DIY pretty gift boxes

The idea of making these gift boxes came to me when I was thinking "I should do something new this time for his birthday(My hubby)".He always enjoys when I do different styles of gift wrapping for our friends and so he expects something different every time when he receives a gift from me.He never accepts unwrapped gift :P.So this time I thought instead of wrapping a box and wasting a gift wrapper why not make a wrapped box so that he can reuse it for some other purpose.It is Win -win!(You can say I have 2 gifts for you :P)

Materials required :
For :Wood grain gift box
Carton box (It can be any box -any I mean from christmas light box to shipping box)
Contact paper or
Scrapbook paper
Glue
Scissors/Xacto knife
Markers
Hole punch (Optional)
Twine (Optional)
For :The pretty pink box
Acrylic paint of your colour choice.
Foam brush
Krylon gold lea pen(optional)

Wood grain gift box:
I got the idea of doing a wood grain gift box when I found my Samsung galaxy S4 mobile box while cleaning our 3 drawer cart.I thought I can do a gift box like that with the wood grain contact paper and add some personal touches to it ,so that it is perfect for men.

Step 1:Measure and cut the wood grain contact paper and cover the entire box.Trim the edges with Xacto knife for perfect shape.

Step 2: Cut a pocket shape from the scrapbook paper.I used a leather texture scrapbook paper.I thought that will  perfectly compliment with the wood grain contact paper.Use glue on the edges of the pocket and stick it to the top of the box.Draw the dotted lines to give the effect of stitches in a pocket.

Step 3: Cut a small piece of white card stock and write you message on it.Punch a hole and add a twine in it to make a gift tag.Put it inside the pocket to complete the box.Voila!!now you have a beautiful gift box which can be reused for many other purposes (May be for office supplies,USB cables,etc etc)
You can also get contact paper in many beautiful patterns which suits for girls and do similar boxes for your girl friends and sisters also.They are easily available in dollar stores.It is also used as shelf liners.

The pretty pink box :
If you don't find a pattern of your taste, just get a acrylic paint of your favourite colour and colour your box with them for 2 or 3 coats.Use a gold/silver/copper paint pen to add details to it.You can also use a contrasting colour paint to do it.(like black & white).Use a foam brush to paint the box so that you don't get to see the paint strokes.Isn't so easy??I added some swirls and ribbon with bow to make it look like a ribbon tied on it.

This is how the box looks after painting.

Why buy those gift boxes when you can make your own personalized one ?? These simple techniques costs you fraction of amount that you spend on store bought gift boxes and also you get these boxes for free.Makes sense ,right??
Do you find these boxes are perfect for gifting??Start collecting them and use it for the holiday season.(It is not so early to do!!)
What do you think ?? Feel free to share your comments below or write to vikalpah@gmail.com .