DIY: Creative Ways To Gift Wrap

I’m not sure what’s more fun – buying gifts for people that you love, or wrapping them! I’ve always loved wrapping gifts and it’s funny because I’m terrible at doing it the traditional way… You could always tell which gifts were from me growing up because of the wrinkled, disheveled wrapping paper.  But I do love getting creative with gift wrapping and coming up with alternative ways to do it, making your gifts even more personalized and special.  Check out some of the creative ways we’re wrapping gifts this holiday season!

creative ways to gift wrap

Inspired by this image I found on Pinterest, I fell in love with the idea of wrapping gifts in cloth – why not wrap the gift in a kitchen towel that can also be part of the gift? I used a dish towel that I dyed a light shade of pink way back when I did my experimenting with natural dye. I would love to dye a bunch of towels different colors and wrap gifts with them, just think how beautiful they would look under the tree! Here’s how I wrapped the gift:

creative ways to gift wrap

creative ways to gift wrap

Lately I’ve also been really into the idea of wrapping gifts with old maps! I did a cross country road trip a few years back and during the trip I collected maps from each state I visited, so I have tons of them lying around.  Turns out, they make really adorable wrapping paper! Bonus points if you wrap someone’s gift in a map for a city or country they’re planning on visiting :).

creative ways to gift wrap

I love adding a natural touch to gifts as well, so I topped it off with some greens and a gift tag that I made by simply painting some card stock gold.

creative ways to gift wrap

creative ways to gift wrap

In my opinion, one of the prettiest ways to wrap gifts is using plain old brown paper. It’s simple and leave you lots of room to get creative and personalize it – I decorated my gift with a small crochet doily and some flowers.

creative ways to gift wrap

creative ways to gift wrap

For the finishing touch a made a star-shaped gift tag and painted it gold.

creative ways to gift wrap

Here’s another example of how we personalize a gift wrapped in brown paper! FP Naomi added some intricate yarn and gold leaf feathers on her gifts.

gold leaf feathers

creative ways to gift wrap

Lastly, one of our FP girls wrapped her gifts in these beautiful cloth bags, and shared how she made them!

creative ways to gift wrap

What you need:

– Cloth shipping bags (available for purchase here)

– Acrylic paint and glitter of the same color

– String or decorative ribbon/trim

– Some “jazz” (we used bits of green, belly dancer bells and wooden light bulbs)

– Glitter sealer (yes they do make such a thing!) or polycrylic

– Paint brushes

– Tape

creative ways to gift wrap

First, decide where and how big you want the glitter area to be and tape off a straight line. Apply paint to the bag in the “glitter zone” –  you want a pretty thick coat of paint but keep it smooth.  Once the area is covered generously, douse the area in glitter that matches the color of the paint. Shake off the excess glitter and hang the bag to dry – give it a day to be safe.

The next step is crucial to avoid glitter bombing your whole house, family, friends, and pets.  Lay bags outside, cover the un-glittered area with paper, and apply a thick coat of Glitter Sealer (I found some at Dick Blick). Let the first coat dry for about 15 minutes then apply another thick coat and let dry.  Now your glitter is locked in place right where you want it!

creative ways to gift wrap

creative ways to gift wrap

Use the same paint and glitter technique for the glittered wooden light bulbs, but use polycrylic to seal the glitter – it gives them a bit of gloss.

creative ways to gift wrap

Now, all you need to do is stuff the bags with that special gift and add trim, jazz, a gift tag or whatever else your heart desires. The great thing is that the bags are reusable!  You can even use the wooden lights bulb as an ornament after the gift has been opened :).

creative ways to gift wrap

creative ways to gift wrap

What’s your favorite creative way to wrap gifts? Let us know in the comments!

More DIY projects from the BLDG 25 Blog.

 

 

 

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11 years ago

great ideas!!!!!!!
:D

DIY and more:
diyearte by L & S

Eva
11 years ago

awesome ideas…thanks so much Julia!

11 years ago

So awesome..but where did you get the wooden lightbulbs?

11 years ago

Thanks for sharing this DIY, they are great ideas!

I recently did a GIFTWRAP TUTORIALS OVER AT MY BLOG:

http://punkrockparti.com/2012/12/18/diy_printed-giftwrap/
if anyone would like to check it out!
xo!
Paige
http://www.punkrockparti.com

11 years ago

so…, how can I start working for you guys? This is exactly the type of stuff I want to do with my life.

michelle erba
11 years ago

I did a similar post on my blog too! If you want to check it out…
Michelleerba.blog.com
Love all the glitter ideas!

Kathleen
11 years ago

I love getting creative with gift wrapping! One trick I did this year was taking old brown paper grocery bags and cutting out sheets of paper (I just cut around where the store logo ect was) to use as wrapping paper. To jazz up the plain brown paper, I used a foam stamp of a flower dipped in various hues of paint. Tie it all together with some twine!!

11 years ago

I cut out some of the pictures and designs from the current Trader Joe’s paper bags. They have christmas lights and snowy scenes, birds and ice skaters printed on them. They make great gift tags or you can glue some of the cut outs on to paper. Merry Christmas!!!

Epic post – I love all the handmade touches!

11 years ago

I did something similiar this year wrapping all of my gifts in brown paper, then watercoloring the tags, or painting nifty bows and plaids on the paper. Everybody loved the personal touch, plus it was a fun project during the snowy days leading up to the holidays!

Laura
11 years ago

I love this! Great ideas!
A while ago my little cousin was having a Harry Potter birthday party, and to wrap her gift, I took a map of the U.K. and drew a little castle where Hogwarts is supposed to be. Then I tied it with a pink ribbon to match the pink in the map. She LOVED it! Wrapping things in maps is one of my favorite things to do. Very cute.

Knitascarf
10 years ago

Great gift wrap ideas. http://www.learnhowtoknitascarf.com

10 years ago

This is very attractive and good post.

Juliette
9 years ago

Hello!

Can you do a tutorial video on the cloth bags with the glitter? That would be really helpful.

Thank you

Clinton
7 years ago

It’s really very amazing. I really appreciate your effort and my request is to please share us more post in future. This creative way is very lovely. I am really like it. Get packaging boxes in usa from http://www.packagingcustomboxes.com/packaging-boxes/