DIY CRAFT: Christmas Packaging

I was inspired for this project by Autumn over at Design Dump.  She's a super talented interior designer and her house always looks amazing for every holiday (check out her Halloween decor this year).  She puts me to shame.  But I'm trying to be better this year by doing my own packaging for Christmas Gifts.  All you need are the plain cardboard boxes from Hobby Lobby, paint, glue, scrapbook paper or wrapping paper, ribbon and any other decorative things you might want on your boxes.  I bought a bunch of Christmas picks at the HL which subsequently kept stabbing me through the bag as I was bringing them home.  But I digress...

My Hobby Lobby stash.  I managed to get out for under $100, but not by much.

One of the boxes after I painted it a light sage green.  I love that craft paint dries so fast!

I covered the top of the box with scrapbook paper.  I prefer to use rubber cement.  The trick to using rubber cement is to apply it to both surfaces separately and LET IT DRY before putting the two pieces together.  I just coated the entire piece of scrapbook paper with rubber cement and the entire top of the box and when the two pieces were dry, I pressed them together and trimmed the excess with an exacto knife.

Add a fun Christmas pick or other decoration such as ribbon with hot glue.  The good thing about these boxes is that you can reuse them year after year - no wrapping required!  Here's all six that I've done so far but I'd like to do more!

Closeup of some of the pretties.

This box was my favorite.  It's painted copper.