On a whim I decided to make this veneer box for my husband, using a small unfinished wood box from Hobbycraft I had in my cupboard, and some veneer off-cuts from another project. I drew up the design in Affinity Designer on my iPad, and imported it into Design Space.

I had found these veneers very fragile on my last project, and they had broken apart during cutting. I decided to try and back them with some double-sided adhesive sheets I recently got, but realised the backing of the sheets was so slippery it wouldn't stick to the mat at all. I adhered some regular printer paper to the back and it worked perfectly, it gave such clean cuts and there was no residue on the mat.

I glued the frame on first to give the other pieces something to fit into, and then added the other veneers layer by layer, gluing the pieces down in sections. I had to do quite a few small adjustments with a scalpel as the box was not exactly square (thanks Hobbycraft!), but eventually I got them all in.

I sanded the whole box down with 240 grit sandpaper, and then applied a clear gloss spray. I then lined the inside and the bottom with adhesive baize, which was not easy again because the box is not square, but I'm happy with the end result!

Next time I would assemble the veneers as one flat piece using tape on the front, and then glue the whole piece on at once, which would be a lot quicker and less painful. I'm going to investigate buying some nicer quality boxes also, which would be more expensive but I think would greatly improve the final product.