October 26, 2011

DIY Tutorial Series Making Cellophane Packaging

Today’s tutorial comes from Martina at Nature's Art Melbourne and in it she shares how to take those scraps from cellophane that we all come across and turn them into beautiful, custom packaging for your items.

Materials Needed
Leftover cellophane, cleaned and dried
Vacuum sealer machine
Item to package

Description of Materials
Cellophane can come from flower bunch covers - use the top bit which didn't get greased, covers of bought cards, chocolate covers, protective covers from all sorts... or you buy it in a roll and cut it in the right size.

The Vacuum bag sealer is normally for the household and used to seal bag before freezing - it sucks the air out - which we do not need in our case it just makes the noise of sucking it out but the sealing is the beauty of this little thing.

The Process

Gather your items - Cellophane remnants, little book to protect, vacuum bag sealer

Cut cellophane (if necessary) if not flat - in this case two sides are close anyway as it comes from a chocolate box I just cut the bottom off


Seal the bottom / one end closed - slip book in tight to the seal

Seal 3rd side - seal as close to the bookend as possible

Sealing in action - wait until green light turns off on the sealer ( few seconds)

Sealed - remove off the machine, note the extra cellophane above the seal will be removed (save for another small item!)


Cut 4th edge - The open end, leave around 1 inch to have enough to fold under


Bend edge over and close with sticky tape (you could also seal the fourth side closed, but I prefer sticky tape as the customer does not need sciccors to open the bag)


Packed neat, Upcycled, Green and ready to go!
The product I am packing in the tutorial is from my shop, I Am Happy to Be Me Zine

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Martina also notes…
  • You can seal plastic as well - is a matter of having a try on the plastic (if it is thick enough or too thick)... there is nothing to loose, only to win.
  • Even bought cellophane covers for cards can be resized - for example I recycle envelopes in funny sizes for handmade cards and I can seal them and they look professional.
  • Happy cellophane hunting!
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Thanks for sharing your terrific tutorial Martina!

To see Martina’s insanely gorgeous jewelry and other fantastic handmade items please visit her shop – Nature's Art Melbourne

Interested in contributing a tutorial and having your shop linked?
Simply send a brief description of your process, photos of the steps, and captions to describe each step to chuckastonedesigns at yahoo dot com

1 comment:

Debbie @ Larson Farm Naturals said...

What a great idea for reusing. I don't even think twice about those cellophane pieces. I will start saving those now, thanks for the tip!