Articles : Tutorials - Paper Crafting

That's a Wrap

Five great projects to wrap up all your gifts!

To begin we are going to jump in with the photo box.  I used the products from Making Memories to decorate the Cosmo Cricket photo box.  I love this box because it is the perfect size for giving a stack of photos or a small album that you’ve made.  If you are not using the exact products that I listed you can still follow along and use your own measurements to complete yours. 

I chose papers that were better suited to a white box so the first thing I did was paint the entire box inside and out with a few coats of acrylic paint.  You can just paint all the edges if you like, because the majority of the box will be covered in paper.  I just got a little carried away with the paintbrush!

Here is my painted box:

Then I measured the panels of the box that I was going to cover.  The front and back of mine were cut to 4 1/8 by 5 3/8.  The reason I did not go all the way to the top of the box is because the added bulk of additional paper under the cover would make it too tight to fit.  So cut two panels for the front and back according to the measurements you need for your box.  I used the striped paper for this.

Cutting the window out of the front paper is a little tricky.  What I did was place the front cover paper on the *inside* of the box and traced the window onto the paper.  Then I used my craft knife to cut the window out. 

Tracing the window from the inside:

Then, just adhere the front and back panels to the box.

Next, my measurements for the sides were 1 ¾" by 5 3/8". I cut these from the peach paper and adhered them.

Now we will work on the cover.  For the TOP of the cover I cut a 2" by 4 3/8" piece.  After adhering it I marked points one inch in on each side.  Using my paper piercer I carefully punched holes in the top of the cover at those marks.  Then thread a ribbon through both holes and knot to hold the handle in place.

The rest of the measurements for the cover are:

 - Long sides: 7/8" x 4 3/8"
 - Short sides: 7/8" x 2"
 
To embellish:

 - Adhere a piece of transparency to the inside of the front window
 - Add trims to the bottom of the box and around the cover
 - Add small embellishments around the window
 - Tie a few small embellished tags around the handle

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OK!  So now we can move on to a few of the faster projects.  Every once in a while I get caught in a bind and don’t have any gift bags on hand.  Sometimes a pretty bag can really take your gift up a notch and will be appreciated just as much as the gift itself.  A pretty wrapping always says “I cared enough to make it beautiful for you.” 

Here is my first bag… great for a birthday!

Now… the same rule applies to all my projects today.  Our measurements might be different so measure YOUR bags/boxes first. 

To start I cut a 9" x 7" piece of the white dotted paper for the front and matted it on a 9 ¼" x 7 ¼" piece of coordinating cardstock.  Smack that puppy right on the front of your bag. 

Next, cut a 5" x 5" piece of the yellow paper and mat that on a 5 ¼" x 5 ¼" piece of coordinating cardstock.

To make the star:
 - Start with a 6" x 6" piece of the orange dotted paper
 - Score lines every inch (use a scoring blade or just your ruler and something blunt)
 - Accordion fold the paper like so:

 

- Fold the paper in half and cut equal angled edges off both ends of the paper.  Make sure the *long* end of the cut is on the fold like this:

 

 - Use an office stapler to staple in the center fold
 - Turn the star over and carefully spread the points out to make the edges meet like this:

 

 - Use regular clear tape to attach the two sides to each other like this:

And here is the completed star from the correct side:

You can use any type of adhesive to stick the star to the front but I used glue dots.

To complete the bag I simply tied a few coordinating ribbons to the handles at the corner (note: if you tie one ribbon to the bag and then the rest of the ribbons on that one you can prevent your giftee from having to untie a zillion ribbons), cut a tag from the paper, and embellished it with a flower also cut from the same paper.  Add a button and voila!

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Next: our wine bag using the Basic Grey papers.  Strangely enough I had a hard time finding solid colored wine bags!  Target usually has a good assortment at $.99 but my Target had been raided.  I ended up getting my bag at The Container Store and I suspect most wine bags are roughly the same size.  You know the drill, though…. measure first!

One of the easiest ways to get inspiration for decorating bags is to use card sketches as a jumping off point like I did here. The sketch is from Pagemaps:

And here is the finished bag:

 
 
My measurements:

 - Striped paper: 12" x 1 ½"
 - Dark swirly paper: 12" x 2 ¾"
 - A 12" punched strip of pink patterned paper 

I used the Making Memories Slice machine to cut my sentiment brackets but you can cut ANY shape with whatever you have.  Use chipboard, other die cut machines, tags, or a simple circle or square cut with your trimmer.  I added the flourish and flowers and some Adornit tiny alphas and finished the bag off with a big bow at the handles. 

 

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Now we are going to mix it up and do a take-out box. 

The first step is to… wait for it… measure! To do this I placed my take-out box down on my paper and traced around the outside.  Then I used a ruler to mark lines slightly inside the edge and cut it out like this (you cut the inside line… I just wanted you to see my markings):

 

Use this as your template to cut out all four sides.  My boxes sides were two different sizes.  The sides with the handle in them were slightly smaller.  All I did to correct this was to trim those two sides down to fit.  Here is how I cut and decorated the sides for my box:

 

I cut accent strips from the large dotted paper and the brown paper and hand cut the ice cream treats from the coordinating paper.  I raised the ice cream items up with foam squares. 

Any dry adhesive should adhere the paper to the box.  It gets a little wonky when you have to adhere the sides with the handle.  I removed my handle first, then stuck the paper down while I held the box in shape and then replaced the handle (you’ll have to poke a hole in the paper).  It takes a little wiggling and urging but you can do it!

For the top I stuck the flower stickers on cardstock and cut them out.  I stuck them on the two interlocking tabs.  The only other thing you need to do to the top is cut two thin strips of the brown paper; one for each side. 

To complete the box I tied bits of ribbon to the handle.  Done!

 

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Finally, we are going to make this cool gift card box out of only paper! 

We will start with constructing the top and bottom.

For the bottom:

 - Cut a piece of cardstock to 4 ¼” x 5 ½”
 - Score each side at ¾”
 - Cut one side of each corner as shown:

- And adhere the tabs to the inside to look like this:

For the cover we’ll do the same but use these measurements:

 - Cut a piece of cardstock to 3 7/8” x 5 1/8”
 - Score at ½” on each side
 - Cut the corners and adhere as we did with the bottom

Ok now set these aside and reach for your second piece of coordinating cardstock.  We are going to cut a piece of this to 3 ¾” x 7 ½”.

Now score this piece at 2 ½” and 5” and fold like so:

 

We are going to decorate these three panels to display a gift card.  For the top panel I left a space to write a message to the recipient.  All the mats of patterned paper are 2 ¼” x 3 ½”.

The middle panel holds the gift card.  Cut a strip long enough to slightly wrap around the width and make it approximately 1 1/4” wide.  I added a strip of patterned paper.

For the third panel I cut several roses from the patterned paper and layered them with small bits of cardstock between the layers to give it some dimension.  You can embellish it however you like!

To assemble all you have to do is adhere the last panel to the bottom of the box.  When the recipient opens the cover the folded paper will pop out at them. 

I decorated the cover with a Slice die-cut (use anything you like!) and another layered rose cut from the patterned paper.  Use a ribbon to hold the cover to the bottom or the folded paper will prevent the cover from laying flat.

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And that’s it!  Five great projects you can change up and tailor to all your gift giving needs.  I hope you were a little bit inspired and that you had fun creating these… I did!

I used the following products on these projects:

      
   
     
     

  

 

About the author ...
Jess began playing with scrap supplies decades ago but has only seriously scrapbooked since 2004. Besides playing with paper she also enjoys baking cupcakes, entertaining at home, traveling abroad, and making French beaded flowers. She has a degree in Theatre with a concentration on Costume Design and remains active in her local theatre scene. Jess lives in Framingham, MA with her husband, Ryan, and three naughty cats.

Published on 02/23/2009. Submitted by ScrapGoo

Reader Comments ...

Kara . Maryland--land of the crab!	2/23/09 10:42 pm
These are so cool!! I love the ohoto box and the star!