of suede, then loop and glue it together and glue onto the box lid to make a cute tab that matches the inside of your jewellery box (see pic F).