Miss Party has a soft spot for a beautifully wrapped gift! There’s something magical about imagining what might be waiting inside. She was reminded of this centerpiece idea recently in a Cartier window display in Paris, using their own iconic, red gift boxes. It was ‘tres magnifique!’
For entertaining purposes, the ‘Tower of Gifts’ centerpiece has a lot going for it, actually. In the pics above, Miss Party imitated the beautiful Tiffany’s & Co. blue boxes to a similar effect. It can be customized for all sorts of party styles and themes and made in a variety of sizes. It’s a practical choice, in that it can be made-ahead or partially assembled and finished on-site. When you’re done with the centerpiece, remove the wrapping paper, store the boxes inside each other and reuse for another party or for packaging gifts.
1) Let’s start with the graduated boxes. Use 3-5 graduated boxes made from pre-formed (not shipped flat), heavy cardboard or chipboard. Purchase an odd number of graduated boxes as it is more appealing to the eye to see things in odd numbers and in a roughly triangular shape. Know approximately how tall you want your finished centerpiece to be and choose boxes that will get you to that height.
2) Next, we’ll think about the wrapping paper on the boxes. Customizing this centerpiece to a particular theme is super easy. The choice of gift wrap paper is practically endless. For most box towers, you’ll need just one roll of wrapping paper. The paper could be chosen to match one or all of the party’s colors or matched with the party’s theme. Ribbon, too, plays into the overall look and color scheme of the centerpiece. Think about all your options for ribbon materials after you’ve found the perfect gift wrap paper. You may need to do a little math to figure out how much ribbon yardage you’ll need for all the boxes.
Wrap box bottoms and tops separately. Bring the wrapping paper over and into the inside of each box piece by 1-2 inches (see pictures). Secure paper with regular tape and/or double-sided tape as you wrap. Use two separate pieces of ribbon to wrap each box so that there is a flat surface between each box and no twist of ribbon at the center of any bottom box as one would typically do. Also, wrap ribbon around the smallest box’s lid and base separately (see pictures).
3) Lastly, think about what is happening in the top box. The ‘Tower of Gifts’ centerpiece in the pics above was made for a “Tiffany & Co.”-inspired pre-Prom party. Since jewelry, diamonds and pearls play a huge part in this particular theme, pearl and jeweled necklaces spill casually out of the smallest box with the lid of the box left partially open. The top box could hold a myriad of other items, though, depending on a party’s theme. Some other ideas include: nestling small themed objects in coordinated tissue paper; using tissue and metallic sprays; placing a mound of pretty, ruffled carnations or peonies in a short vase inside the box; closing up the top box and crowning it with a beautiful bow and ribbon streamers cascading over the sides.
Sources:
‘Tiffany & Co.’-Inspired Theme – Their gift box is always a girl’s best friend!
The Paper Source: ‘Pool’ gift wrap paper, white satin ribbon, double stick tape
Papyrus: Graduated trio of boxes (They will also wrap the boxes and assembly the tower for a service fee. The boxes, gift wrap and ribbon is purchased separately.)
Hello where can I purchase the boxes from?
As it says in the sources at the bottom of my post, I purchased the boxes at “Papyrus”, a chain of stationery stores. I believe they are only sold in their stores and not online. You might run a search for ‘nested gift boxes’ to purchase something similar online.