Hi! I am Mary Gallagher Stout. And today we’re going to be making handmade gift boxes that we can give as favors or presents to our loved ones and friends. It's a very easy, very fun activity that is kid friendly and family friendly and inexpensive. These boxes can be used for wedding showers, for baby showers, for birthday parties, Valentine's Day, the variety and the applications are endless. So the materials that you will be needing to create these miniature gift boxes or favors if you will, are an X-Acto knife, paper. The dimensions of the paper we’ll be using today are 6x6 inches. It's really up to you whatever design that you like for your box. When we‘re creating the lid, we use a 6x6 piece of acetate or Dura-Lar paper which you can purchase at an art store but they’re used for transparencies when you’re doing something with your overhead projector, that's the acetate. It can be either printed on with lovely script or clear, it's up to you. A straight edge ruler, I also use a square ruler, it's not necessary but I find it's a lot easier to measure out a square with a square ruler. I also used--would recommend using a cutting mat to cut your paper on to because just like when you are cutting vegetables, it's better to have something to cut the knife into so you are not damaging any of your tables or any of that stuff and it's just easier on your hands then it's easier to cut.

You’re going to want to top everything with a pretty little bow. So be sure to pick up some ribbon. You’re also going to want to make sure you have all sorts of fun things to put inside your box, for birthdays, balloons and candy are a great idea. For baby showers little bottles and pacifiers are great idea to put inside. Candles for weddings, you can fill them with little tea lights and some confetti. And for Valentine's Day, it would be great to fill your box with some chocolate. Remember when you are working with knives, like X-Acto knife and children that you need to be aware of where their fingers are at all times because you don't want anybody to get a boo-boo.

Before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a painter and sculptor, studio artist at the Lorton Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia and I owned and operate my own Decorative Painting Company. I can't wait to show you how to make these beautiful little boxes. Let's get started