Display your products using an Ikea box and decorative paper!

My invitation display created with decorative paper and Ikea boxes. ©margot madison

I've had some great opportunities to present my invitations at various bridal events this past week. It has been a few months since I've done that and I thought it time to redesign my table-top presentation. I used to do ribbon boards, but I was getting tired of bringing a huge easel to hold them up and the boards themselves were getting pretty battered too. I remembered how useful stacking boxes were when I did retail displays at my storefront, and decided that was the best direction for me. But as many of you crafters know, YOU are the one lugging the display and all its contents through parking lots, across streets and up stairwells to the event. A large display is rather difficult in those settings, so I set out to find some smaller square boxes that I could stack in a variety of ways to get some height to the table, but also add some color and organization too.

So I zoomed through Ikea and discovered this perfect box on the second pass, hiding in the office organization section. They are a new size and made of lightweight and light colored balsa wood (again, don't quote me on the wood specifics!) and this particular product did not include a lid, which was fine and the price was amazing--only $6.99 each! I raced home to my studio and set to work on making them "mine". While I was getting my supplies together, I thought, "Hey! This is a perfect DIY for the blog!" And so this post was born...

Supplies:
Ikea Prant Box

X-Acto knife
cutting mat
spray adhesive (I use 3M Super 77)
Hammer (to assemble box)
Decorative paper at least 12 x 12" in dimension (I sell these particular papers and more on my Snips & Scraps etsy store)

The box comes disassembled of course, which makes this project even easier to do.
1.) Measured and trim the decorative paper to 12 x 12"--and how awesome that you can skip this step if you purchased scrapbooking paper already cut to this size!
2.) Spray the back piece of the box with adhesive. Note: I do not suggest decoupage for this.
3.) Affix the paper to it.
4.) & 5.) Trim the excess paper from the edges with your knife

 6.) Assemble the 3 sides of the box. Be careful to match the grooves up on the bottom. It is surprising difficult to remember that when doing this. Or maybe just difficult for me.... ;o) LOL etc.
7.) Slide the back into the grooves and bang on the last side of the box. THAT'S IT! I think the whole project took (including some re-assembling) about 15 minutes total.