Winter’s coming to an end and the quantity of tangerines and oranges offered are receding. The pile of tangerine crates however increased tremendously. They’re too nice to destroy them and I like to use them in many different ways. But there’s one thing they do have in common: they’ll receive a coat of paint and will be decorated with some nice paper napkins. Cheeky chicken are pecking on the flower box edges, acid lemons decorate the party glass container and the napkin with vegetable print is a perfect design for my food container. During barbecue season it’s often used as a container for all my BBQ-sauces. Thus it’s quite easy to hand them from one table to the other. If you’re planning a really big party these crates are perfect for your cutlery. Even wrapped in paper napkins forks and knifes will fit.
When all tangerines were consumed I just had to take off the labels and paint the box in one color. It’s quite easy if you take the base color of the paper napkin you chose to cut out. This way it will be quite easy lateron to apply the napkin pieces. The surface needs to be sanded after the color dried. Then the selected napkin parts are to be cut out carefully. You’ll only need the very thin, upper layer of the napkins. Apply some decoupage glue on your crate, place the napkin parts and disperse some further glue with a soft paintbrush. Do this by coating each motif from its center to the borderlines. If there’s still any imperfections left simply apply some further paint. The decoupage glue works as lacquer too so that the crates may be used right now. Regarding the actual weather it seems that my chicken decorated box has elicited sunshine. During the next months it will stay on our terrace to receive all sorts of flowers.