Packaging Large, Fragile, and Other Difficult Products

As I'm always saying packaging matters. It really makes a difference to your customers to open up a plain shipping box to see a beautifully packaged item. However not all handmade products are as easy to package as jewelry, soap, or other small items. Some may just be very large, or fragile so safety when shipping is a higher priority than pretty, or maybe you ship in an envelope so space is limited. How do you package a fragile lamp or vase and still be able to pack it securely for shipping? Here are a few ideas:

• Tags. Make or have printed some pretty tags and tie it on with a colorful ribbon or string.
• Tissue/wrapping paper. If you have to wrap an item with bubble wrap or packing paper use some colored tissue paper as the first wrapping layer. Then as they upwrap the packing materials they get to this final colorful layer right before their item.
• Colored bubblewrap. Yes, you can get bubble wrap in several colors. One place online that sells it is Fast-Pack.
• Stickers. Instead of plain tape securing bubblewrap or a box use a custom printed sticker.
• Boxes. A very secure way to pack some items is to double box them (pack the item in one box then nestle it in a larger box with packing peanuts cushioning). Boxes give you the option of decorating them with a label.
• Flat or rectangular items. If you make cards or anything rectangular an easy way to package is to cut a strip of colorful paper, wrap it around the item(s), tape the ends together on the bottom, then use a sticker or rubber stamp to add your label to the top. Soap makers often use this type of packaging so go check out Etsy's soap section to see some examples.
  

I hope this gives you a few ideas for sending out those harder to package items. I'm sure there are many ways to package that I haven't listed. Just be creative and have a little fun with your packaging. There's a great group of Etsy sellers on Flickr showing off their packaging.