the hybrid chick

I bought my stack of takeout containers at a restaurant supply store, but if you don’t happen to have one of those handy (or don’t want to buy 100 at a time), I’m sure that your local Chinese fast food place would be willing to sell you one. Another option would be to use a hybrid template like this one by Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs; then you could just print it out with the digital paper already there. The fortune cookies I made were too big to fit in the hybrid template so the actual takeout container worked best for me.

A piece of wordart in the digital kit I used which says “just something about you” inspired me to fill my fortune cookies with “ice breaker” type questions that I thought would be fun for a party, or as a housewarming gift for a newly married couple. (Just as an example, one of my paper strips asks “If you had an extra hour of free time each day, how would you use it?”)

I added eight questions like these to the strips of paper that were already in the digital kit and printed them along with my other papers.

The supply list is pretty basic:

• takeout container
• digital paper to fit your theme (I used the digital kit High of 75 by Sugarplum Paperie)
• ruler
• craft knife
• adhesive (I used a glue stick and some regular white glue)
• additional embellishments if desired

The first thing I did was measure the different faces of the takeout container that I wanted to cover (I didn’t bother with the parts that you wouldn’t be able to see) and create shapes of those sizes in photoshop to clip my paper to. I decided on the craft paper to cover the box, and I used the other patterns in the kit for my fortune cookies. For those I created boxes that were just over the size needed to contain a circle that was three inches in diameter. Once I had everything arranged on my document, I printed and cut out my papers.

To cover the sides of the box, I removed the metal handle so that the box could be flattened and then glued each piece of patterned paper to the right side and trimmed off the diagonal pieces with my craft knife. I figured that would be easier than trying to cut it to the exact right shape and then glue it on. I started with my glue stick but it didn’t seem to be holding well enough so I switched to liquid glue and that worked much better. It also increased the drying time though, so I had to do one part at a time and let it dry before I could move on to the next side. After it was all dry, I used my craft knife to poke the holes back through where the metal handle went.

The additional layer of patterned paper made the sides of the box want to cave in a bit, so I glued the folded over sides to the inside layer and held it closed with a clothespin until it dried completely. While I was waiting, I used my Cuttlebug and the Spellbinders Nestability dies to cut out the three inch circles from the patterned paper to use for making my fortune cookies. You could also trace around a glass or small bowl if you don’t have a die cutting machine at home. Following the directions I’d seen on the ehow website, I folded the papers in half and added a small smear of glue at the edges to keep them together and used my reverse tweezers to hold them together while they dried. Once dry, I gently pulled the ends together and added another dot of glue in the middle where they met to help the cookie keep its shape. Then I threaded the paper strip with the question through the middle.

By this time my container was dry, so I reattached the metal handle, inked up the edges, and added a few embellishments that I’d printed from the digital kit (including the wordart that had inspired the project), plus a few other goodies from my stash, to the top of the container and tucked my cookies inside, ready to be used at our next get-together or find a new home if the opportunity arises. I hope you feel inspired to make your own takeout container and fill it with whatever you think of (candy is always a good choice!) If you do, please be sure to post it in the Digichick gallery so we can all admire it!

Other Articles by Jessica Pranaitis:

• Gallery Finds - March 10th, 2010
• Stocking Stuffer Gift Tin - December 23rd, 2009
• Thanksgiving Tree - November 6th, 2009
• Stamping Digitally - October 11th, 2009
• Memory Verse Holder - September 22nd, 2009