Yellowed embroidery pattern

I was looking up some thread in one of my 'treasury' boxes (I keep my crafting materials in a couple of  boxes in an empty bedroom), and came across an old embroidery pattern that I ones used in my teenage years, that was completely yellowed. This pattern consisted of all kinds of tiny patterns of leaves, letters, numbers and fruitbaskets.

In the past weeks I created some tiny cross-stitch art-works myself (of a heart and a boat), but I didn't have the courage yet to start stitching letters and numbers myself. This pattern was exactly what I had been looking for on the internet, and now I found it in my own home: a long forgotten treasure. I created some initial tags the day after, embroidering letters on tetrapak tags, which (I can image) are perfect for a wedding or a baby shower.

How to make an upcycled gift box?

Recently I found out how to easily create a gift box, using tetra pack. Tetra is a material that everyone has at home: it is the packaging of your juice or milk or many other nourishments. And you will probably throw away many of these packs weekly, without thinking of what a beautiful material this is. Tetra often has a wonderful silver gleam on the inside and an always surprising print on the outside.

You probably know the little purse made out of tetra tutorial, that is circulating on the internet. This is an awesome way to upcycle a tetra pack, but you can do so much more with tetra. For example: create a shiny little gift box. Below I describe how to cut and fold a basic box and a lid out of tetra. How to decorate it, that is up to your own imagination. Follow the steps to make your own!

1. Before you cut open your tetra pack, make sure that you clean it: pour some water in it, shake it (repeat ones or twice), then cut open the pack and rinse it again with water.

2. Dry it carefully with a towel.

3. Choose which side of the tetra should be on the outside of your gift box. In this example I choose to have the grassy print with the cows on the outside.

4. On the other side (the side that you want on the inside of your box) you draw with a pen the lines along which to cut or fold. For the dimensions, see the drawing above.

5. Use a cutting knife or scissors to cut out the two shapes, both box and lid.

6. Use a stump pencil (or any other object) to draw lines along the dashed lines to prepare for folding.

7. Put double sided tape on the indicated area's.

8. Fold the little faces inwards, and cover them with the faces that hold the double sided tape.

Et voilà! Your gift box is ready.

(Variations: Put the silver coloured side of the material on the outside and decorate it with ribbons, embellishments, thread, anything that comes to your mind. Or make a tiny little box by adjusting the dimensions, with just a little calculation extra.) For more examples of boxes and tags made of tetra, visit my Etsy shop.

Tetra pack makes beautiful tag

Ever counted how many tetra packs go through your hands every day? They have the purpose to protect your purchases from any damage during transportation and to make the consumption of your food easier (they help to easilly poor and store your milk, for example). But in a couple of days or even hours you throw them in the garbage can.

Some of those tetra packs have beautiful graphic designs printed on them: besides the brand logo, the name of the product and many product details, they show fruit, grass or even baby's! On the inside tetra has this enchanting silver gleam, that is never seen by the consumer. Tetra is also very thick. It is much thicker than most of the paper or cardboard sheets that you can buy in the DIY store.

I layed aside a couple of tetra packs, to see what I could do with this material. Of course I had to wash it properly. And I found out that the tetra from the tomato soup had become completely red on the inside, which makes it useless. From the tetra packs for milk and juice, I was able to make some pretty nice tags. Using cutting tools for cardboard, I made pieces of 3,5 x 4,5 cm with a star cut-out and a small hole for a ribbon. If you haven't got those punchers to cut a shape out of the tetra, you could also use a sharp knife for detailed cardboard cutting, to create a cut-out.

The juice packs give the tags this extra exotic touch: on the backside they have lovely prints of pineapples, oranges and banana's. Decorating a gift or a treat with these tags is perfect for a birthday, a summer barbecue or even for christmas (although this is still far away :D)