Holiday Countdown Series - Day 3

Winter is now blasting through the midwest so its pretty easy to start feeling a little festive about the coming holidays! Its Day 3 of Cut Card Stock's Holiday Countdown and I thought it would be nice to show off some different packaging ideas.

I like to present gifts in unique packaging whenever I can. Recipients usually appreciate the personal touch and they look great under the tree! Since I'm always surrounded by such great Cut Card Stock paper, embellishments, etc. its a shame to limit myself to JUST traditional wrapping paper for gifts. Go ahead and take out some of that paper and scrap paper that you are not using and get creative with those packages!

Note: If using 8.5" x 11" card stock, you will be limited to your smaller packages. Try larger sheets if you have some larger boxes in mind...

Chalkboard styled package

Materials:

Black Pop Tones Card Stock (text weight is better in terms of folding over your box, but if you only have card stock, no worries, just use a bone folder to score your paper)
ZIG Calligraphy Chalk Pastel Writer
Some sort of embellishment for the front
Scissors
Invisible Tape

Go ahead and wrap your small package with Pop Tones Black Licorice... I know, I know... Not a very holiday friendly color but we are going for the chalkboard look so it'll be cute! The 65lb shouldn't put up too much of a fight, but don't be afraid to score it if need be where you will be folding...

Use the smaller tip end of the Calligraphy Chalk Pastel writer and draw a nice white border on your package. Chalkboards and chalkboard writing is soooo popular now that your package will be right on trend. Take a look at some online through Google searches if you need inspiration for the border, there are literally thousands. After you have gotten your border written, go ahead and write a "To" and "From" and embellish with a cute, patterned ribbon. I used scissors to curl the edges. Fun package!

Brown Bag Kraft with rosette embellishments

Materials:

Wild Cherry Pop Tones Card Stock / Brown Bag Kraft
Ruler
Bone Folder (optional)
Some sort of thread or hemp for tying (raffia works too)
Glue/Glue Dots
Patterned Paper

Rosettes are super cute for wall and card decor and also look great on top of packages. First get started making your rosettes. Go ahead and measure out your different rosettes and use 7" x 3" as a guide. Larger for a larger circle and smaller for a smaller circle.

You can either measure out each fold (I recommend doing this for larger rosettes) at 1/8' and use a bone folder to score each line prior to fan folding, or you can eyeball it and do it by hand. You can't really notice too many imperfections on smaller rosettes, but larger ones you can so use your own judgement.

After fan folding the entire sheet on the longer dimension and then grab your thread and tie it off in the middle. Trim the ends and start gently pulling the sides together and glue and hold so that they will set. Tie a piece of patterned paper over your brown bag kraft wrapped package and use glue dots to affix different sized rosettes to the top! Love, love, love this kind of package. Its unexpected and the rosettes can be held onto!

Custom tag with washi tape and themed ribbon

Materials:

Basis Green 80lb Card Stock
Exacto blade / Bone Folder
Patterned card stock
Patterned Washi Tape and/or patterned Ribbon
Bone Folder
Glue

Trace your gift box in the center of your stock. Use your bone folder on the traced outline and pull your exacto blade to the edges of the paper. Pull the stock up around the box and then use your bone folder on the areas that will fold. Add tape and don't worry about how messy it looks as your next folded over piece will completely cover your first folds up. Use patterned washi tape and patterned ribbon along with a custom, layered tag for the front. Affix with glue and the tag with a glue dot and you are all set. I added a ribbon embellishment to the tag also.