I started an Etsy shop last year, I sell mostly handmade jewelry and baby mobiles (look out for a giveaway soon). A follower of this blog and my Etsy shop commented that they would like to see a tutorial of how I make my packages. I thought this was a great idea since it was my biggest dilemma figuring out how I was going to ship my items. My first sale came along I was so excited! I hurried and scoured the city looking for a small, pretty box to ship my handmade earrings safely. I couldn't find a suitable box. I ended up going into a jewelry store and convincing the salesperson to sell me one jewelry box for $1.00. I ran to the post office to ship my items and ended up paying more shipping than I had charged my customer. I figured out the hard way the my packages had to be a certain height and had to fit through a certain sized opening for me to get the best deal in shipping charges. My first sale wasn't a financial success. I decided not to give up on shipping my items in a pretty way. I didn't want to just throw them in a bubble wrap. I wanted my customers to get excited when the open their envelope to find a pretty package. I found the perfect pin to make my own pretty boxes that would be "flat" enough for me to ship. Here's how I make my lovely packages, these are great for gift giving and can be made any size.
use your ruler to make your box. This should be slightly bigger then the item your packing up since this is the part your item will be in. Try and lightly mark your paper since you will want to erase your lines after its all finished. (I made mine a littler darker so you could see the lines in the photo). *Tip* if you are using Bristol board draw on the non-shiny side it will erase better.
Use your ruler to extend your lines for each side of your box. My square is usually a little bigger than a business card. About 3 inches. Your lines should extend far enough that when they fold down they overlap slightly, so you can tape them down. On my 3 inch square they are a little over the 2 inch mark. These will become your flaps.
round off the ends of your flaps.
Cut out and decorate.
Pre-fold down your flaps, insert your item and tape down flaps.
Add ribbon and your are all done! Sine my boxes are usually the same size I save one of my cut-outs as a template so when I need one I just have to trace my template and cut out and decorate.
These can be made any size just increase the size of your box you make in the first step. I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure you could even do this the size of the entire Bristol board to wrap a sweater or small blanket. Give it a try next time you have a gift to give.
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