Pretty Packaging for Food Items

My husband says I should talk more about creative process more.....he has a degree in engineering, so go figure.  I'm not so sure that everyone wants to know that, but I'll try today. (I'm just going to apologize for the poor quality of these pictures right now...Sam took the camera to work today and I had to use my phone...ughhh.)  I made some Valentines gifts and wanted to package them up in a pretty way.  Particularly the food gifts. I'm not a fan of those plastic gift bag things for food.   They never look that pretty to me.  So I looked through my pantry and this is what I found:

I decided to try to cover these items. (Ignore the basket....I'm saving that for another project.)  I peeled the labels off and washed the containers.  Then I went to my craft room and went through some of my paper looking for some basic covering.  I chose these items:

Then I put all the rest away, so I wouldn't be overwhelmed by choices and second guessing. (This used to happen to me so often, I had to learn to remove stuff out of my view.) Having settled on backgrounds, I moved on to embellishments and did the same thing.  Got a bunch out, made some selections and then put the rest away. I should say here that I like to lay my choices out right on my background paper.  It helps me see if it really is going to go together. 

I'm going to start with that little french-fried onion container (I have 2 of them) and these are my choices for them:

I love double stick tape, especially for plastic stuff, so I glued some of that background paper on them to hide the labels.  Then messed around with embellishments until I was pleased with the look. I can't tell you how many times I have learned the lesson that "Less Is More!" (Special thank you to my friend Judy here).  I didn't use many of the things I had set out because it just seem to junk them up more.  Here's what I ended up with:



Heaven help me, I can't stop myself from adding a tassel to something if I have one that matches! (Sorry Amber!) But really, I thought they turned out O.K. and because they are plastic, they work great for food items like party mix or chocolate covered pretzels. 

My next project was that coffee creamer container and I messed around with that one for a long time.  I think I got tired of it.  The hour glass shape was a little frustrating.  I finally gave up on background paper and went for ribbon and stuck some hearts on it.  I like the container because it's so tall and holds plenty.

I ended up not doing the basket because I got distracted (what'd I tell ya!) by the pinkness of that gift bag I was going to cut up and use for some background paper.  I never used it because it was just too plain and I like stuff cuted up a little.  So......

I took these items and made this:

The background and the center heart are both made from those paint chip swatches you get from the paint store (I always save them). The little hearts on the corners are fabric stiffened with modge-podge.  I made the center heart stick up a little by adding a bead to the back with some glue.  Better don't ya think?