Favors-Take out boxes

The Project: Take Out Box Favors (See my other post to learn how to make a sushi cupcake to give as favors)

**These set of directions are pretty much the same as the centerpiece directions so if you read that one, this post is only slightly different**

The Cost: ~30.00-40.00 **Price depends on how many boxes you are making and what you make to decorate it** This project price is based on over 50 boxes with 2 types of ribbon and tissue paper flowers. This price also includes this project as well as the centerpiece project.

The Story:
As soon as we had our placed picked out, I knew that I wanted to use take-out boxes. I already knew I wanted to use them for the centerpieces and then I thought about using them as favors with a cupcake inside. I thought it would be cute to use them and then place a pair of chopsticks somewhere on the box to make it look like you had just come from the restaurant. I ran out to my nearest asian food market and picked up a bag of 100 chopsticks for 2$. I still have many extra left over and Ill use them for something else somewhere along the line.

First Things First:
1. Decide whether or not you want to give favors out per couple or per person. If you do per couple, youll do less work but if you plan on only doing one cupcake in each box you may want to think about doing it per person or adding 2 cupcakes per favor box. We did per person so we made 50 boxes. Alot of work but well worth it!

What you'll need: **This is also a picture for the favors so some of the things in this picture won't be needed for this project but I didnt have 2 pictures. Follow the list.***

1. Chinese take out boxes (You can get these in a range of colors but itll cost you more so go with the plain white and decorate them yourself) I ordered 100 of these because I planned on using so many of them but you can order them in 25's I believe. (Papermart.com)
2. Tissue paper from the dollar store in your choice of color, buy more packs than youll need. Its easier than stopping a project to go get more materials.
3. Ribbon (1 or 2 styles, colors, and sizes) We chose two. (Michaels sometimes has 2 rolls for 5$, try to go when they have this or print a few coupons out, go with some friends and buy each roll seperately to save $)
4. Glue Runner (I already have one so I just needed refill packs...3 for 10.00, with 40% was 6$)
5. Hot glue gun and glue sticks (dollar store)



Step by Step Directions:
1. Order your materials! and pick up the other materials from the stores
2. Pick a base ribbon and lay it flat on a table.
3. Place your takeout box onto the ribbon and wrap the ribbon all the way around to see how long you will need each piece to be.

4. Cut (longer is better, you can always take away but you cant add!)
5. Take the remainder ribbon and use the cut piece as your marker. Cut as many as needed.

6. Take your top ribbon and lay it on a table.
7. Place the box , with a base ribbon (doesnt have to be attached but hold it on there just to get an idea),onto the top ribbon.

8. Wrap that ribbon around the box and cut where desired.

9. Cut the remaining ribbon as you did above.

10. Open up the takeout box (I found this to be a better way to make a seamless, less noticeable closure point)
11. Take your base ribbon and lay it upside down on the table so you can put glue on the back.
12. Use glue runner all along the ribbon and attach to base ribbon.

13. Place box directly in the center of the ribbon and slowly pick up one side at a time, pressing it onto the box.

14. When you get to the top, push the one side of the ribbon as close to the closure as you can without covering the part that will slip into the other side to keep it closed.

15. Do the same on the other side.

**The tops dont have to be perfect because they will be covered with the tissue paper flower. **

16. Leave boxes in the open position so you can place the cupcake inside.

**I suggest lining the bottoms with some type of paper or doily, I go 50 for 1$ at the dollar store**
***Flowers cant be glued on until after cupcakes are in the box and boxes are sealed up***

All done!

Hope you enjoyed this project. For directions on how to make a sushi cupcake, please see my next post!

Thanks for reading!

Tissue paper flowers

The Project: Tissue Paper Flowers

The Cost:  5.00-8.00$ (This will depend on how many flowers you need to make. I needed 5 packages which I got from the dollar store and I already had wire so it didnt cost me anything but if you needed to buy it, it usually runs about 3$)

The Story:

While looking for the takeout boxes, I came across a picture of a cute idea which included flowers on top of regular square boxes. Since I wasnt using regular boxes, I figured I could still use the ones I had, which I did, but instead of real flowers, because that would be too expensive, I chose to make tissue paper flowers which I had made before as a seperate craft. This turned out to be a great inexpensive way of creating flowers and the best part is, you can do this with anything. They can be napkin holders, set on top of boxes, placed in a vase, attached to a bobby pin to make a cute head piece, etc..And the best part, its fast to make and you can use any colors!

First Things First:
1. Pick your flower color. We chose plum.
2. Get fishing wire or those twisty tie things
3. Decide how big you want the flower. The standard sizes I found to be appealing to the eye but still easy to work with were: 4x8, 5x10, 6x12 (basically a 1:2 ratio) Any smaller than 4x8 and your looking at a more time consuming project because its a pain to try to pull apart all the petals, trust me, I know! :-( lol.

What You Will Need:
1. Tissue paper
2. fishing wire or twisty ties
3. Patience- These can take awhile to do but when you get the hang of it, it goes pretty fast. I do them while watching TV so its not as boring.lol..Or recruit a friend like I did to help do the first part while you do the second part
Step by Step Directions:
1. After picking your size, I suggest cutting all your tissue paper all at once. Once you seperate the sheets you create more work for yourself.
2. Cut to your desired size.

3. Make stacks of 4 pieces of tissue paper. For fuller flowers use more, but dont use less than 4, itll look sparse.
4. Make 1/4 of an inch folds in an accordian style.

5. Take a twist tie and tie it in the middle of the paper. **Make sure that the twist tie is facing all the way to one side and not in the middle of the paper**

6. I suggest doing this step as many times as you need before starting to pull them apart. It goes quicker when you have them all ready to go. We had to make over 50 of these and I found it to be easier than doing one full flower at a time but do what works for you.
7. After you make as many as you need its time to cut off the edges. You can cut in to fashions: a 'V' cut or a 'C' cut. I chose the V cut.

8. After they are all cut, its time to start pulling the petals. Since the paper is already segregated, its easier to do one full side first then move onto the other side rather than doing one layer all the way around and so on...Youll see when you start going.
9. Begin on one side of the accordian fold and begin to peel back the first layer. Be sure to pull it as far up as you can without ripping the paper which is easy to do. I ripped alot!

10. Repeat this on the second layer.
11. The third layer
12. The last layer. One side is complete.
13. Continue this process on the other side.

Your flower is complete!

Dont get down on yourself if it doesnt turn out great on the first try. And dont get disappointed when each flower comes out different no matter what you do. Some turn out good and some not so good, its just how it happens so roll with it :-)

Centerpieces - Take out boxes

The Project: Party Centerpieces, Take-out Boxes (Boxes with white flowers are centerpiece items and the purple flowers were the favors but boxes are created the same exact way)

The Cost: This will vary depending on how many boxes you want to make. I made over 50 including centerprieces and favors so with all materials (ribbon, boxes, and glue) It cost me about 30.00-40.00 to do both projects.

The Story:
It took us a long time to find a place that we considered "true to ourselves" as well as suiting for our theme. After looking at seriously 23 places, my friend suggested this japanese restaurant at Rutgers called Hotoke...which I highly recommend!! Great food, great atmosphere, good prices!..Ok enough selling of the place, when we walked in, the first thing we saw was a wall sized Buddha amongst a very loungy-asiany type setting. I went to Rutgers so it meant something to me, it was asian which was what we wanted, it was big, already decorated, and had a lounge area for afterwards. Once we booked the place, I started my list of what I wanted to make, which wasnt much because the place was already decorated so nicely. So the final list became: chinese takeout box centerpieces with tissue paper flowers on it, picture frames with our engagement pics for the family to take home, fortune cookie settings, fortune cookies, and takeout box sushi cupcake favors. Now to get started!

First Things First:
1. Decide what ideas you want to incorporate and find a color scheme! We did black,white, and red.
2. Do your research...This is so important. Even if it takes you alittle longer to get a project going, you can really find the best prices if you check many websites. Youd be surprised how many sites have the same product with a huge price difference!
3. Create your guestlist so you know how much of everything to get. We were having 3 long tables so I made 4 boxes per table for a total of 16 boxes for ceneterpieces.
4. Have fun and be true to yourselves as a couple! It will really shine through to everyone

What you'll need: **This is also a picture for the favors so some of the things in this picture won't be needed for this project but I didnt have 2 pictures. Follow the list.***

1. Chinese take out boxes (You can get these in a range of colors but itll cost you more so go with the plain white and decorate them yourself) I ordered 100 of these because I planned on using so many of them but you can order them in 25's I believe. (Papermart.com)
2. Tissue paper from the dollar store in your choice of color, buy more packs than youll need. Its easier than stopping a project to go get more materials.
3. Ribbon (1 or 2 styles, colors, and sizes) We chose two. (Michaels sometimes has 2 rolls for 5$, try to go when they have this or print a few coupons out, go with some friends and buy each roll seperately to save $)
4. Glue Runner (I already have one so I just needed refill packs...3 for 10.00, with 40% was 6$)
5. Hot glue gun and glue sticks (dollar store)



Step by Step Directions:
1. Order your materials! and pick up the other materials from the stores
2. Pick a base ribbon and lay it flat on a table.
3. Place your takeout box onto the ribbon and wrap the ribbon all the way around to see how long you will need each piece to be.

4. Cut (longer is better, you can always take away but you cant add!)

5. Take the remainder ribbon and use the cut piece as your marker. Cut as many as needed.

6. Take your top ribbon and lay it on a table.
7. Place the box , with a base ribbon (doesnt have to be attached but hold it on there just to get an idea),onto the top ribbon.

8. Wrap that ribbon around the box and cut where desired.

9. Cut the remaining ribbon as you did above.

10. Open up the takeout box (I found this to be a better way to make a seamless, less noticeable closure point)
11. Take your base ribbon and lay it facing up on the table so you can attach the top ribbon to it before attaching both to the box.

12. Use glue runner all along the top ribbon and add it onto the base ribbon.

13. Place box directly in the center of the ribbon and slowly pick up one side at a time, pressing it onto the box. (I find its easiest to flip the box upside down so you know exactly where you are placing it)

14. When you get to the top, push the one side of the ribbon as close to the closure as you can without covering the part that will slip into the other side to keep it closed.
15. Do the same on the other side. Do this as many times as needed.

16. Once done, hot glue a tissue paper flower to the top (Tissue paper instructions are in the next post)

All done!

There you have it, a quick easy way to create great looking centerpieces for your table. I used all the same size boxes but you can vary them for a great look, closed some, or leave some open as I did with paper fortune cookies coming out of them. Looked so cute!

Hope you enjoyed this project. For tissue paper flowers, please see my next post. Happy Crafting!

Here are some fun pictures from throughout the night. We had a blast!