Monday 1 December 2008

Gift Wrap Ideas # 6: Fun with Fonts

Most gifts I wrap involve a tag somewhere along the line, but for a few parcels this year I'm skipping the tags and using names and other messages as the decorative element:



The idea behind this look is really simple - though it takes a little time to put into practice - and will make your parcels really stand out! I think it's an ideal way of decorating gifts for men and boys who (let's be honest now) probably have no interest in a "pretty" or "chic" looking parcel and can't undo a ribbon to save their lives. This is certainly the giftwrapping idea which has had the most positive response from my boyfriend!

First up you need to make some letter templates. Print out the letters you need using your computer - you'll need a pretty big font size but this will depend on the size of the presents you're wrapping, and remember to set them as "outline" to save ink! I used Arial set to bold to make nice fat simple letters, and I should have printed out a whole alphabet in different sizes to save time as I just kept thinking of more people this idea would be great for.

I just printed my letters onto paper but if you wanted to use them a few times (or just to make using them easier) you could print onto card instead. Cut them out and you've got your templates:

 

To really save time you could print the letters directly onto coloured paper... but doing it the long way you can use a variety of decorative papers or use up all those small pieces of giftwrap you get left-over after wrapping your parcels. Draw round each letter with a pencil and cut it out, remembering to reverse the letters so they're the right way round when you turn them over (if that makes sense!). Then use some prittstick-type glue (something light that won't seep through the wrapping paper you've used) and stick your message onto your parcel.

I used bright red giftwrap on nice shiny gold paper for nephews and neices who like something cheerful...


... and more muted, subtle choices for our friends - vintage sheet music and an old map of London...

 

... and lovely gold lettering on kraft paper, which is probably my favourite:


I'm sure you can think of lots of variations - letters cut from pictures in glossy magazines for example would work really well on brown paper, and plain white letters (nice and easy to print straight from your computer) would also look pretty cool.


Please feel free to borrow one or two 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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45 comments:

Anonymous said...

i love the idea with the old map of london!!!

Sonia / COZY MEMORIES said...

Again a lot of wonderful & creative ideas ! Well done ! :D Hapy December & Happy Holidays to you ! *Ü*

tricialynn said...

So cute! This would be an excellent idea for personalizing notebooks or journals to give as gifts, too! Hmm, I might just have to do that. Thanks for the inspiration - I love your blog!

Mlle Miracle said...

Oh, I would try this, it's another beautiful way to use scraps of paper, or newspaper, for example!
Thanks again, you're amazing!

QiaoEr said...

This's really excellent idea!! I love it! Hmn~~I think I'm going to practice this idea for the coming christmas!!

Alana Jo said...

Very creative.

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous and original idea!

Silvia LGD (Little Green Doll) said...

Great idea!! Thanks for sharing it!!

Anonymous said...

What a great idea. I'm definitely going to use it this Christmas. Very classy!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely idea! Thanks for sharing it.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant!

Anonymous said...

This is inspired - love it. xx

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love your ideas. I've posted about them on my blog - using your images - hope that's okay. The link is in my URL.

Thanks, Rosie

Bugs and Fishes said...

No problem Rosie - thanks for giving me a mention! :)
I'm always happy for people to blog about my stuff as long as I get full credit and links back as you've done :D

Wendy said...

This is so fantastic!

Babz Rawls Ivy said...

THis is the COOLEST thing I have seen! I am so doing this...I love it!

I am already thinking how I can alter and make it my own.

You are a GENIUS!

Kristin G said...

I've wrapped my gifts in brown paper for years now. I love it. I like your letter tags. When I do it though I have personalized stencils and I spray paint messages and pictures on friends and families presents.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! I love this idea - how creative of you!

Unknown said...

ooooh I LOVE this idea!

Anonymous said...

If you don't mind using up a bit more wrapping paper, and are in a hurry, a quick way to do this would be to wrap the present in bright paper, then stencil and cut the words/names out of the brown paper and wrap - the colorful paper will show through :)

Jackie said...

How did you get to be so clever?
You are the same age as my son!

Joy Madison said...

I have a die cutting machine....that would be cool to do, or use self adhesive paper like contact paper!!!

Anonymous said...

That looks awesome, can't wait to carry it out myself :) It's so simple too ... can't believe I haven't done it before.

blue moss said...

found you thru creature comforts....thanks for such a fabulous idea....

Little Paper Dog said...

What a fancy schmancy idea. I absolutely love it!

Anonymous said...

Looks awesome...but Arial???

Anonymous said...

love this!

Mike Ashworth said...

So glad I stumbled upon this info :-)

I substituted the red wrapping paper used on the background gold to wrap the present, with red felt. Looks lovely.

I shall be following this blog in future.

Have a lovely Christmas.

Mike Ashworth

Intres said...

I love this original idea!, Thanks!

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU so so much for this idea. i used it on all my presents this year. i just posted about it so i hope you'll go check it out to see how they came out! thanks again!

VITO A ZAPPALA said...

You give a very good idea for Easter Gift.Thanks a lot of the great mother day.Your text is really

appreciable

Irene said...

What an impressive yet easy to do idea! Thank you for sharing.

Unknown said...

Hello, Lupin! Awesome idea for gifts, totally doing this for my cookie boxes.

Lenetta said...

Great idea! I have been getting away from bows for a while because I'm always transporting gifts and they crush. I linked to this on my weekly roundup - thanks so much!

Vesle Serena said...

what a great idea! :) thanks, i will try this next christmas!! i have 11 months to cut letters now :)

Ceci said...

Hi Laura,
Nice package. I love the simplicity of them. Lovely!!!

Can I share this post in my blog?

Regards,
Ceci.

sweetmillie said...

that's a lovely and fresh idea!
thanks

kirsty said...

I can't believe you posted this 2 years ago and I'm only just finding out about it now.

I am in LOVE with this wrap idea and I'm using it for my presents this christmas.

Thanks for the brilliant idea :)

My Galveston Cottage said...

Such a great idea that I share it on my site as well.
Of course, I credited your blog.
Thank you for sharing! And Happy Holidays.-susan
(http://thegreenplum.blogspot.com/2010/12/few-gift-wrapping-ideas-that-may-travel.html)

I said...

LOVE THIS! SO SIMPLE YET AMAZING! Thankyou! I also have a blogspot.. followers welcome!

Carin said...

Just saw this on pinterest and had to come over and comment- such a fabulous idea!

Rosilind Jukic said...

I found this post on Google and linked to it on my blog here: http://jukiczr.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-gift-wrapping-ideas.html

Angie said...

I did this last year using my cricut machine and any sort of paper to hand. Parchment looks nice swell, especially if you randomly spray paint it silver or do the edges with glitter x

Bugs and Fishes said...

Great idea to use your Cricut, Angie! Cutting out these letters by hand does take a while :)

Unknown said...

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