With a rubber stamp and some ribbon, simple boxes and tins become custom-made containers for favors like sugared almonds, petit fours, or a piece of groom's cake. And much of the work can be done well in advance. To have a stamp made with initials or a date, provide a business-supply store or rubber-stamp company with a drawing, photocopy, or computer printout of the design.

Clockwise from top left: A candy-store box has a band of orange paper wrapped around it, taped on the bottom; pink rickrack is tied around the center, with a stamped initial on either side. Green tissue paper on the take-out box was cut with a wavy-edge rotary cutter (as was the white paper on the silver box below it). Another white candy box, this one bound with a rubber-stamped ribbon. A round metal tin has a ribbon around its middle, secured with a stationery-store sticker stamped with the couple's initials. This matchbook doesn't contain matches at all; inside the cover, which is stamped with a monogram, is a pad of paper. A cube-shaped box of clear plastic is filled with candies and bound with a bow; ribbon ends are stamped with an initial. The top of a smaller tin has a sticker with a monogram and date.