How to safely package earrings for shipping

What to do when your earring cards don’t fit in the gift box you have?
Selling handmade jewelry is fun, a day that brings a double sale is twice as fun.. until it’s time to pack and you realize that your packing plan just doesn’t work and does not guarantee the package will travel safely across the globe.
Join me on this mini earring packing adventure – a simple “how to” full of pictures and some words

My handmade gift box and earring cards

Before packing, I polished these copper earrings with jewelry polishing cloth and placed them on the earring cards I had made earlier. The plan was to fit both pairs of earrings in one gift box to save on weight (= lower shipping costs).

But.. my box is rather small and I soon realized that I won’t be able to safely package both pairs and/or keep them on cards.

..if only the box was wider..

Staring at the mess on the table and shuffling the cards around I’ve noticed that they’d fit in nicely laid side by side.. but the cards were too tall for my box.

King-size earring card

And the king-size double earring card was born I just had to cut the cardboard to fit the box, and make one mega earring card.

..not bad at all

I hope it doesn’t look silly

..time for bubbles

Then I cut a piece of bubble wrap and lay it between the card and the earrings to ensure they don’t slide sideways and sit comfortably.

..and foam - I'm using foam underlay for laminate floor

To “immobilize” the earrings further, I cut a piece of foam and fit it in the space under the earwires.

To be honest, protecting the earwires from bending and deforming was probably the main task in this packing adventure. Because I’ve seen (and fixed) what happens to copper earwires when my mom drops them in her bag and forgets

..a side view

A 'thank you' note on the back

..a different view

Time to prepare the gift box

Before placing the mega earring card in the box, I wanted to protect the earwires further and provide them a soft bed to lay in – so here goes a layer of foam and a layer of bubbles.

..almost done

And the final layers to protect the beads: bubbles..

..the last blanket

.. and the final piece of foam (cut shorter to put less pressure on earwires once the box is closed – remember, there’s one short strip already in place on the card)

..we can close it now

Close, tie a ribbon and don’t forget to slip a business card. Or a greeting card.

..wrap and ship

Have fun packing!