Christmas · Gifting

Festive Treats

Happy Monday, everyone! We’re on the downhill slide to Christmas which means we’re all in the last-minute scramble to gather all the things and make all the treats.

Speaking of which, this week we’re going to be exploring all of the ways we can use our crafty stash to create unique gifts and goodies for our friends and neighbors and family. We’re getting started with a fun little treat box that I learned from The Paper Pixie. If you don’t follow her, you totally should. She makes the best 3D crafty items and provides spot-on, easy-to-follow instructions.

For the particular batch of boxes shown, I pulled out some of my retired stash of holiday papers. I’ve found that treat boxes are often a great way to use up leftover paper. For the box itself, you’ll need one sheet of 8.5×11-inch cardstock. I typically coordinate the box color with the selected patterned paper I’m going to use to decorate it. Here I’ve used Pool Party and Shaded Spruce for these two boxes. I cut three pieces of patterned paper to cover the front flaps and back of the box. I chose not to cover the inside flaps, but you definitely could if you so chose. I used one of the small Velcro dots to fasten the box closed. The front is decorated with some retired ephemera. I’ve filled the current batch of boxes with Ghiradelli squares, but these boxes easily fit other treats too.

I’m making a bunch of these this year — for coworkers, for my choir members, for the mailman, and anyone else who I think just needs a little holiday pick-me-up. They make great stocking stuffers too! I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see the next giftie item on the list.

EDITED TO ADD: You can download the PDF tutorial here.

Coming Soon · Treat Boxes

Boo Box

This week’s design theme is 3D projects, and today we’re whipping up a super simple (but simply adorable) treat box using some up-and-coming Online Exclusives. The new Spooky Sweet paper pack and coordinating precut shapes are just adorable. Add a few twinkly stars and some iridescent ribbon and you have the perfect treat box for your trick-or-treaters!

Our treat box is made from Basic Black cardstock. I used two different patterns from the Spooky Sweet paper pack on the box and added a little twinkle with the glimmer paper for an extra pop on the lid. I chose some precut shapes that complimented the patterned paper and helped tell the trick-or-treating story on the lid. A few sparkly stars scattered across the lid finish things off. I found that adding a few finger notches on the sides of the lid, as well as the little tab on the front of the box really helped make the box much easier to open.

Isn’t this box the cutest?! A simple swap of paper and embellishments and you can have a cute little gift box for any occasion! Wanna try making one yourself? You can download the instructions here.

Products used in today’s project:
Basic Black cardstock
Spooky Sweet DSP & cutouts (coming July 1st)
Three color glimmer paper (retired)
Petunia Pop iridescent ribbon (coming July 1st)
Shimmer stars foam pieces (coming July 1st)
Small circle punch
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Gifting

Best Laid Plans

We’ve made it to a new week, and you may have noticed my absence at the end of last week. It’s crafting show season and I have 2 that fall very close together. Needless to say, I didn’t budget quite enough time to do ALL.THE.THINGS last week and so my planned blog post materials had to be set aside.

Over the weekend, I’m teamed up with my mom to set up a booth for an event in her area. We had a lot of fun, and I figured out just how much more work I have to do to be prepared for my next event in TWO short weeks!

So this week, I’ll be sharing some of the projects that I make especially for my craft fair booths. And first up are these super cute little Hershey nugget treat packages. I really love these for a quick little something to pass along to someone as a pick-me-up or thank-you.

When I’m preparing craft booth items, I always start by using the retired product in my stash. So these nuggets use several different packets of retired fall-inspired paper patterns. And then I dress up the packaging with dies that meet the theme. We have such lovely fall-inspired die sets that I, of course, had to reach for both Autumn Leaves and Changing Leaves for my dress-up elements for these nugget packets. I’ll be offering a variety of seasonal packaging for the nugget treats, including fall, Halloween, and Christmas.

If you’re interested in the tutorial for these Hershey nugget treats, drop me a comment with your e-mail or social media link so I can send you a copy.

Pop in tomorrow to see what else I’ll be offering in my craft show booth.