meredith cutler :: arts marketing :: artist

Having hauled yet another disposable plastic cheese plate home from last night's art opening, due to the shady value of "6" showing in its triangular stamp (which, in Rhode Island, destines it for the landfill), I felt that it was high time for another creative up-cycling post.

I'm a fan of minimizing packaging and paperwork on both my incoming purchases and outgoing packages wherever possible. On occasion, however, a little excess sneaks through, so I like to challenge myself to reuse these unwanted materials in creative ways. 

Here's a sweet little gift package of locally-made goodies that I put together for my friend Sara's birthday gift earlier this month. A sturdy, low-profile box originally used to ship me health and beauty products breathes new life as a re-usable gift box.

First, I turned the original cosmetics mailer box inside-out, simultaneously hiding the original (now torn) shipping label, while highlighting the smooth, forest-green liner as a new exterior. To cover up an unwanted product logo on this surface, I glued on top a seasonally appropriate illustration printed on fancy, metallic paper (borrowed from a local luxury mall store mailer that somehow found it's way into my mailbox).

To solve the little problem of lining the now rough, white interior, I simply cut to size a black 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper shopping bag that the gifts were brought home in. After gluing this in place with a little elmer's white glue, I had a few strips of paper left over, which came together nicely as a decorative flower bow embellishment - realized with some deft needlework and red thread. Tying it all together with some shiny, red curling ribbon leftover from a previous gift, and a gift-tag created from a the postmark-end of a received mail envelope, and this autumn-themed gift box was ready to be filled with locally-made goodies from the Providence Open Market.

Goodies within:

• Assorted chiyogami hair pins by Lucky Bird Studio
• Fall-themed sugary treats by Amy's Apples and Devilish Delights

All-in-all, the packaging was as appreciated as the goodies within!

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