Hybrid Tutorial: Treat Containers!

It’s Tutorial Tuesday and I’m going to show you an easy and fun way to package up a few chocolates or other candies. I love surprising my friends with little treats probably as much as they love getting them, so I’m always looking for new ways to hold goodies.

For this tutorial I made what’s sometimes called a sour cream container. It’s a simple tube that has the ends taped shut perpendicular to each other so that the tube ends up looking like those sour cream containers that you see at restaurants.

You’ll need a digital kit (I used Penny & Amanda’s Autumn Rhapsody), a paper cutter, a pair of scissors, red line tape (also known as Terrifically Tacky Tape) for the basics. I also used a 1.5″ scalloped circle punch, ribbon, stamps and ink to further embellish my containers.

I chose to work with a 4.25″ x 5.5″ rectangle so that I could get four containers out of one 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper.

Open your photo editing program (I use Photoshop CS5) and create a new canvas that is 8.5″ x 11″.

Create a new layer.

Select the rectangular marquee tool and change the style to fixed size. Set your width to be 4.25″ and your height to be 5.5″.

Click anywhere in your canvas.

Select the paint bucket icon and choose a color that strikes your fancy. You’re creating a clipping mask, so the color doesn’t matter.

Select the move tool and drag the rectangle to the upper left-hand corner of your canvas.

Duplicate this layer three times and use the move tool to drag the rectangles to the other corners of the canvas.

Select your papers and drag them onto your canvas, then clip them to the rectangle shapes.

Print your file onto paper, and then cut out the four rectangles.

Gently roll the rectangle into a very loose tube along the long side (to make a short tube). Allow it to unroll.

Place a strong dry adhesive along the short side of the rectangle. I used 1/8″ red line tape (also known as Terrifically Tacky Tape).

Line up the other side and attach it to the tape to make a tube.

Pinch one end of the tube closed and then allow it to open so you can add the red line tape to the inside. I found it easiest to put one end of the tape on my thumb and the other on my index finger, then bend the tape into a U shape and put the middle down on the paper first.

Close up the end of the tube.

Now you want to fill your tube with goodies. This size tube holds four or five Dove chocolates or Hershey Treasures.

After filling your tube, pinch the open end closed so that it forms a perpendicular line to the other end. Allow it to open, and apply the red line tape in the same manner as before.

You can embellish your container any way you like. I punched a few scalloped circles and stamped a couple with some sentiments by The {Stamps} of Life and a third with the initial of the recipient. I tied a little ribbon around one end and used a glue dot to hold it to the container. The striped one is long and skinny instead because I applied the red line tape to the long edge instead of the short edge when I made my tube.

I made all six of these in less than an hour, so it’s a great project to use for party favors or classroom treats.

If you make one of these I’d love to see what you made, so be sure to come back and leave a comment with a link to your gallery. Thanks for stopping by!