Gift Box Studio

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Reported by Sara McKenzie

C&T Publishing, the parent company of the brand "Create & Treasure", has created a series of kits for making gift boxes, tags, and embellishments. I tried out the one titled "Celebrate", which is intended for Christmas gifting and giving.

The kit is presented in a 12" X 12" format, with 9 pages of cardstock elements, and 3 pages of vellum. Everything is die-cut, pre-scored, and is printed on both sides, so you have a choice of pattern and color for each item. You will need to provide a roll of mini glue-dots if you are going to put a lot of these together.

Altogether, you can make 3 takeout boxes; 5 pillow boxes; 2 slider boxes (like match boxes); 2 cube boxes (the lid is integral to the box); one box with a separate lid; one "Pouchette" (a traditional envelope); and one interlocking envelope. There are some additional tags and decorative embellishments.

Inside front cover.

Each box comes with limited instructions, found on the inside back cover. A couple of examples are shown below:

Lidded Box Example with Instructions.

Cube Box Example and Instructions

And below are some examples of the pages prior to punching out any of the elements.

Takeout Box

Pillow Boxes and Gift Tags

Cube Box, Gifts Tags and Decorative Elements

And here are a few of the finished boxes that I constructed:

Lidded Box (4-3/4" X 4-3/4" X 4-3/4")

Vellum Pouch with Gift Tag (2-1/4" X 3-1/2")

Slider Box (2-1/2" X 4-1/4" X 1")

The MSRP is $14.95, and you can purchase it directly from the C&T Publishing website. Or you can use their Shop Finder to locate a brick and mortar store near you that carries their products. (Call before you go- much of what C&T offers is geared toward quilters and fabric arts.)

They also carry other kits in different colorways, for other occasions. These kits include "Life" (botanical theme); "Lolli" (bright, fun colors and patterns); "Lively" (purples and blues in floral patterns) and "Luxe" ( a more elegant style). The patterns are all original and are based on those from fabric designer Jennifer Sampou (a designer and executive at Robert Kaufman Co.) In fact, it almost appears that the cardstock was printed with a digital version of fabric- you can see the fabric texture on some of the element.s

So, what did I think?

I loved the patterns. They are unique and contemporary; this is what initially caught my eye. And they do go together quickly and easily. The "Celebrate" kit colors were, however, too dark for my taste. The boxes will not hold anything substantial. You really do need to use adhesive to add stability (the instructions do mention this). After limited handling the cardstock die-cuts started to come out of their pages. The vellum has a strange feel to it (IMHO)- it almost feels like a plastic coating. And it does tear more easily than I expected. You need to be careful in putting the vellum elements together. And, there are pillow boxes on the vellum pages. What is that all about? What can you put into a vellum box, other than a ticket or a coupon???

Pros:

• The price is good for the number of boxes and envelopes that you can construct.
  

• The patterns really are lovely and unique.


• The instructions are sufficient.


• You can have lots of fun dressing them up with ribbon and other festive embellishments.

Cons:

• Vellum pillow boxes? The vellum pages should have been used for something else.
  

• You can't use even the cardstock boxes to gift anything heavy.


• The vellum tears too easily.


• The "Celebrate" colorway is too dark. (Although this is definitely personal taste- it might fit your decorating style).


• Some of the tags don't make sense: they are printed with a dark color on both sides. You are forced to use a white gel pen to write your "to/from" or message.


• The decorative elements are a bit perplexing. There are a bunch of circles; okay, I can work with those. But then there are some botanical prints which do not make sense with the "Celebrate" kit- the image is not repeated on any of the patterns. And, then there are some "squiggles", which I suppose can be used to decorate the tops of boxes, but they seem like after-thoughts.

Overall, I'm sorry to say I can only give this a score of 5 out of 10. At the end of the day, the only thing I am possibly going to use mine for is a decorative vignette, perhaps underneath a miniature Christmas tree. But I won't be giving gifts in any of mine.

Do you have a different opinion? Would love to hear it!