Glowing Christmas Presents
by
Melody
5 Materials
At a gift store I saw beautiful Christmas gift ornaments. They were made of metal with holes and patterns punched in them and they had lights inside. They were beautiful but ranged in price from $25.00 to $65.00 each. I set out to make some of my own.
I searched for some kind of frame to make the packages. At the back of the photo you will see a $2.00 storage basket purchased at Dollarama. I use these to organize many small items in my home, such as pencils, keys, etc.
The first step is to cut all the webbing off of the basket. You can save this for another project. In the rear is one basket with all the webbing removed, in the forground I am in the process of cutting the webbing from the second basket.
Here are the frames of the baskets with the webbing removed. When using a glue gun to glue this meshy fabric I do it on the back of a cookie sheet. This way the project doesn't end up getting glued to the table or other working surface as the glue goes through the mesh but does not adhere to the cookie sheet.
I purchased this glittery fabric roll from Dollarama for $2.00. There are 7 1/2 feet on a roll so plenty to make several glowing Christmas presents. Place the frame on the rolled out fabric to determine how much you will need. You will need enough to cover three sides of the frame plus enough to turn up and cover the ends and about 1/2 inch to turn inside the bottom of the frame. You basically wrap the frame like you would wrap a gift but - leave the bottom open - I will explain why later. Leave about half an inch at the edge to be turned under later. Run glue along the frame and roll it onto the fabric stretching to keep it tight as you go. I used two layers of fabric, but the more layers you use the deeper the colour in the end because it is see through.
Continue to roll and glue until you have covered three sides of the frame. Then turn under the 1/2 salvage and glue it to the inside of the box. Now that 3 sides are done you do the ends of the box.
Turn the box upside down so that the open side (side with no fabric covering) faces up. Trims the sides to about 1/2 inch turning them to the inside and glueing them. Then pull up the end flap of fabric glueing it along the frame and turning the 1/2 inch salvage to the inside of the frame.
This is what the ends look like before trimming them and glueing them.
Here the sides have been trimmed and glued to the inside. Now you pull up the end fabric and glue it wrapping the salvage and glueing it to the inside of the frame.
The three sides of the box are now covered in glittery fabric. Now it is time to turn them into magical glowing decorative presents to display on a table top or under the tree where I put mine.
Using the glue gun decorate the three fabric covered sides with ribbons, bows, artificial greenery, decorations (whatever suits your fancy)
Take a strand of lights and tuck a few in each box running the strand of lights from one box to the other. I used little battery powered light strands also purchased at Dollarama. When the lights in the room are dim or the room is darkened these presents make a beautiful display. Unfortunately the photo does not show how pretty they look with the lights inside. I used only silver and gold but you can use colours if you want.
Comments
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3 of 35 comments
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Awesome idea!
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I'm going to do this next year and put under a tree I put up on my front porch. I will need to fine some water proof solution to add to the packages.
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Use flex seal
spray sealant. It is great for waterproofing items. And it comes in clear so you can spray the presents with them. I use it on all my outdoor decor just to help them last longer and it works great
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