Cookie Packaging!

UPDATE: 

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A Beautifully Wrapped Life here

Hi everyone! I know I've been a bit tardy with my blog posts but the Store's been hoppin' lately, not sure why though *jingle bells, jingle bells* Anyways, I'm here now! With the holiday baking season upon us, here's a quick and cute cookie packaging idea-

We recently starting carrying these glassine / waxed cookie bags at the Store and they've really been a hit, especially for cookies. But since they are a bit plain, we wanted to bump up the cute factor!

So, we turned to Martha. Not literally of course but I love these new punches from Martha Stewart Crafts that this seemed like a great opportunity to try them out (any excuse, right?) The bags punched quite nicely and it does makes the bags look much fancier.

For the little tags, we used some holiday stamps and a tag shaped punch (all from Stampin' Up).

Then we folded over the top of the bag and tied the gingham ribbon around the whole bag. We also used some 1/8"double faced satin ribbon to tie on the tags.

And there you have it - easy, cute and (I'm pretty sure!) much appreciated gift for your friends, neighbours and co-workers!

I'll be doing more cookie wrapping posts so be sure to check back! Thanks!

Stamped Cookie Boxes!

UPDATE: 

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A Beautifully Wrapped Life here

The holidays are a great time to give gifts of baking - who wouldn't appreciate a beautiful box of home baked yummies. right? Here's an easy way to spruce up your cookie boxes so they're ready for filling and giving!

For our samples, we used our 4" x 4" x 4" folding gift boxes in natural kraft and red, baker's twine in assorted colours to co-ordinate with our boxes (boxes and twine are available at Essential Packaging), snowflake stamps and ink pad (we used Stampin' Up products but you can use any brand of stamps and ink).

For something a little different, we chose to stamp the inside of the gift box lid. We also lined the gift box with parchment paper to help prevent stains from the butter in the cookies. We then placed our delicious homemade cookies (or they can be store bought, we won't judge!) into the gift box.

For a simple finish to our cookie box, we wrapped the baker's twine around the the box a few times and added a small gift tag to the front.

Here's the natural kraft cookie box - for this one, we chose to stamp the outside as well as the inside lid. Once again, we wrapped the baker's twine around the cookie box and added the gift tag.

This is a really easy way to stylishly present your holiday gifts of baking! These would make great gifts for friends, neighbors, teachers and coaches.

Thanks and we hope to see you again soon!

Tissue Paper Poinsettia Flowers!

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Hello friends! It's time again for another seasonal project and since we all love the versatility of tissue paper, we decided to do a festive variation of our tissue paper flowers- the poinsettia! This super easy project is quick to do and can really dress up your holiday gifts. The size of the flower we made is quite ideal for most boxes but you can easily adjust the size bigger or smaller to suit your needs.

We used red, burgundy and green tissue paper for the poinsettias.

Cut your tissue paper into 7" x 10" pieces; for our sample, we stacked 4 sheets of red (for the flower) and 1 sheet of green (for the leaves).

Accordian fold the pieces of paper, making 1/2" folds; tie the middle of the folded tissue with a length of tinsel cord.

Trim the ends of the folded tissue paper by cutting the ends into points.

Gently pull all the tissue layers apart to form the poinsettia flower.

Now use a small piece of gold tissue paper (about 5" x 5" square) to make the berries for the center of the poinsettia; gently roll them in your hands to form a ball.

We made 3 balls per flower; this also helps to hide the center seam of the flower. Attach the gold balls to the middle of the poisettia using hot glue or double sided tape.

Ta-da... the finished poinsettia flower is ready to top off your gifts! The flower in this sample is attached to the lid so that your recipient can easily remove the lid without damaging the wrapping.

Here are a couple of samples where you can use the tissue poinsettia flowers in your holiday gift wrapping - they're beautiful on just a single box but even more spectacular when placed on a stack of gift boxes. You can also make the poinsettias much smaller so they could go on a small favor or jewellery box.

We hope you've enjoyed our latest project!
Thanks and we'll see you again soon!

Holiday Table Blings!

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Hi again! With the holidays fast approaching, I thought it might be a good idea to think about the bling! Really, what holiday table couldn't use a little more sparkle, right? The "diamonds" above are the original blings that we got in a couple of months ago. They've been flying out the door, mostly being used for winter weddings.

But now we have more table decor options - maybe ice "crystals" are more your style?

Or maybe you like the "big bling"? These gems are beautiful! They even have a tiny little hole in the point so you can string them up with some tinsel cord or fishing line and hang them in a window or on your tree.

No matter which ones you like (or even if you like all 3!) you can use them to compliment your holiday decor in many ways, not just on the dinner table. Try them in a small glass vase, around a collection of pillar candles or sprinkled along a mantle or shelf.

Thanks for taking some time to see what's new at Essential Packaging! Enjoy!

Advent Calendar - the Latest Version!

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Hi again! It's about that time when we need to start thinking about the upcoming holidays - they're not as far away as you think! So, I thought this would be a good time to show you the latest version of last year's advent calendar. And since you need to have the calendar ready to go for December 1st, now is the time!!

This year's version is quite similar with just a few little tweaks. All the supplies we used (the gift boxes, gift wrap, ribbon and double-sided tape) are available at Essential Packaging.

You can chose which way you'd like your boxes to open - I happened to chose (accidentally!) that mine would have the "doors" open down. A customer that was in our Store the other day said she was going to put her boxes on their sides so her doors would open just like an actual door, from left to right - good idea!

The biggest improvement on this year's version is that I used the Sookwang, super sticky, double-sided tape that we now carry in the Store. It's fantastic and it really helps to keep the boxes and paper in place. We have it available in 3 different widths at the Store. You'll love using it... on everything!!

The other change was because of a pet peeve - the advent calendar that I made last year for my little son, Matthew, would sit on the end table in our living room. Every time I walked past it, I could see the back of the of the boxes and it just didn't look that finished (you'll see what I mean if you look at the link above for last year's calendar) So, this year I decided to wrap it so that the gift wrap covered the back - I think it looks a lot better!

Then I added a bit of a fancier bow; cute but still "manly", right? Matthew's seen this newest one and can't wait to start opening it up! Now is the fun part of filling it all up!

Hope you've enjoyed our latest project!

Snowflake Printed Ribbon!

UPDATE: 

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creatively use our packaging products?

Take a look at our new blog,

A Beautifully Wrapped Life here

Our snowflake printed ribbon has definitely been one of the most popular ones that we carry! So this year we decided to add more colors in this festive pattern - white, light blue, turquoise and black!

These printed ribbons exclusive to Essential Packaging, are a beautiful foil imprint on luxurious satin ribbon in a 5/8" width. They're ideal for just banding on a box, as in the photo above or...

... for layering with a wider ribbon, like the 1 1/2" satin ribbon in these two photos.

Either way, these beautiful and versatile snowflake ribbons will be the perfect addition to all your holiday wrappings! And just like real snowflakes, these won't be around for long so try some today... before they're all gone!

Clear Cello Cone Bags!

UPDATE: 

Want to learn more about how to 
creatively use our packaging products?

Take a look at our new blog,

A Beautifully Wrapped Life here

Yes everyone, it's Snowman Soup season!!! It's time again to start making your Snowman Soup gifts for family, friends, co-workers, teachers, or anyone else you think would enjoy a yummy hot chocolate treat. It also makes a great school or group fundraiser!

The 7" x 15" clear cello cone bags used to make Snowman Soup gifts are one of our best selling products! Have you ever made Snowman Soup before? It's an easy and yummy gift. We did this blog post on how to use cone bags to make Snowman Soup.

We now have our Snowman Soup video tutorial available (on this blog and on You Tube) so you can really see how easy this project is to make!

Tissue Paper Oak Leaves

UPDATE: 

Want to learn more about how to 
creatively use our packaging products?

Take a look at our new blog,

A Beautifully Wrapped Life here

Just in time for the fall season! Here's a step by step tutorial on how to make these tissue paper oak leaves. For our sample, we added the tissue leaves to the lid of a round box but you can definitely add these leaves to any type of box including garment, gift or jewlery boxes.

First, trace your oak leaf template (download here) onto your stack of coloured tissue paper; we used 5 sheets at a time in our stack.

Then, cut out the oak leaf shape. In this project, we use 3 different colors of tissue paper to add some variety to our box lid.

Arrange all your cut tissue leaves into color piles; this will make it easier to assemble them in the next step.

Select 1 leaf per colour and arrange them in groups of 3, spreading them out instead of stacking them (you'll cover more area this way).

Make a vertical "pleat" down the middle of the leaf; this will give your leaf some dimension otherwise it will look quite flat when assembled.


Fold up the "stem" and staple the remaining "stem" together; this will make the leaf a bit thicker where you will apply the hot glue (in the following step).

Here are some tissue paper oak leaf groups that are ready for assembling. Try alternating the tissue colors to make them look more random and not so uniform.

Now you're ready to start assembling your box lid. Using a hot glue gun and starting in the center of your lid, start applying the glue to the back of each tissue group, near the base of the stem.


Arrange the first layer of tissue paper leaves, randomly overlapping as you go around the lid of the box.

For this sample we arranged 3 layers of tissue groups; you can do any number of layers depending on your desired fullness. Since this lid is fairly large, we decided to do 3 layers to make it look really full on top.

Lastly, we added satin ribbon around the band of the lid and in a small bow on the box lid. We included a sunflower head, glued to the center of the bow, for some added fall decor.


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That's all for now but we'll see you soon!
Anna @ Essential Packaging