Most people still have some gift wrapping to do tonight, myself included. Every year I ship the majority of my gifts to my in-laws where we celebrate Christmas to save myself from schlepping big gifts across the state. But that means that I end up wrapping until the wee hours of Christmas eve, which is still better than loading a million gifts into a double-parked car in NYC traffic!
I thought I would share some of the simple and creative gift wrap ideas I'll be using tonight so those of you faced with a mountain of gifts to wrap can use some of these ideas too. So pour yourself a big glass of wine, set Pandora to Christmas classics, grab some ribbon, a few accoutraments, a pair of scissors and tape, and get ready to wrap the prettiest packages this season!
Use a mix of ribbon materials to make your gift stand out, like this combo of
pretty velvet ribbon with red and white baker’s twine. Use any materials you have on hand. This year I am using natural colored twine with red satin ribbon. Yarn also works well and is equally as inexpensive. Not only does the ribbon combo make your gift look like it took a lot more time to wrap, it's a great way to use up some extra ribbon that you've had on hand. Bonus points for adding a strip of the ribbon that you're using to the gift tag to make everything coordinate.
Photo via
Refinery 29
Simple baker's twine (or yarn) and jingle bells make plain wrapping paper festive. If you don't already have jingle bells on hand (I have a big bag of assorted sizes in my wrapping paper bin), you can find them in the holiday wrapping sections at several stores (like Target), or at a craft store (like Michael's).
photo via
Sweet Paul Mag
Make and print a personalized word search using
Puzzle Maker, circling the recipient's name in lieu of using a gift tag. This option is best for smaller gifts that can be wrapped in a standard (8x11) piece of paper. For best results copy and paste the finished cross word into a word document, enlarge the font to as big as possible within the margins and print.
photo via
Pinterest
Make brown packaging into a winter work of art by printing any of these wintry scenes and pasting them to the top of your package over a simple solid color ribbon. Complete instructions and links to the printable wintry paintings available on
Design Sponge.
photo via
Design Sponge
Give edible gifts in a package printed with the recipe. Print the recipe in a fun font on plain or colored paper, line the inside of the paper with waxed or parchment paper to protect the treats, roll and tie the ends with pretty ribbon.
photo via
Soel Boutique
