Fall/Cooking Gift Box with Altered Pages

Hi all!  This month, the Altered Pages designers are going to share fabulous ideas for gift giving.   "It's A Wrap"  is all about packaging and the way your gift is presented.  Sometimes, the packaging can be just as beautiful as the gift itself.  No matter what, however, wrapping a gift allows you to maintain that element of surprise, which is half the fun of gift giving anyway.  And with the holidays fast approaching, this month's theme could not be more timely.  

You may be wondering why I chose the cooking theme for my gift packaging.  Well, long story short, the colors are reminiscent of Fall, and as soon as the air cools, I am ready for heating up the kitchen with cooking and baking.  Besides, I love the images on the Vintage Cooking collage sheet.

Front

Back

So let's get started!  I saved this soap box from Costco.  It held five bars of soap, so it is much larger than a single bar soap box.  Use whatever you have around that will work for your gift, or make some thing in advance that is just waiting for the perfect gift to place inside.

The box opens at the top, so I began by painting the sides, bottom, top, and flaps with the Inheritance Gold chalk paint.  I opened the bottom of the box to be able to work on it flat.

Cut red print paper slightly smaller than the size of each side of the box and adhere with double sided tape.  Measurements will vary according to the box you are covering.  (TIP: Ink edges of all papers with Leather ink and blending tool before adhering to box).

Adhere entire Vintage Cooking collage sheet to a piece of chipboard, cut each one out.  We won't use them all, but they will be ready to use in future projects.

Make a bow with the olive green 1/2 inch Flat Jute.  I used twine to tie it in the center to reduce the bulk, and stretched the jute to give it this open, airy look.

Flatten a bottle cap, then adhere some German Scrap medallions in the center.  Punch a tiny hole in the top of the bottle cap to add a jump ring, and use the twine on the bow to hang it.

Trim a piece of Burlap and fray edges.  Place beneath the collage image on the front of the box.

Next, I used the Autumn Gatherings dies and several different print papers from the Sunshine In My Soul paper pad, and inked them up with the green, red, and yellow dishes inks and the blending tool.  (TIP:  It is much easier to color the tiny leaves if you leave the die cuts in the paper strip before popping them out).  Adhere leaves in a pleasing arrangement (see photo above).

 For the opposite side, I cut a length of the corrugated card board slightly larger than my collage image, then tore along the top and bottom.  Ink edges with the Leather ink, adhere to side of box.  I used a couple of burlap strands from fraying the edges of the previous piece and glued them to the box, as shown below.

Add wheat pieces to cover the join, and two strips of frayed burlap along the top edge.

For the very top of the box, I inked up one of the scroll corners with Mossy ink and dried with my heat tool.

Adhere the scroll with more leaves in a pleasing arrangement.

Supplies:

8x8 Glitz Paper Pads (Sunshine in my Soul)
6x6 Glitz Paper Pads  (Happy Travels)
DecoArt Chalk Paints (Inheritance Gold)
Vintage Cooking collage sheet

Burlap

1/2 inch Flat Jute (Olive)
Ranger Blending Tools
Mixed Media Salazar Inkx (Leather, Mossy)
Scroll corners chipboard shapes
Glue Stick
Adhesive Dimensionals
Aleene's Tacky Glue
Double Side Tape Mini

Adhesive Corrugated chipboard
Bottle Caps

Soap box (Costco)
Sizzix Autumn Gatherings Decorative Strip die
Distress ink pads (red, green, yellow)

I have to admit, I really enjoyed this project.  It was a lot of fun decorating a gift box, and I see a lot more of this in my future, especially with the upcoming holidays.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you will check the Altered Pages blog regularly to see what the rest of the team are sharing, and as always, I hope you will take a moment to stop by the Altered Pages shop to see all of their wonderful products.

As always, have a wonderful, creative week!  Now go play!

Barbara