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Paper Holiday – Gift Wrapping

I have always enjoyed wrapping gifts. I remember loving it as a kid and at Christmas time helping my mom wrap my father’s gifts, my father wrap my mother’s gifts and my brother wrap gifts for my parents { and probably some of his own gifts to me, he is smart like that}.

Certainly, not every box under the tree need be gussied up, especially if you have children that will be tearing into them, barely registering if it even has their name on it. For some gifts though, wrapping for presentation makes them a tad more special. Special, but not precious – even with the embellishments, I will never be comfortable with gingerly removing gift wrap. I firmly believe that presents should be ripped into.

It is possible that I may be more adept at finding things to top gifts than finding the gift itself. I like to keep an eye out for vintage items to repurpose, like this initial for my husband or the silver house number paired with a chipboard letter coated in glass glitter.

Brown kraft paper is so versatile. To wrap smaller boxes, I reuse larger single seam flat bags from stores as well as the kraft paper sheets the art store rolls my printing paper in.

For this monogrammed gift, first determine the center for the design by wrapping the paper around the box and creasing the edges. On the inside of the front panel I drew a simple wreath, scoring the center line of each leaf and cutting around the edges, leaving them attached at the base. Cut a small slit at the bottom curve of the wreath a bit wider than the ribbon.

From the correct side, reverse the folds of each leaf and stamp or draw a monogram. Next, insert a loop of ribbon, securing it with a small piece of tape, then tape a square of coordinating paper over the entire design on the inside { I used some gold crepe paper}.


Office supplies are inexpensive and plentiful. Three different sizes of metal rim tags create a minimalist snowman, attached with glue dots. Black circular labels, cut into different sizes with craft punches embellish plain paper. The letterpress paper gift buckle with ribbon is from my product line.



I love playing around with crepe paper. The gift above is going to be filled with a cellophane bag of homemade sweets come Christmas time. A strip of silver crepe paper is attached to the inside of the cup with double stick adhesive and cinched closed with a velvet ribbon. Small tins can be found online; although this particular tin cup is from Trader Joes, the plant that was in it was not long for this world, but the cup came in handy. I use carpenter’s glue to adhere the glass glitter, the hold is great.

Red crepe paper makes for a fun pom pom. Fold two long strips of crepe paper into quarters and mark the center line of the width. With each, cut through all four layers, fringing both sides of the strip and stopping just short of the marked line. Unfold each strip and bundle them together, cinching the center with thin wire. Fluff out the pom pom and trim the shape as needed.

For more gift packaging ideas I have a regular feature on my blog. In addition, I am having a giveaway this week- an assortment of 6 of my letterpress gift buckles – you can enter here.

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30 Comments

Stacy

Gorgeous ideas! Thanks for sharing! I love dressing up gifts for the holidays! I save little boxes we get at the office for various office supplies for Christmas presents.

Jacinda

I love these ideas!

I just found a huge atlas in the “10 for $1.49″ book bin at Goodwill last night. I have a love for maps lately and plan to use the atlas for gift wrapping. I’m really excited.

Uncle Beefy

Shut down with your creative self! I think I’m goin’ for the “monogrammed” one first, then the glitter cup, then the poofy red crepe paper topper…SO hard to choose! But not hard to admire! ;) You are AH-mazing!

Gigi

This is so exciting! I love wrapping presents and you gave me some great ideas. Thank you!

Elizabeth

These are really great, and different, too. :> I will be checking out your blog soon….

Leslie

Fabulous ideas & thanks for sharing. I love the buckles – very innovative!

brand-eye

i LOVE that pompom. i have a bunch of crepe paper left over from parties that i never know what to do with.
thanks!

Foodaholic

Beautiful wrapping! I love wrapping gifts, and thought I was pretty good at it, but yours are so creative and perfect.

Sos

Question for you on the pom poms…did you use a wider crepe paper for the pompom than for the ribbon on the package? I tried this, and my pom pom ends up really tiny.

Lauren

I also have a question about the crepe paper pom pom. I used the regular 1″ wide streamer type you buy for parties thinking this is what you used, but they ended up very tiny like Sos mentioned above. Is there a particular size or source that you used for this?

michelle

just wondering what kind or size crepe paper you used. i really love that idea and was wanting to get it to look as nice as yours. mine’s just too small.

d.Sharp

Sorry, just now seeing some questions about the crepe paper. For the pompom I used a strip of crepe paper that was about 4 inches across and the length of the sheet. I was using vintage crepe paper I had, but there is some nice German crepe paper that some of the better art supply stores carry also carried by Castle In The Air in Berkeley. Hope that helps, feel free to email me with any questions.

Jayne

That Pom is so cute! I’ll have to try that with the next gift I give. Thanks for the posting!

Serena

I’m late to the party but had to just write WOW – these are flipping gorgeous. Thanks so much for sharing the pictures and instructions. You have great talent and real generosity in sharing these with us.

megumi

I had looked for your blog for a long time!
I’m really happy to find it today><!!
I respect u so much! from japan

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