A machine and method for packaging smoking articles provides an essentially hermetic enclosure of a barrier material around a charge (2) of such articles in an open (incomplete) frame, by driving on the articles themselves to push them through a temporary wall (18) of the barrier material with the previous imposition on them of the open frame at a framing station (3). Preferably the driving is by means of an indexing conveyor which is stationary immediately before the collection of the charge from a hopper, during the imposition of the frame and immediately before pushing the frame and charge through the temporary wall.