There’s something so relaxing about plopping down to wrap presents while watching your favourite Christmas film. I find the entire process a welcome distraction from the world during the holidays and thought I’d share some of my favourite wrapping techniques and ideas.
As usual, these ideas are budget-friendly and easy to accomplish. I love a good DIY project and I also love finding frugal ways to achieve maximum impact.
Supplies
There’s nothing worse than sitting down to wrap all your gifts and realizing that you don’t have tape or scissors on hand. To make the task easier, have a basket under the tree at all times with the supplies you’re going to need. That way, you don’t have to run all over the house looking for gift tags or extra ribbon.
Here are some supplies I like to have on hand:
- Scissors
- Clear tape & washi tape
- Ribbon, twine, string etc.
- Gift tags or stickers
- Embellishments: cinnamon sticks, bells, tree branches, beads etc.
- Tissue paper
- Little boxes
- Pens & markers
- Gift bags
- Wrapping paper in various colours & patterns
Technique
In a simple world, everything would come in neat and tidy little boxes with straight angles. But that’s not the case. There are some really great tutorials online on how to wrap gifts so I won’t go into much detail here, but I find that the stiffer the paper the easier to wrap. Mostly because you can pull the paper tight to create crisp lines without worrying that the paper will rip. To make my lines extra perfect, I’ve started using a metal ruler to bend the shape the way I’d like. Using thick paper also means you won’t have to worry about labels peaking through.
To add a playful touch, I also opted to use coloured washi tape to keep the wrapping together. Unless you’re using double-sided tape this part can look kind of messy. Instead of trying to hide my tape job, I’m drawing attention to it by using bright red tape. It’s a fun little detail and the contrast against the paper is pretty and unexpected.
Mix it up
It might seem excessive, but I have five different rolls of wrapping paper. I bought some regular brown paper from the dollar store, a large roll of white paper from IKEA, and then a set of black and white paper from IKEA to mix and match. I love the simplicity of having “brown paper packages tied up with string” paired with the more modern black and white wrapping from IKEA. Have fun mixing patterns and complementary colours to create a one of a kind theme.
Embellishments
This is my favourite part. I have a little bag filled with embellishments like bells, bottle brush trees, cinnamon sticks and tassels in my basket to add a little bit of personality to each gift. After wrapping everything with some bakers twine (the grey and red twine is from IKEA) I like to slip balsam branches or cinnamon sticks under the twine to finish everything off. I love that there are so many pretty details that you can add to make your gift look extra special.
Gift tags are also a really pretty way to complete the look. I bought a bunch of brown tags in various shapes from the dollar store and they go perfectly with my theme. I used my favourite Tombow brush pen to write the recipients name and I think the final look is both modern and classic.
I can’t believe that Christmas is only a week away! I still have a few gifts to purchase and a lot of work to finish off before the holidays. In the meantime, I’m really enjoying writing and ready holiday-related content. I’ve been really loving Zoe Suggs’s vlogmas, my friend Sam’s blogmas.
My plans tonight include yet another Christmas film (my favourites are ‘The Holiday’, ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Christmas Vacation) and a lush bubble bath.
What have you guys been up to?
