Unique Gift Wrapping Ideas and Hacks
When the weather outside is frosty, you can spend a little zen holiday prep time inside wrapping packages to put under the tree or drop off to friends, family or secret Santa exchanges! We found both hacks and ideas, including faux flowers, hand-lettering paper, evergreen sprigs and fabric “paper,” plus some outstanding (and possibly more time consuming) options for the truly crafty among you. Take a look!
Stenciling and Free-Hand Drawing
For those of us who have ever used a potato to make a stamp, this will take you back to grade school and is the perfect family craft to dress up plain paper, with a little paint and your own creativity. Bring the kids around the table draped butcher paper and cutout trees, stars and bells – any holiday cookie cutter will do. Get the tutorial from contributor Marian Parsons at HGTV. White ink stamped onto a roll of brown craft paper for your presents, tied up with a sprig of cedar and festive ribbon.
Stenciling plain paper is another way to take a blank canvas and decorate with holiday designs. The paper’s thickness ensures that the paper won’t pucker from the wet paint To get started, find a stencil you like, or make your own like this deer silhouette suggested by Good Housekeeping.
Burlap and Blue, shows you how easy it is to take a black Sharpie® to brown craft paper and using different colored acrylic paints and your thumbprint, creating strings of holiday lights.
Lace, Berries and Ribbons
From A Beautiful Mess comes this idea for making presents look and feel extra special with a layer of lace over jewel toned paper, plus a coordinating satin ribbon. Another bunch of ideas from Marian Parsons, whose website, MissMustardSeed.com, are additional ideas and how-tos for wrapping Christmas presents with ornaments and items she found at Walmart.
Woman’s Day will give you enough holiday inspo to wrap all your gifts with this collection of 54 ideas for paper, bows, gift tags and bags. From Santa and elf sacks – get the templates here – and a stacked snowman, curated from Smart School House, to simply adding holly and berries.
It’s easy to dress up a package with silver Sharpies®, and just writing “ho, ho, ho” all over it and tying a candy cane striped twine around the box. Kristie at Gold Standard Workshop offers tips on gift tags and ribbons – which go best with where.
Origami and Furoshiki Wraps
Using cloth to wrap and transport gifts is the art of Furoshiki, a traditional wrapping cloth and technique that is used to wrap all sorts of objects, often with an elaborate “bow” or topper. From the zero waste school of gift wrapping, here are ideas and looks from Pinterest, and a YouTube tutorial from HGTV. ideas and looks.
And YouTube also has a tutorial using fabric and a wand of eucalyptus (to very zen music, we might add), as well as these ideas for wrapping small boxes with origami paper and topping them with origami trees, bows and Santa hats!
Christmas Cheer in Crystal Valley!
Bonus rooms, finished basements and grand family rooms are perfect for holiday crafts and gatherings in the brand new homes of Crystal Valley. Explore the many designs offered here by Richmond American Homes, Kauffman Homes, Century Communities and D.R. Horton. You can virtually visit these homes – via a variety of video chat apps! — or set up a private tour. Choose from ranch or two-story models set in natural surroundings — priced from the $400s.
