Monday 24 November 2008

Gift Wrap Ideas # 5: Snowflakes

Today's gift-wrap idea is sweet and simple - decorate your parcels with paper snowflakes!


Start with a nice plain parcel or three...

 

I used brown paper / kraft paper (far right), lovely gold paper for a festive feel (gold and red are such classic warm Christmas colours), and faux bois vinyl for a modern twist (I can't get enough of it this Christmas!)

 

To make your own faux bois wrapping paper, cut out a piece of brown or other plain paper slightly larger than the size you need for your gift plus a matching piece of adhesive wood-effect vinyl (aka sticky back plastic, or contact paper). Then apply your vinyl with great care to the brown paper, trim off any messy edges and hey presto: woodgrain giftwrap! It's obviously a bit stiffer than normal wrapping paper but great for wrapping boxes or books or other easy shapes.

Now make some paper snowflakes! You can find some simple instructions here complete with photos (though I never draw my shapes on with pencil, I just cut out freehand). The more pieces you cut out the more detailed your snowflake will be but remember that this will also make them more delicate. For a trendy variation on this, you could skip this stage and buy some fancy paper doilies instead.

When you've got an assortment of snowflakes ready, apply glue to one side (I used prittstick for this which was a bit fiddly, some sort of spraymount would be ideal) and carefully stick them to your waiting presents - I carefully positioned the snowflake to cover the wrinkles I made when sticking the wood vinyl! My gifts were quite small so I just used one off-centre snowflake for each gift, but for a larger item you could create a whole snowstorm.

 

As a final finishing touch I tied all three gifts together in a stackusing red yarn instead of ribbon (for a nice bit of colour) and attached a woodgrain tag (and then forgot to take a photo, sorry). It's very easy to use leftover bits of vinyl or other paper to make matching tags, and you could even make mini snowflakes for the tags...

Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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7 comments:

QiaoEr said...

You're really full of idea!! everyday I can see your new craft idea!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Lupin,

I love the Christmas wrapping ideas - slightly jealous that you seem to be so organised! Please, please, please can you share a few nuggets from your internet favourites list? Every link you've passed my way I have absolutely loved...please let there be more?
Helene, x

Bugs and Fishes said...

Do you mean like Christmas shopping suggestions, Helene? :)

Anonymous said...

Not so much Christmas shopping - more crafty sites that you regularly find yourself perusing!

H, x

Miss Jo said...

love it!

Unknown said...

I love ittt!!! Thanks for sharing!

Crafty Sideup said...

beautiful..even though I've made snowflakes I never really used them on the gifts..I'm soo not gonna buy any expensive gift wraps this time :o)
Merry christmas --all the way from Dubai.
xoxo,
Babi@CSU.