Outside The Box
To celebrate my friends’ tie-dye themed wedding, I crafted this rainbow-butterfly gift box inspired by the Texas Hill Country for under $10 (including the box). It was a snap to put together and made a high-impact presentation that the bride said she really liked. She may have been more impressed that this guy’s got some crafting talent!
Tips:
All of the crafting supplies came from my trusted crafting friend, Michael’s. It must have been raining money yesterday because the floral stem was 60% off and while I was standing in line to pay I checked out their website and found a 30% off coupon. Score!
I used a glue gun for this project. In a pinch you could likely make do by using some double stick tape to help fuse the ribbon to the box.
The time it took for me to complete this project was about 25 minutes, excluding a couple of rest breaks to chill a bit with my Dogs.
1 | Box With Removable Lid A Few Yards | Wire Edged Ribbon (I used about 6 yards) Assorted | Faux Floral Stems (I found one assorted cluster, shown above) To Tie | Some Green Garden Wire (optional)
Tools:
To Cut | Scissors To Adhere | A “Loaded” Glue Gun To Snip Floral Stem | Wire Cutters or Scissors (optional)
What To Do:
Step 1: Wrap Bottom Of Box I decided to decorate the box separate from the lid so that it would be easy to open and close and so it could be regiftable or kept as a keepsake. To get started, line the ribbon from the inside bottom of the box up over the top edge, down the side, under the bottom and around until it mirrors itself on the other side (like forming a big “U”). You can test-fit the ribbon to make sure you like where it rests on the box; the wire edge ribbon can be folded and smoothed on the edges to give a clean fold and help hold the ribbon in place.
Once you’re happy with the length, cut the ribbon. Line a small bead of glue along the edge of just the end of the ribbon and press the ribbon into place. Turn the box 180 degrees and repeat this process on the other side to create a criss-cross shaped ribbon design. Step 2: Wrap The Box Lid Using the same technique as the box bottom, repeat the process for the box lid. It’ll take a little finessing to align the ribbon from the lid to the bottom but in the end it was easy to do. You can also wiggle the ribbon along the top edges of the box if you’re off a bit, since the edges are not glued to the box. Once you’re happy with how the ribbon is decorated on the box you’re ready to prepare the top decoration. Step 3: Form Your Flower Stem I found a faux flower stem with assorted flowers and a butterfly already in a bunch. I wouldn’t need it entirely so I deconstructed it by cutting off some stems to my desired length. [Optional Step: I held the stems together by wrapping them near the base of the clustered stems a few times with the garden wire. You could use a small wire twist tie or just use some ribbon to tie a bow around the bunch to hold it together. I decided to go for durability so I used garden wire.]
With the remaining ribbon I tied a small bow to the base of the bunch. Congrats, this step is complete!
BONUS IDEA BELOW
Rather than toss the remaining flower stems I found a way to add some new life to a weathered wreath by tucking in the stems into the existing wreath. This is a great way to transition your wreath from season to season. I wound up using all the materials for this project – no waste!
~ Joe Paul Reider
Home Style Austin Founder Austin Realtor® Keller Williams Realty, Inc.