Easy DIY Gift/Cookie Box for Festive Season

It is that time of the year again! The best time when festivals and celebrations come knocking at our doors and there are parties and treats galore. It is my favourite time of the year indeed!

An Ambivert? Not good fun this festive season. Or maybe it is?

Apart from cooking and meeting friends and family, what I love the most is giving presents. You heard it right! I love giving presents. Of course receiving some is great too but I am one of those weirdos who enjoy giving gifts more than receiving them, so much so I bought half a dozen presents in anticipation of Diwali and parties that come with it. It is another story that most of those presents are still sitting in my cupboard because guess what, I hardly got invited to any parties. LOL! Real problems of being an ambivert. Thankfully I have never been the one to have any FOMO and am always more grateful to being home alone rather than being invited to gatherings which make one uncomfortable (read people pulling each others down/ clinging and trying to “demystify” every spoken word) and you leave these places mentally and emotionally exhausted.

Anyhow! When it came to sharing Diwali sweets with some of my closest friends, rather than gifting store bought mithai, I decided to make some at home. That was the easier part. However, I had left the planning to very last minute and I did not have enough time to order custom size boxes. The ones available were either too big to too tiny. After fretting and fuming and almost resorting to store bought mithai I decided to take the packing matter into my own hands as well(quite literally) and that is how this easy DIY Gift/Cookie Box happened !

I happened to be at Ikea to pick up some props for a client’s shoot when I eyed these square boxes which were just the right height and width for my mythical gift box. So, I did a happy dance and gathered what I needed to gather and headed home a happy trooper. For someone who had hated art and craft at school with passion, I was pretty excited at the idea of creating my own Diwali hamper.

Material Needed to Create Your Easy DIY Gift/Cookie Box for Festive Season

1. Ikea square box
2. Cardboard packaging (from your grocery store or even used cereal cartons)
3. Glue gun
4. Baking parchment
5. Muffin wrappers of desired colour ( I used white and gold)
6. Ruler
7. A pair of scissors
8. Wrapping tissue or brown paper as desired to wrap the box in. I used gold net
9. Sweets and snacks and/or other presents for the gift box

 

Steps to Create Your Easy DIY Gift/Cookie Box for Festive Season

1. The first step is to finalise how many and what gift items would go into your goody box. Once that is out of your way you can finalise the measurements of each compartment . Do not stress, it doesn’t have to be precise and cast in stone. If things start to look awry you can always move the compartments around and re-glue. Having said that having a clear plan helps save precious time
2. Once items are finalised, next is to ear mark and measure out the compartments where those items need to be placed
3. Then based on the above measurements cut out the cardboards half a centimetre smaller than the inside width of the box where the cardboards need to be placed; the height of these cardboard “dividers” would be the same as the box(see the final image below)
4. Glue the pieces to the board and to each other (wherever needed) and let them sit for a couple of hours so they dry well before proceeding to the next step
5. Make parchment paper pouches if you have sweets/cookies that do not fit muffin liners. I used this simple technique to make mine. But there are many other tutorials out there you can choose from depending on your requirement & the time you have at hand
6. Before you start filling your gift boxes make sure to cut out the wrapping paper and tissue to the right size (large enough to gather and wrap the gift box)
7. Next place the gift box in the centre of the wrapping paper and start to fill out the box
8. Then wrap, tie, tag and we are good to go!

What went into my Diwali Gift Box

1. Til-Mawa laddoo
2. Cheese Biscuits
3. Besan Barfis
4. Coconut Laddoos
5. Gulkand filled fig and pistachios bliss balls ( I will share the recipe on the blog soonest)
6. Namakparas or nimkis
7. A couple of sparklers wrapped well in tin foil so it doesn’t interact with the food
8. Decorative tea candle holders from one of my favourite Hong Kong brand- Adorn Creations Home Decor

Let not the above ideas limit your imagination but just be a guide to create your own unique gift box. Ikea has great options for boxes in all sizes, shapes, colours and materials or just up-cycle small cardboard boxes at home with pretty gift tapes, glitter and coloured paper.