I admit it, I am all about easy packaging when it comes to holiday gifts. I remember quite a few years back when my oldest daughter was young. I took great care in wrapping her holiday gifts and embellishing them with big elaborate bows. I spent so much time on packaging the gifts that I felt a bit crushed when all of my hard work was ripped off and stuffed into a garbage bag.

Somewhere along the line, I found myself caring less about the packaging and presentation. I became a gift bag and gift box with no tissue or bow kind of gift giver. Not that there is anything wrong with that, life was busy and it fit into the hectic life I was living. This year though, things have slowed down a bit more and I feel a yearning for holiday that is filled with more personal and unique touches.

The practical side of me still wants packaging that is inexpensive and easy. My solution was to combine what I love (the ease of gift boxes and gift bags) with what I have (plenty of scrapbook and papercrafting supplies) and blend them into a personal and easy gift wrapping solution.

(full images and instructions below)

• Begin with a simple white gift box. I often buy these in multi packs in the holiday gift wrapping sections.

• Measure the sides of the boxes that you plan to embellish. On my box, I wanted to embellish the four sides and the lid. Each were almost 4" square.

• I wanted to leave a small white border on each side, so I cut my paper in 3 1/2" squares. For one of my boxes, I cut my five squares of paper from five different pattern paper scraps. For the other, I used one piece of double sided paper, alternating the patterns.

• If you love a vintage or distressed look, brush the edges lightly with the Distress Ink of your choice. If you love clean and simple, use the squares as is, or perhaps add a simple doodled border with a marker.

• Apply adhesive around the outer edges of your squares. I find that on the slick surfaces of gift boxes, tape adhesives work best. If you are covering a larger box, for instance a shirt box, you will want to add adhesive through the center of the paper as well to keep it smooth and nicely in place.

• Apply each square to the center of each box side.

• After applying the paper to the box lid, embellish the lid with ribbon and a gift tag.

• On my second box, I added a sticker and strung a gift tag with bakers twine and adhered with adhesive foam squares.

• If you would like to take your box a step further, you can add machine stitching to the edges of each square. To begin, you will need to flatten the box by carefully pulling it apart where it is glued. On my box, there is only one glued seam. On a shirt box, you would have four glued areas.

• After flattening the box, machine stitch around each paper square. When you have finished, apply adhesive to the flap where the box was originally glued.

• After re-adhering the flap, assemble the box as usual and embellish.

So quick and so easy and yet fun and something unique!

Supplies-
paper, stickers, and tags- BasicGrey Nordic Holiday
adhesive- Therm O Web Super Tape, Sticky Tape Runner, Zots (small), and 3D Foam Squares (small)

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