Art's n Crafts! How to Color a Paper Mache' Box

                             Hi everyone! So here is something I've meant to do but held out for a while;
                             which is to offer a tutorial.~ This is the first one of a few, and what I have
                             listed will be steps that worked for me through trial and error. I'm sure you
                            can find plenty of other tutorials, all with similar/different methods, but I think
                            it's good to have different methods of making something. ^^ I got all of my
                            supplies at Hobby Lobby, but any craft shop should have these available.
                            (Or online! Amazon, Ebay, or Etsy all sell craft supplies!)

                                 Materials:
                                Paper Mache' Box (Or anything Paper Mache')
                                Gesso (Any kind does the job.)
                                Various brushes
                                Acrylic Paints (Any brand should work; some will work better.)
                                Water
                                Varnish (Any glaze should do; the extra coating is for protection.)
                   
               1)  Before you do anything, make sure you have plenty of water, and a place to put
                     your project on that you don't care if it gets dirty.
              
                2) Taking a brush or a craft sponge, use it to place gesso all around your item.
                     If the item is not a one-sided flat surface, and you intend to paint different
                     sides of the object, wait for the gesso to dry before putting it in other sides.
                     If you're unfamiliar with gesso, it's a liquid that dries into canvas for objects
                     that don't usually have canvas, like certain fabrics, cardboard, etc. It will
                     make the paint stick much easier and not flake off or difficult to see.
             
               3) Now you're ready to paint! You don't need to be a professional artist for this; put
                   whatever you want. If you're not familiar with acrylics, they mix well and look
                   very vibrant, but if you don't have a covered palette that can store paint from
                   drying, you might want to use tiny ball sized amounts of paint, because
                   acrylics dry up very fast.

              4)  After you paint, (like the gesso, it's best to do it sections at a time if it's not
                   one flat surface), put any varnish you think works best with you. I haven't
                   tried it on acrylic, but Mod-Podge should work albeit a bit sticky. In a past
                   project I did with paper mache' I used polyurethane, (which was recommended
                   by an art teacher), and it made the paper mache' as hard as a rock. Keep in mind
                   though, that if you want to use this, polyurethane is originally created to put
                   on wooden floors, and will make a light yellow overcoat on top of the paint.
                   (There might be clear ones available, but I haven't looked.) Also, it has a lot
                   of chemicals, so if you want to use it, it might be preferable to use it outdoors
                   or in an area with a lot of ventilation. (Or wear a mask if you can't.) You also
                   will need to keep it in a well ventilated place until it dries; it takes about 3-4
                   days for the smell to wear off. I didn't use it in this project; the box has no
                   coating on it yet, but I hope the steps are somewhat helpful for paper mache'
                    projects in general. ^^