Did She Say, "Collage Box"?

Yes. Yes, I did. What IS a collage box? It's a gift box that instead of being temporarily covered in wrapping paper, gets its top and bottom permanently covered in vintage paper; in this case a large scale map of Bucks and Montgomery Counties in Eastern Pennsylvania* circa 1975.

After covering both parts of the box with the map (I like Scotch Create Gluestick for this sort of operation) I added my collage bits which consist of: torn pieces of 49 and Market Sherbet Lace 4" wide washi tape; vintage South American bus tickets; vintage Red Stamps; torn sheet music and text paper; some Chinese roses and a Sewing Pattern Lady. So what's in the box?

Is it a flower? Well, kind of. It turns out that any scarf with a ruffly edge can be twirled into a flower-like shape before wrapping, as you can see. Here's a photo where it looks much more scarf-like:

This pattern is called Open Lace Skinny Scarf (or possibly Poppy Scarf) by Emily Johannes aka @emilyj.designs who has also an Etsy Shop called Girlpower Designs. I made this one sliiiiiiightly skinner than the original because I was using up two different variegated luxury yarns, paired with Lion Brand's TruBoo and I wasn't sure if I'd have enough, which... I only just barely made it to the end, so my plan to go back and add rows to the flat edge, making it less floppy had to be abandoned. 

It's very pretty though. And VERY long. Possibly not super warm but... you can't have everything, right?

Here's the box again, I used a piece of vintage sari silk to hold the box shut. If you're NOT into collage or fancy/permanent gift wrapping, I still highly recommend using non-traditional types of paper for gift wrapping: large maps, old posters, and those cool folded infographics that are sometimes tucked inside National Geographic, are all faves of mine. Even an old standby from my childhood: wrapping gifts in the comics pages from the newspaper has a fun, distinctive look that your recipient will love and are super-economical, as well! Torn fabric, tulle, sari silk, twine and yarn all make great substitutes for ribbon... and you'll be LITERALLY thinking "outside the box"!!! ♥

*Fun fact: On the left hand side of the box's top, you can see the area where my brother and his family live... but since the map is from 25+ years before the subdivision was built, not even the roads are there yet!