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Wrapping Week 2011!

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According to my chocolate-filled advent calendar (which I’m happily eating away on until the big day arrives), Christmas is a mere 13 days away. Thirteen days!?! Can you believe it? How did it get to the middle of December already? How did the Bean get to be 5 weeks old already? Wowza. That time, she’s a flying.

Fortunately, by a skillful mix of planning ahead and that lovely little site we call Amazon, I’ve managed to finish nearly all of my Christmas shopping with time to spare. Woo hoo! Now all that’s left to do is watch Christmas movies, bake and be merry until Dec. 25. Oh, and wrap all those dandy gifts that are now piling up in our closet.

I’m a big believer that presentation is half the fun when it comes to gift giving. Yes, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but don’t you just love opening a gift that looks like it took a little time (and love) to wrap before it landed under the tree? Last year, Jared and I went bananas for wax seals on all the gifts we gave. Sure, Jared burned his finger and we dripped wax all over our dining table, but I’d say the effort was worth it. Our gifts looked crazy adorable.

This year, we’re rocking five different gift-wrapping ideas for the holidays, so I’m spreading the paper-filled love over the course of a week. Every day this week I’ll share a peek at one of the nifty ways we’re dressing our presents for the season. It’s like a fashion show for the boxes in our lives. Yahoo!

First up: bows made from old magazines or newspapers that haven’t quite made it to the recycling bin.

What you’ll need:
• leftover magazines or newspapers
• glue or tape
• buttons
• white craft paper or brown butcher paper

How to do it:
Cut four even strips of magazine paper or newsprint, each roughly ½-inch thick. Holding one strip at a time, fold outer edges in, and secure in center with glue or tape. Repeat with remaining three strips of paper, then stack the four looped paper pieces in a staggered order and tape in place to form the bow. Using another piece of tape, secure button on top of the bow. Tie it onto the wrapped package with ribbon or twine.

And that’s all there is to it! It’s super duper easy, not to mention a great way to put to use materials you probably already have lying around the house. So it’s pretty and practical. Woot!

How’s your holiday shopping going? Are you totally finished? Nearly there? Not even started? And how do you jazz up your gifts before putting them under the tree? I’d love to hear about it!

XO,
Katrina

Comments

  7. I know: I can’t believe it’s only ELEVEN days now. The only way I’m keeping track is because I’ve undertaken a “12 Posts of Christmas” initiative on my blog, and I have 10 to go (I finish on 12/24…phew…).

    I absolutely adore your wrapping idea. Especially for lovers of the written word, like I am. Thoughtful concept!

    🙂

  12. Hi Katrina:

    Great gift wrapping ideas and recipes! Thanks for sharing your creativity.

    It’s true we can get caught up in all the to-do’s for the holiday season and all the hustle and bustle of shopping, decorating, baking, etc. Sometimes we need to be reminded that everything doesn’t have to be perfect and that we can find peace and joy in this busy season.

    Check out my post on “Are you in search of peace and joy this season?” on my blog http://thestillspot.wordpress.com/).

    I look forward to reading about more of your wrapping ideas.

    All the best of peace, joy and love to you and your family for the holiday season.

  13. If I get one of those packages this Christmas, I’d know where the idea came from.
    Very creative. Congratulations on being freshly pressed!

  17. I love creative and nice looking wrapping and ideas. I think that packaging is half the battle, in fact I wrote an article on that recently, great post!

  21. My parents have a room in the basement full of gift bags and tissue paper, they keep ALL of them and reuse for every gifting opportunity. Christmas with little ones requires a more secure package to keep eyes and fingers out. I like the idea of this bow, and I even have a jar of lost buttons which could be used! All the shopping and wrapping is finished for this year though 🙂
    Happy Holidays and kudos for FP!

  23. Okay. I might actually do this instead of stuffing everything in bags like the slacker I am. I’ll probably use newspaper. Now…if I’d just go buy some presents to wrap. Nice post. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed.

  28. That’s really cute. I love the use of recycled and upcycled wrapping. Magazines, Newspaper, twine, yarn, postal paper…the ordinary-ness of it all makes it great!

  31. Looks beautiful! My holiday shopping is about 1/4 done, and the wrapping… well… only one. I have all sorts of PLANS and intentions though… haha

  32. SOS, you just gave me a great idea. Print a picture on your printer of the person whom the gift is for. Cut in strips like you mention, and make that into a bow.

    Could personalize with a favorite picture of you and that person or persons.

    Merry Christmas,

    P.S. I wear a large.

  33. The part I love best about this idea is the fact that it reuses somthing that was going to be recycled/thrown away anyway. I think it would be great to recycle buttons off of something that was going into the rag bag as well, just to continue the recycling theme!

  37. I completely agree that presentation is half the fun … well actually I’d say most of the fun! haha. Or maybe that’s just my OCD and standards of perfection shining through.

  40. Okay…. You are my hero, that gift is so nicely wrapped…. I wanna learn that…. -_-”

    Whenever I wrap up gifts, it looks like a 5 y/o wrapped it, and im 23 …. Sometimes it buggs me so much, that I just keep wrapping it over and over. Im a syubbern girl. 😀

    Id love to see the other gifts you wrapped, like the one with wax, that was awesome thinking! A like and a follow on your blog, really cool!

  43. i love the creativity of this idea!

    I’ve once seen another brilliant idea – a gift wrapped in wripped out pager from a Christmas magazine or something, and it had a lot fo red and green and when wrapped, the author turned few rounds of ribbon around it. That looked also very awesome.

    I’ll be putting up gift pox project on my D.I.Y. page this weekend, perhaps you’d be interested to take a look? 😉

    http://dressupforme.wordpress.com/

  44. Superb. I’m looking forward to see what else you come up with. Myself, I’m a fan of plain brown paper that I dress with ribbon, wooden stick ons, fancy inks and stickers.

  45. Gorgeous wrapping idea! I’m seriously into wired ribbon this year. Any paper gets jazzed up by a simple wrap around the package and then tying a bow. Easy! Yours looks infinitely more though, so I’ll have to try it tonight! This has been wrapping week. Unusual for us — we’re usually last minute wrappers.

  51. Love this! I’m definitely going to use this technique in any wrapping I do for any occasion. Thanks so much for sharing, & congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!

  55. I also enjoy using unique wrapping methods. While there are many “artsy” ways to wrap presents, sometimes I’ll use less traditional methods, such as using scraps of leftover wrapping paper. (Pictures at the link.) This adds a degree of randomness to the design, plus it’s a way of recycling scraps of wrapping paper leftover from other presents.

    I realize not everyone appreciates such “art”, but it started as funny gifts for my brother. Although, now I sometimes put real gifts in the weird wrapped boxes and put the funny gift in a real-looking box, so he doesn’t know what to expect.

    Also, I don’t like people being able to guess what’s inside. Things like a book or DVD are fairly easy to hear when shaken. So I’ve put all kinds of different things in boxes to disguise the sound — like pennies, pine cones, etc. With the right combination of sound effects, it can make the present sound broken when they shake it. 🙂

    • That’s funny my aunt was telling me to do the same thing the other day. My nine year old son keeps picking up presents and saying “yep that’s a shirt”, “yep that’s a sweater” I’m like REALLY? So I still have wrapping to do and I will be sure to throw in the pennies and pinecones…lol….

  56. I seen your post and got crafty myself;) Thanks for the inspiration! I used other thing’s around the house but the present ended up looking really cute and the kids had fun with it too! Congrats on being freshly pressed!

  64. Absolutely adorable and so creative! If only I could make them myself haha! I always love using random and odd things to decorate- makes it feel that much more personal 🙂

  65. This is an absolutely LOVELY creation! I love it! I always struggle with wrapping gifts, I’m always so dissapointed to wrap an absolutely brilliant gift I’ve gotten for someone in some red santa paper that I found in the back of my closet. Its almost like making a cake from scratch, which took you all day, and icing it in can-o-frosting! So heart breaking! </3

  76. Very smart! I’ve used the fake snow to wrap Christmas gifts — this also adds a bit of cushioning for mailed gifts. I’ve used lace instead of ribbon for wedding/shower gifts — it’s a nice way to dress up a very simple — or even plain — paper.

  91. Dear Katrina,
    How lucky are you! Very from the sound of it. The minute I read about you, I had a flash back. 2 bedroom apartment, baby and cat (sorry not a dog) and I felt I was reading about myself back in the day. Flash forward, I am now a Gramma, but still baking, creating and writing about it. Every year I would make a homemade ornament for my children and they each had a box with their name. By the time they got married and went to their own apartment/house they had a box full of ornaments for their first tree. Now my oldest daughter carries on the tradition of making everyone ornaments every year.
    I envy you, and all that is forward. It sounds like you are enjoying it!

  92. That is amazingly cool!!!! I hate working with ribbons because they never curl pretty for me. But this one, I can do!!!

  93. This is crazy adorable! I love your wax seal idea from last year too! I agree, presenting a pretty package is almost just as fun as watching them see what is inside!

    Happy holidays!

    ~Baker Bettie

  103. I love your idea for unique present decoration 🙂 Thanks for sharing your lovely wrapping bow with us. I’m always looking for fresh and cute ideas to wrap gifts into. It’s just like you wrote, I just love giving (and opening :)) a gift that looks like it took a little time and love to wrap.

  104. Glad to have read this today…just finished all my shopping and planned to start wrapping now. I love your idea! Thanks for sharing…

  105. Gorgeous! And although I diss any “Martha Stewarty” types in my blog, I’ll let this go since yours are so pretty. Face it- I’m just jealous.
    Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂

  114. This year, I am vowing to not buy wrapping materials for my gifts (for ecological as well as economical reasons), so this idea is AWESOME!! Thank you, Katrina!
    BTW, this is my first time checking out your blog, and I love it!

  118. Nice! I just blogged about wrapping on a low budget. My favorite way is to use brown paper bags from the grocery store and decorate them myself. 🙂

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