Help me make my candy cute!

December 13, 2006 7:51 AM

Cheap, cute, original ways to package the home made candy I'm giving as holiday gifts?

Disposable Gladware and the like looks like... disposable Gladware, but I really need the durable, airtight qualities it provides, so ways to completely disguise it and make it look awesome and adorable would be great, as would any alternatives that would protect the candy in the same way. Cheap and easy-to-find materials are key. The aesthetic I am going for is fun and simple-looking (light, bright colors, minimalist design) as opposed to lots of gold and red and green and curly ribbons.

posted by cilantro to food & drink (18 comments total)

I use Chinese food boxes, lined in wax paper. They sell holiday themed ones at party supply stores, so no extra adornment is necessary.
posted by donajo at 7:56 AM on December 13, 2006

You can get metal paint cans from The Container Store and then make labels using any sort of great patterned papers, ribbon, etc you want.

I have always thought these would make the cutest containers for edible gifts.
posted by tastybrains at 7:59 AM on December 13, 2006

Don't they make clearish Christmas ornaments that you can unscrew in half? I'm certain I saw them at A.C. Moore (a craft store). If you can find them, they might work.
posted by JeremiahBritt at 8:00 AM on December 13, 2006

Container store has pretty wide mouth glass jars for $2 - $4 ea
posted by chickaboo at 8:06 AM on December 13, 2006

(forgot to mention - I'm in the UK, never heard of the Container Store - but those ideas are awesome, anyway)
posted by cilantro at 8:22 AM on December 13, 2006

You can buy candy boxes from Joanne's or Michaels in the candy section. Accent with colored cellophane, waxed paper, and ribbon.
posted by schroedinger at 8:24 AM on December 13, 2006

Whoops, didn't catch the UK thing. Here is a UK distributor of Wilton products; here's their candy boxes.
posted by schroedinger at 8:28 AM on December 13, 2006

Dollar Store's have tons of nice containers, etc. for homemade gifts.
posted by LadyBonita at 8:44 AM on December 13, 2006

They must sell clear mylar plastic bags in the UK? you could put in one, and tie with pretty ribbon
posted by chickaboo at 8:47 AM on December 13, 2006

I've gotten wicked cheap gift boxes and bags in bulk through the Oriental Trading Company. I gave out candy in these last year, and they were very cute. Here are their 167 items under "Christmas Gift Bags." Little bags and boxes galore!

I'm not sure if they ship to the UK, but I wouldn't see why not (it might negate the "cheap" part depending on shipping I guess)
posted by nelleish at 9:09 AM on December 13, 2006

I think old tins are cool for stuff like this.
If your local thrift store doesn't have anything, IKEA has some cheap kitchen jars and tins that you could make work for sure. Check out this page from their UK site for a start.
Particularly this one for £.99.
posted by chococat at 9:29 AM on December 13, 2006

Second the Chinese food boxes, they are at numerous cool stationery/paper stores here in the US, maybe in the UK also?

Do you have any specialty stores that focus on cake decorating? The kind that have cookie cutters, colored sugars, frosting bags and tips, etc? Those stores are gold mines for cool treat packaging.

What kind of candy did you make?
posted by GaelFC at 9:43 AM on December 13, 2006

Have you considered Furoshiki? It is basically a way of folding cloth to make a container for just about anything. It probably wouldn't be airtight, but you could always just put the candy in a plastic bag inside the furoshiki.
posted by lionelhutz5 at 10:01 AM on December 13, 2006

maybe making your own paper boxes? Also here & here.
posted by Soulbee at 12:06 PM on December 13, 2006

Seconding Soulbee's recommendation. I've been making pillow packs from craft paper and card stock, which I'll fill with candy, nuts, and cookies packed in plastic bags. Cut a piece of posterboard or cardstock to measure slightly larger than twice the size you want the package to be. Crease it so one piece is a centimeter or less larger than the other, then crease the centimeter (or less) to overlap the smaller piece. (Scoring the fold line with a bone folder/scorer or even the dull edge of an Xacto blade makes a cleaner fold.) Glue into place and let dry.

Now make the end flaps: trim the open ends into shallow curves. Now score curves of the same depth on the body, so each open end of the packet is marked with a small oval, one end of which is the opening. (I'm explaining this poorly, but I can't find an online tutorial. It's so easy!)

Crease sharply along score lines. Now you have a little pillow packet you can fill with plastic-wrapped goodies! I scored out little windows in some, so you can see the treats inside.
posted by Elsa at 12:32 PM on December 13, 2006

Okay, here's a tutorial for the pillow boxes. They still make it sound harder than it is; never having tried it before, I cranked out a few dozen, in different sizes and colors, while we watched a movie the other night.
posted by Elsa at 12:48 PM on December 13, 2006

I like pillow boxes for things like these. They look like this.
posted by ersatzkat at 6:35 PM on December 13, 2006

We made teeny pillow boxes to package the jewelry we sold for charity at Valentine's day when I was taking metalsmithing in college. I totally forgot about that! What a great idea. I like the origami boxes and Furoshiki, too. I'll head out to the crafts store tonight and see what strikes my fancy, paper-wise.
posted by cilantro at 11:43 PM on December 13, 2006