After finishing my exams this year, I hit the Christmas spirit hard (sorry to all of you who do not celebrate Christmas and have had to endure the bevy of holiday posts recently; we will get back to normal next week). I had an especially great time wrapping all the presents I had bought for family and friends. I literally spent hours on this, but am pretty proud of the results!
These are but a taste of the photos I took of my creations; you can see the whole slew of them here. I thought I would share some tips for unusual wrapping supplies that I found particularly fun and, I am pleased to say, economical! Wrap away!
Despite my growing collection of pretty holiday wrapping papers, I decided to wrap everything in either brown or white butcher paper (bought from my local Staples for about $6 each for a big roll) so that I could really play with the tags, bows, etc. Overall I went pretty crazy using my decorative tape collection (especially those pretty washi masking tapes; many of which I bought here and here), but I also enjoyed testing out some other fun options.
In this case I used some free printable labels (see here, here and here), baker's twine and little office supply stickers in red, green, blue and yellow. I think the end result is rather Kate Spade, no?
I also made a bunch of snowflakes out of origami paper and added them to the tops of packages or, in this case, under a layer or two of bright turquoise crepe paper.
I had the crepe paper on hand because I finally broke down and decided to make a surprise ball for my boyfriend instead of a stocking. It came out more like a surprise egg because I had to fit so much stuff in it, but I still thought it would be fun. I topped it with some washi masking tape and a tiny paper tree I had leftover from making my snowflakes. Not bad, right?
And, when all else fails, you can't go wrong with a pretty gift bag. I picked this baby up at my local T.J.Maxx for about a $1.50. They always have an amazing selection of gift wrap available at reasonable prices.
Hope these help to get you in the wrapping mood and hope you have a wonderful holiday! Feel free to write me a little note about your decorating or wrapping tips in the comments to keep me busy until I return next Wednesday or so (headed on vacation today, hooray!). Until then, happy holidays!
