I have several big weaknesses. And one of the big ones is paper. I really, really like paper. Unfortunately I also really, really love trees and I will suffer from internal conflict for as long as trees and paper are at odds.
Anyway, I love wrapping up my Christmas presents thoughtfully, beautifully and with fancy paper. I find it worth the splurge. This year I had been having a hard time finding paper that I liked until we went to the Botanical Gardens, where, in their gift shop they had sheets and sheets of seasonal botanical paper. And I indulged myself.
So, in an effort to make up for the extravagance of fancy paper, I looked for very, very cheap gift boxes, and I couldn't find any cheap enough. So, I went through my wrapping stash at home and found a motley crew of very old, mismatched tops and bottoms from gift boxes of Christmas past.
And then I had an idea.
They were all too big. I needed gift boxes about half of the size of what I had. So, I thought, why not cup up the boxes I have and make smaller boxes? I could save on gift boxes, save on paper by wrapping smaller boxes, save on shipping, and get rid of these silly old boxes.
So, here's what I did:
I took a top of an old box.
And flattened it by carefully taking apart the corners.
Then I measured how tall the box was. 2 inches.
I found the middle of the box and marked 1 inch on either side of the middle. This way I will make a 2 inch high back to the box.
I scored lines across the width of the box at each mark.
Then I folded the box on the scored lines and I cut in 2 inches from the edges of the box on the folds.
I folded the tab inside and stapled it to the side of the box making the corner.
I stapled the other tabs finishing the other corners of the box.
And that was it. New box. Right size. Wrapped up.
6 comments:
So clever. And such pretty paper. I can relate to your weakness. Sometimes I just like to walk through Kate's Paperie to admire the fancy paper.
Dill, you're unbelievably awesome. When is your show starting on TV that will be big competition for Martha?
Tara, I'm just looking for the right videographer. ;)
I love that botanical paper. So beautiful.
It's funny how alluring it is. I work in resource conservation for a living, so I understand your struggle, but I also give in to beautiful paper. I buy something little thing from Paper Sky (where you bought the paper for Kirsten's shower) nearly every month. And while I was in Los Angles last month, my sister took me to a store called Paper Sugar that could easily have broken my bank if I hadn't reminded myself of my budget and hauled myself firmly out of there.
Paper: drool...
Me too. I used to take trips to The Paper Source in Chicago just to look and touch. And oh yeah, drool.
Now who's the clever one with their gift wrapping schemes?! NYC MTA maps are free, by the way. :)
And are you a lefty, too??
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