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Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Well That's Pinteresting | Christmas Gift Porch Decor

Hello there everyone!
I've been spending some time on Pinterest lately and have found that there are so many good ideas and items that I can recreate myself for our home. I guess that's the whole purpose behind Pinterest, right? So I decided that I'll be sharing these things in weekly posts called "Well That's Pinteresting". I'll show you all the deets on how I recreated what Pinspired me, such as: the cost, the process itself, some tips, plus a few ideas and possible tweaks I come up with too.

First up, being the Christmas season and all (and moving into our new home with absolutely no Christmas decor other than a blow up snowman, so you know we need some stuff around here) I figured I would focus on some cute decor for the outside of the home. I saw this pin for these super cute wrapped Christmas gift boxes and I knew that I would be able to pull off something close to it and it be rather inexpensive. Here they are in all their cuteness:


I love the way they are stacked with a little bit of a tilt. I also know that I wouldn't really be able to pull that off because there are a lot of kiddos and toys flying around this neighborhood. I could see a pile of boxes on my front porch tipping over with a quickness. Plus, I'm not even sure how they did that without some type of Harry Potter spell. Looks pretty, and complicated, and I really didn't want to spend too much time working on something simple. Inexpensive simplicity is what I'm going for here people!! :)

Here's what I bought at Walmart:

3 staggered sized packing boxes - less than $3
One large shiny red bow - $2.50
One large roll of Christmas paper - $2.50

I already had on hand:

Packing tape
Trash bags
Two empty containers to hold water
Some left over Christmas paper from last year
Some red shiny ribbon from my wedding 3 years ago




First off I filled my bottles up with some high quality H20, as the Water Boy would call it. The bottles of water were to keep the boxes weighed down so they wouldn't blow off. Just because I knew the temps would drop outside then heat back up, I put the bottles in their own trash bags to keep the condensation from ruining the cardboard when/if any water would freeze and then thaw.




Here's the boxes stacked and taped. I would say they are about 40-45 inches tall or so stacked like this.




Here's the middle box wrapped in different paper than the bottom one in the background.




Check em out!!! Too cute!!!

Granted, they don't have the funky cool tilt and all, but they were super easy and cheap to make... way better than buying some pre-made stuff at a big box store.

TIP TIME
Here's the time where I tell you what I learned during this process, that way I can pass on good knowledge to you so you don't have any issues if you decide to make something like these boxes:

1.
Two bottles probably isn't going to cut it for weight in the boxes. I put just the two in the bottom box, an old gallon can of paint I didn't really want in the middle box (that way if it freezes and goes bad I won't care), and some grout we had in a bag in the top box.

2.
Buy enough paper and ribbon. These boxes are big and you'll need a good sized roll of both to cover everything. The average sized paper roll I bought was just barely enough for the bottom and top box. I definitely didn't have enough for the middle box so I used two different kinds.

3.
Be careful when you are putting the ribbon under the box after wrapping. You don't want to tip over whatever you have inside of the box weighing it down.


Aaaaand that would be it!!
There's not much else I could suggest other than have fun wrapping some pretend gifts and don't get a paper cut, those smart!

Make sure to pin one of my pictures from this post please!!
Stay tuned for next week when I tackle an outdoor Christmas light idea!!

9 comments:

  1. Wow, very cool project! Will you put them in urns by your front door?

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    1. Hey Jane! Thanks!! I don't have any urns on my porch so they are just stacked neatly by the front door under the porch light. The next post I do regarding the Christmas lights will show them outside. :)

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  2. I saw this pin! And wanted to try it out (as our outside decorations are lacking. Looks good! I think I will give it a try:)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks girl! You can totally do it Shannon, it's so easy. ;)

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  3. I just found your blog through YHL, and I'm completely in love with your style AND your blog.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Tracie! Click on my social networking buttons at the top of the site and follow me on Facebook and Instagram too! :)

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  4. I keep seeing this image and it would be cool to try to replicate (my front porch decorations are a lot of frozen and dead trees. :( ) but the first snow would absolutely kill the paper, so they'd need to be more inside decorations in my neck of the woods...

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    Replies
    1. Oh definitely the snow would kill the paper. I wouldn't have made them if I didn't have some type of good covering outside for sure. I wonder if maybe you could use the plastic type "wrapping" paper that is colored yet translucent. That might work if you put a couple layers on.

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    2. That might be worth trying... I'll have to see if I could find that kind of paper. It would make me happier to see something like that when I drive up to my house instead of sad dead branches. I'm so jealous of people who don't have to worry about crazy snow and rain and sleet messing up cute decor. :)

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