Blogmas 24: Christmas wrapping

Woohoo, it’s Christmas Eve tonight! I’m spending tomorrow with my family all day, so I’ve been prepping all day. Choosing my outfit, gathering all my presents and making sure I have everything for the family Christmas party tomorrow. Oh, and prepping some last-minute stuff for tonight as I’m spending Christmas Eve at my best friend’s house.

And since I have most of the afternoon left, I decided to really spend some time wrapping my Christmas presents, instead of just covering them in paper and being done with it. So I’ve been researching cool and inventive ways to wrap those Christmas presents and wanted to share some with you. This blog post was my main inspiration!

Seasonal wrapping

If you want to be more seasonal than Christmassy, how about opting for a simple brown paper, topping it off with some twine and weaving some natural branches or twigs through it? Chop off a few tiny branches of your Christmas tree, or get some Christmas berries or pink pepper berries. It will not only look but also smell great!

Glamorous presents

Another fun way to add some pep into your wrapping is choosing a glamorous paper, black with some white or gold accents for example. Then wrapping a thin white or black rope around and finishing off by adding two small Christmas baubles at the bow.

Identifying gifts

You might also know the trouble of having several gifts that you can’t distinguish between. Because you usually buy one or two rolls of gift wrapping paper and wrap everything with that, right? Because who has the space to store dozens of wrapping paper all year round? To avoid giving gifts to the wrong people, you might write initials or names on the paper, or add name tags. But what about taking it one step further and opting for photo tags? Choose your favourite photo, whether it be a cute or funny one, of the recipients and add it to your gift wrapping (with a basic, single colour wrapping paper). Or choose a picture of the two of you together, so it’s clear who the gift is coming from and who it is for.

Tie it up in a bow

I saw this way to wrap presents and I just loved it, so cute! The best way to do this is by putting your presents in boxes, but it also works with regular wrapped presents. These bow ties were actually made with scotch tape. Cut squares, fold them in half, sticking the sticky parts together and then fold them into little accordeons. Tie them together in the middle with a piece of string or some more scotch tape and you get these beautiful bow ties. Then tie them all together on a long string and wrap your bow garland around your present. For a full tutorial, check here.

Washi wrapping

When you’re talking DIY and decoration, we can’t of course skip washi tape. Combine your favourite washi tape with a basic wrapping paper and you’ll get beautiful results. You can do small decorations like below, or take the tape and make big lines around your gifts. Or how about creating geometric patterns by criss-crossing washi tape? The possibilities are endless.

Stamped gifts

If you want to go more old-school, you can also decorate your gifts with stamps. Choose a basic wrapping paper, in a single colour, and wrap your presents in that. Then get an eraser, a sponge or a potato and cut a few shapes into it. With these shapes, you will stamp your wrapping paper in the coloured ink of your choice. More here.

Musical gifts

Want a very cool gift wrapping idea for your musical friends? Print out sheet music and cut it up in long strips to use as an embellishment for your basic wrapping paper. If you can find the sheet music of their favourite musical pieces or composers, that would be even better! But don’t just take sheet music that they actually use, because they might not be too happy with that! Sheet music usually costs money and it has their markings and notes on it. But you can find many examples of sheet music online that you can easily print out and then cut into shapes.

Modern gift wrapping

How about going a bit out-of-the-box? The blog Growing Spaces came up with a few fun, modern ideas for wrapping your gifts. Starting with basic brown paper, wrap up your gifts. Then draw on the packaging, for example draw a car. And then tie a little toy tree on top with a piece of string. Or cut out a beard mask and tie it around the wrapped gift. More options on their blog!

Gift bags

Not a master at wrapping gifts, but still want your gifts to look fancy and cool? Opt for a glamorous, shiny gift bag then! Black or white with silver or gold accents looks really good. And if you want to give it some extra pizzazz, add a shiny bow tie or regular bow on top. Or switch those out by adding a few small tinsel balls tied together. This gift wrap also works really well for New Year’s Eve parties, by the way.