Christmas Pillow Boxes

My first completed Christmas project this year were these decorated pillow boxes which I put together for the Senior Citizen Center Group my mom participates in. They were in need of fifty boxes for donated gift cards which were to be given out as prizes at their Christmas party last week. I agreed to make the boxes, thinking this would be kind of a fun way for me to try out some of the many holiday related cuts on the various Cricut cartridges I own.

As always, I opted to do cute and whimsical over elegant. After looking through all the holiday images on several cartridges, I settled on eight different cuts from four cartridges.

The poinsettia, and snowflake are from Joys of the Season; penguin and Christmas tree are from Christmas Cheer; the gingerbread man is from Paper Doll Dress Ups; and the snowman, Santa and deer are from Doodlecharms.

Choosing eight designs instead of just one was a great idea, because it meant I wouldn't have to make more than eight of any one cut. I know I often become bored and it ends up being more like a chore when I have to make more than 10 of any one thing. It also meant I could whittle down my overwhelming stash of scraps.

Had a bit of fun adding little special touches to each of the cuts. Used Cuttlebug embossing folders to add texture to some of the cuts (Devine Swirls for Santa's beard, Swiss Dots for snowman, and Christmas tree for Christmas tree). Used Quickutz dies for holly, berries and penguin's candy cane. Even busted out my old Fiskars decorative scissors to do the icing on the gingerbread man. And as always, lots of Stickles and prisma glitter for that added Christmas magic!

Pillow boxes were die cut from metallic silver cardstock for me by Norice and the wonderful girls over at Creations Unlimited in Wahiawa. Also FYI, Norice has by far, the best selection of hard to find specialty papers and cardstock at the best prices I've seen. I called and ordered the boxes over the phone during the week and they were all cut and ready to be picked up by Saturday. This great timesaving service is available whenever you purchase your papers over at Creations. All I had to do was fold and assemble with some double stick tape...very easy and quick. After tying brightly colored ribbons around each, I used foam tape to adhere my cuts to each box. I was quite happy with the results. I hope the seniors enjoyed them too!