Takeaway Box to Gift Box Upcycle - Eco Gift Wrapping Ideas

4 Materials
$5
40 Minutes
Easy

I've been on a gift wrapping spree in the run up to Christmas. This is one of several ways I have managed to reuse packaging to wrap my gifts this Christmas. This tutorial uses a small child's pizza takeaway box.

This is the takeaway box I started with. Don't worry the food inside was on some napkins so there are no grease marks or stains on the inside of the box. As you can see it also has some handy closure tabs.

The only actual writing on the box is the Pizza Express logo on the top. The bottom is just black with white stripes so I decided to go with a black and white type theme to upcycle it. I used this geometric print paper that I had in my stash. I cut it to the exact size of the top panel not including the side closure tabs I mentioned earlier. So one rectangle of paper.

I glued the paper down to the top using Mod Podge and then used a layer of Mod Podge on top to seal it as well. As you can see the boxe's existing stripes and the geometric print form the craft paper go pretty well together so far...now for the decoration.

This is the rest of the sheet of craft paper I had left after trimming it to fit my box top. I decided to use it for a little embellishment.

I cut the piece into four. I didn't measure, I wanted them to be slightly different sizes but it didn't need to be exact.

Next I rolled each piece up starting at one corner with the pattern side facing out.

So you should end up with four rolled up tubes kind of like this. The next step is to gather them together at the end like I've started to do in the photo above and then secure them together with a piece of sellotape.

It makes a kind of fan shape embellishment.

One thing I do every year AFTER Christmas, is to cut out any nice designs or images from the old Christmas cards before I recycle them. I use pinking shears to get a nice zig zag edge. So to finish off this gift box I picked this large red cut out to use as a gift tag. I tapped the embellishment to the underside and taped the top of the tag to the box (so it can still be flipped up to see the name written underneath).

As I said I've been doing a lot of upcycled gift wrapping this December. You can find tutorials for all of the eco-packaging in this last photo in my ridiculously long blog post on it on my site(far too long to include here!)!

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Kristen Hubert
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Go
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 6 comments
  • Tammy Trebesch Tammy Trebesch on Dec 18, 2019

    Very inspirational post. Thank you.

  • Lisa West Lisa West on Dec 18, 2019

    I have a subscription to ipsy. Love the make up. The boxes are pink. I did save 2 for gift wrapping. Last year I recieved a gift in a big snowman gift bag. So I just use that as deco aroumd the house. I was thinking about framing the bag. As for the ipsy board right now they have homemade scarf and the other a home made pony tail hat. Love loop yarn also the ponttale hat will have fingerless gloves my daughter asked for those for Christmas. This is a great idea to upcycle those boxes thank you for sharing.

    • Kristen Hubert Kristen Hubert on Dec 18, 2019

      Well done you for saving all of those things! Sometimes the packaging you get with things you buy (or are gifted) are just crying out to be reused aren't they?

Next