Gift boxes for tiny hand sanitizers

It’s a sickness… I often try to figure out why I have this obsession with boxes. Is it that the boxes are a symbol for my deep seated yet unfulfilled desire for organization? Or is it just because they are so darn cute? I prefer to think it is the latter.

Tonight I went to the mall with Mary because she wanted to get some sneakers. I needed to price a new washer. So we separated and agreed to meet at the shoe store. After hanging out out the shoe store for a while, I remembered she said she was going to Dick’s first. So I wandered down to see if I could find her there. As I was going down the escalator, I saw her on the other side. For some reason, I turned around and attempted to run up three (moving) escalator steps in my flip-flops. Something went terribly wrong and I found myself with a cut toe, bruised other foot and a hole in my favorite black capris sitting on a step going down. Oh and also, I was humiliated. I had dropped my bag and an off duty Dick’s employee who was 5 steps behind me handed it to me in disbelief. I wanted to say, “What? You have never done something totally ridiculous and idiotic in your life? Just wait honey…”

To give Maryanne credit, she did acknowledge me (OK, she was laughing her head off) and we sailed out of Dick’s. By then I was laughing too. The blood coming out of my toe and all over my flip-flops was another matter. So we stopped in a Bath & Body Works where she suggested I buy some hand sanitizer and wipe off the cut. That’s when I saw these adorable little bottles. I’m going to a lunch tomorrow with some friends and thought, “Everyone should have one of these with them at all times just in case…” and purchased one for each friend (and myself!).

As we all know, presentation is everything! So I took some scrap matboard, a couple of stamps and ink, ribbon and plastic rubber bands and fashioned some tiny gift boxes for them. I measured the bottle and calculated how big I wanted the box. Then I stamped the matboard, scored the sides, and trimmed off the edges. I punched holes on both sides of the box and threaded ribbon through and knotted it inside for the handle. And that’s it! I didn’t even glue these as I usually would (it’s now 3:30 AM for heaven’s sake!) but instead used the plastic bands to hold all the sides together.

Now I need a trip to the mall for black capris…