More Gift Packaging Ideas

Hi Friends,

I have another gift packaging project to share with you and I love the way this one turned out.  It's a tall box  made with the Gift Bag Punch Board.  I call it my Santa's Chimney Box, I think you'll see why!

This is a big box, 6" x 3" x 2" deep.  I designed it to hold a large Christmas ornament.  The red chimney top is a lid that lifts off.  Here are the dimensions:

Starting with an 11" x 7-1/4" piece of Crumb Cake cardstock, the directions are the same as for the smaller boxes I showed in my last post - see it here.  The only difference is this box does not have flaps to close the top, so you will only punch & score along one edge of the cardstock, as shown here.

The chimney top lid is created from a piece of 6-1/4" x 5-1/8" Real Red cardstock, scored and trimmed as shown here.  

To embellish this box, I used the brick patterned Decorative Mask & Embossing paste on the front of the box before it was assembled.  A 2" strip of Pool Party cardstock is flagged at one end using the triple banner punch and embossed with the folder of your choice.  Here I used a retired pattern called Northern Flurry.  The jolly Santa is part of the Home for Christmas designer paper pack (retired), layered on top of a Real Red Scalloped Circle, which is on top of a Gold Foil Snowflake. These 3 pieces are adhered together with Fast Fuse & attached to the flagged banner with Stampin' Dimensionals.  The box lid is wrapped with Gold Metallic Edge Ribbon. The ribbon seam is hidden behind a wooden Snowflake Element (retired) adorned with a Gold Faceted Gem & a strip of Gold Sequin Trim.  

This box makes a beautiful presentation for an ornament exchange!  It would also be a good size for socks, gloves, scarves, or other similar lightweight gifts.

Here are the links to purchase the currently available products I used on this project.  I hope you like it, and thank you for shopping with me!

Product List

Gift Bag Punch Board

[135862]

Simply Scored

[122334]

Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[120953]

Real Red 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[102482]

Pool Party 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[122924]

Embossing Paste

[141979]

Palette Knives

[142808]

Pattern Party Decorative Masks

[144103]

Banner Triple Punch

[138292]

Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Metallic-Edge Ribbon

[144146]

Snowflake Elements

[139638]

Gold Mini Sequin Trim

[144128]

Foil Snowflakes

[144642]

Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper

[139592]

Layering Circle Framelits Dies

[141705]

Fast Fuse Adhesive

[129026]

Northern Flurry Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

[120902]

Gold Faceted Gems

[144141]

Creatively,

Pat

Making Boxes with the Gift Bag Punch Board!

Hi Friends,

Yes, you read that right, this post is all about making boxes using the Gift Bag Punch Board!  With the holidays coming up fast, I'm all about gift packaging.  This project was developed in response to my need for packaging a uniquely shaped Christmas ornament, which I'll share in another post.  After I realized what I could do with this tool, I went to town making boxes to share with my Thanksgiving hostess and her lovely family.

If you're a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, you'll recognize the embellishments from the September 2017 kit.  The kit included pillow box gift packaging, but I used all of those previously and wanted to create something different with the kit materials I had left.

These boxes are a generous size - about 3" x 3-1/4" x 2" deep.  They can hold a bunch of goodies!  I filled mine with premium chocolates - Lindor Truffles and Ghiradelli Squares.  This box can easily hold 6-8 of either with no problem.  It would also be a lovely packaging option for jewelry, teabags, ornaments, and more.  Follow along to see how I made them:

The main trick to making a box instead of a bag is do not use the triangle feature of the punch board.  The triangle is used to make side gussets on a bag, which you won't need for this project.  Begin with a piece of cardstock 11" x 5-1/2".  I used Crumb Cake for my box.

The horizontal line can be added before, after, or as you punch and score each line.  I tend to forget to do it as I'm punching and scoring, so I usually go back & add it afterwards.  It ends up the same no matter how you get there!

My boxes have flaps on both ends - the bottom flaps are sealed and the top flaps are left open for access to the goodies inside.  Simply turn the cardstock around, line up each of your previous scorelines with the pointer and punch again.

Here's what you'll have when you're finished punching and scoring.  I used paper snips to trim the ends off the small tab on the left side.  This is the tab that will hold your box together - be sure to use a strong adhesive like Fast Fuse or Tear & Tape.  

In this step I added the decorative front panel before totally assembling the box.  My front panel is made from 1/2 of a note card from my Paper Pumpkin kit cut to 3" x 2-3/4".  I used the small leaf stamp from the kit to randomly stamp in Soft Suede.

Here we are with the sides and bottom flaps adhered together and ready to fill.

The top flaps are held closed with a belly band made from Cajun Craze cardstock.  Wrap it loosely around the box and pinch the corners.  I made a pencil mark where the band should overlap so it would not be too tight when I take it off the box and add Tear & Tape to fasten it.  

The last step was to add the tag & leaves, which are stamped & assembled per the instructions in my PP kit and fastened to the belly band using Fast Fuse.

These boxes are fun and easy to make!  You can easily make a taller box by cutting your cardstock wider than 5-1/2".  Stay tuned - in my next post I'll show a taller box with a lid that I designed for Christmas.

Below are the supplies used on this project - anything not listed was included in the September 2017 Paper Pumpkin kit.

Product List

Gift Bag Punch Board

[135862]

Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[120953]

Cajun Craze 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[119684]

Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad

[126978]

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[138995]

3-Month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription

[137859]

Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings to all,

Pat

Retirement Congratulations

Hi Friends,

It seems lately that I've had several friends who are reaching that wonderful milestone in their careers-I'm talking about retirement!  What an exciting time with so much to look forward to.  The card I designed here is for a guy and since so many people look forward to traveling in their retirement, that's the theme I went with.

I chose a color scheme of Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Copper & Watermelon Wonder.  Watermelon Wonder is retired, but it's still a favorite of mine.  Actually, there are several retired products used on this card that I find myself reaching for again and again.  The bi-plane is part of a Sale-a-Bration stamp set called Sky is the Limit.  I know a lot of pilots, so I use this stamp often!

"Adventure awaits" is from another retired stamp set with a travel theme called Places You'll Go.

This card is pretty straight-forward.  The technique used to make the clouds look like they are behind the airplane is called masking, and it goes like this:

Begin with a 4" x 5'1/4" piece of Sahara Sand cardstock.  Stamp the airplane and the large balloon (from Lift Me Up) using Night of Navy ink.  The wingtip on the airplane is purposely stamped off the edge to give the illusion that it's flying right onto the page!

Stamp a second image of each onto a Post-It note and fussy-cut them out.  The Post-It notes with adhesive all over them rather than just a strip at the top work best for this.  Place the cut-outs over your stamped images.

Randomly stamp clouds (also from Lift Me Up) all over the page in Sahara Sand, overlapping both images and letting some of them hang off the edge of the cardstock.

Remove the Post-It notes and this is what you will see.  Isn't that fun?

One of the smaller balloons is Night of Navy ink stamped on Watermelon Wonder cardstock; the other is Versamark stamped on Night of Navy cardstock and heat embossed with Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder.  The banner shape is from the Banners for You stamp set.  Because the greeting is a photopolymer stamp, I was able to shape it on the acrylic block to perfectly fit inside this banner, even though it was not made to fit it.  I cut a second banner from Copper Foil, attached the two banners together and adhered them to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I didn't have a stamp with the sentiment I wanted for the card inside, so I created my own in Microsoft Word.  The fonts I used are Lavanderia Regular for "Congratulations", and I used a Word Art shape to give it a soft arch.  The font for everything else is AR Julian.

Product List

Lift Me Up Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[142896]

Up & Away Thinlits Dies

[142748]

Sky Is The Limit Wood-Mount Stamp Set

[141282]

Places You'll Go Photopolymer Stamp Set

[141741]

Banners For You Photopolymer Stamp Set

[141710]

Bunch Of Banners Framelits Dies

[141488]

Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[100867]

Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

[121043]

Watermelon Wonder 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[138334]

Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad

[126970]

Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad

[126976]

Versamark Pad

[102283]

Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder

[141636]

Copper Foil Sheets

[142020]

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

I've enjoyed sharing this project with you and I hope that you can use these ideas in your crafting!

Creatively,

Pat