Last night I invited two of my girl friends to wrap our Christmas presents together. We decided it was waaaaayyyyy more fun to wrap together than by ourselves Christmas Eve. We chatted and talked for hours! Before we knew it the clock had struck midnight and the cell phones began to ring as husbands wondered “What the heck are you doing?! Why does it take so long to wrap presents?”
Here are just a few of the reasons why it takes a little longer:
Making a gift look extra special for the recipient takes time and care. Pretty Handsome Guy would poo poo our efforts, but so be it. We had fun and that is all that matters!
Using Martha Stewart craft paint and holiday stencils on plain brown craft paper.
I set out some supplies, some water — and most importantly — Renee brought some Trader Joe’s Holiday Joe Joe’s! Mmmmm!
We had fun wrapping and crafting and creating!
I encourage you to invite a friend or two over to wrap with you this year. Enjoy some “down time” with some special friends. Or just pull up a chair in my dining room as I create a few more creative gift wrappings!
Materials:
- Wrapping Paper
- Wire Ribbon
- Butterfly hole puncher (or other hole punch shape)
- Colored scrapbook paper or other colored paper
- Snowflake embellishment sticker
- Elmer’s glue
Start by using the butterfly hole puncher and punch out oodles of little butterflies.
Crease and fold the butterflies in half to give them some dimension. It is okay to leave a few butterflies flat.
Gift wrap your present as you normally would. And add your ribbon and bow on diagonal corners.
Use Elmer’s glue to place random dots onto your package.
Lay your butterflies on top of the glue. Keep adding butterflies until your cluster is done.
Add a snowflake embellishment and one butterfly on the bow.
Think how adorable snowflakes or stars would look on dark blue wrapping paper!
“These are a few of my favorite things (butterflies in December!)”
Materials:
- Wrapping paper
- Curly ribbon
- 1 – 12″ x 12″ scrapbook paper
- Shiny embellishment dots or stickers
- Elmer’s glue
- Optional: Green construction paper or scrapbook paper for fringe grass at the bottom
Wrap your gift in wrapping paper.
Cut a small square out of craft paper for the trunk. Fold your scrapbook paper into quarters…
…and cut along the fold(s) using the template below.
When you are done you should have two identical trees.
Glue the tree trunk down using Elmer’s glue. Run a bead along the spine of the tree and glue the first tree down on top of the trunk. Run a second bead of glue along the spine of the first tree and lay the second tree on top but slightly lower than the first.
Fold the left and right sides of the tree up to give them some dimension.
Add some embellishments or stickers to decorate your tree.
Optional: Adding Fringe Grass
Cut out a strip of green construction paper or scrapbook paper for your grass line. Tape two pieces together if you need to make it longer.
Cut fringes into the top edge of the green strip.
Using a pencil, roll the fringes over the pencil. I found this worked best on my thigh.
Glue your strip of fringed grass onto the package using Elmer’s glue.
Use your finger to push some fringes up and others down until you like the look.
Finish off your package by tying some curly ribbon onto it.
“Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree”
Please join me tomorrow for some more creative gift wrapping ideas!