Invitations to retirement parties have been flowing lately. A gift for a world-traveling friend entering her new life phase just called for something traveler related. Wrapping those presents as vintage luggage seemed appropriate and fabulous. And they were a hit!
Creating vintage suitcase presents is easy. Simply wrap gifts with brown paper and add cardstock straps and handles. Vintage travel stickers complete the look.
HOW TO WRAP PACKAGES WITH A TRAVEL THEME
MATERIALS
Suitcase Wrapping:
Brown wrapping paper or kraft paper
Black or dark brown cardstock—we sourced ours at Paper Source
Optional: Fine point Sharpie or black pen
Baggage Claim Gift Tags:
Matte photo paper or heavy-weight cardstock
Twine or ribbon
A variety of travel stickers, such as:
World Traveler Stickers (Adventure Awaits, Globe, London, New York, Paris, Rome, Vancouver, World Traveler)
Train Stickers (All Aboard, Australia, Canada, First Class, Lisbon, New Hampshire, Paddington Station, Switzerland)
Destination Wedding Paradise Stickers (Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Hawaii, Hibiscus Flower, Mexico, Shell)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Wrap your package in brown wrapping paper or kraft paper. Since tape isn't part of the look, use double-sided adhesive.
2. Cut strips out of the black or dark brown cardstock for straps and handle: make them about 1/2-inch wide for small boxes and 5/8-inch to 3/4-inch for larger boxes. The straps need to wrap around all fours sides of the package; straps can be connected for larger packages.
The handle strip should be about 2 1/2-inches wide and 3/4-inch tall—leave a little tail on each end to connect to the box. Adjust proportions for smaller and larger gifts.v
If desired, draw stitching marks on the straps and around the perimeter of the wrapped box with a black pen or Sharpie®.
3. Starting at the top, glue the strap down about an 3/4-inch from the edge of the package. Wrap it around all four sides, connecting multiple straps if necessary.
Tip: To keep everything straight, I pencil a dot 3/4-inch from the edge at the top and bottom of each plane. Run a strip of glue along the soon-to-be path of the strap. Then line up the strap with the two pencil marks and press the strap into the glue.
4. Attach the handle to the top of the suitcase.
5. Decorate the package with travel stickers—the more the better.
6. Download the Baggage Claim Gift Tag PDF.
You will need to open the file in Adobe Reader to personalize the tags. If you do not have Adobe Reader DC installed on your computer, you can download it at adobe.com/reader.
7. Print out the sheet you've chosen on matte photo paper. You can reduce the size of the tags in the Adobe Reader DC print menu, if necessary. Instructions for scaling PDFs can be found in our Working with PDFs section.
8. Cut out the tag and punch a hole over the upper white circle.
9. Attach the tag to the handle of your package with twine or ribbon.
PICTURE SOURCING
Wooden camera toy can be found here.
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