Tag Archives: how to wrap gifts

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Paper Medallions, Paper Bows and Pinwheels

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Once in a while, I run out of gift bows (and I don’t feel like running out to the store for the bag o’ bows). I’m probably not the only one… and what’s a gift without a bow or something fun? If you need a gift topper, check out some really cool tutorials and make your own!

Gift wrapping paper scraps, papercrafting scraps, and magazines are great resources for making your own gift toppers!

Gift wrapping paper scraps, papercrafting scraps, and magazines are great resources for making your own gift toppers!

A paper bow tutorial can be found at the end of this linked post.

Rosettes, or paper medallions, are so fun too! I make mine like this paper medallion tutorial on Craftaholics Anonymous.

Pinwheels are timeless… check out the pinwheel tutorial on instructables.com. I make my pinwheels with 3″ to 5″ squares, and then use a pom pom, stickers, buttons, or rhinestones in the center. Use a variety of sizes as gift toppers.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Cupcake liners and doilies

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12 Days of Gift Wrapping: If you don't have ribbon

Something useful for those mismatched cupcake liners and extra doilies you might have hanging around in your kitchen drawers. Just wrap your gift with plain, solid paper (I used brown craft paper), wrap some ribbon, layer a doily and cupcake liner, then secure with coordinating bakers twine.

This is super cute used with brown paper bags, too.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Yarn or twine

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Totally Pinterest-inspired wrapping.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Yarn instead of Ribbon

So, in case you don’t have or run out of ribbon, scrounge around your house… maybe you have twine or yarn! Cut ten to twenty lengths of yarn, enough to go around your gift and enough for you to tie tight knots. Tie the yarn one piece at a time around your gift with a double knot. Once you’re done, line up all the knots and then trim the ends to the length you desire. Kind of like a hair cut.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: If you don't have ribbon

How about a skein of multi-colored yarn? Just take your yarn and apply the same way as above, or tape one end of your yarn and wind around your gift until you get the width you like. Cut and tape the end, tucking it in behind the rest of the yarn. It’s just as much  fun unwrapping it as it is winding the yarn around the box.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: If you don't have ribbon

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Curling Ribbon Tip

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12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Curling Ribbon Tip

I’ve been obsessed with curling ribbon since I was a kid. I tried and tried to curl fabric ribbon and paper strips by rolling them up around my pen or pencil. (That doesn’t work so well, by the way.) And then I learned there was specific ribbon for curling purposes.

The key to making it all fluffy: don’t curl your ribbon after you tie it to the box – do it before you tie.

Tie one (or two, as shown) pass of ribbon around your gift as you typically would, leaving a few inches of ribbon to tie your gift tags, etc.

Cut several lengths of curling ribbon, anything over 18 inches. Be generous. I like to use about four or five pieces. Curl each ribbon piece just as you would, with the edge of your scissors. You should have a curlicue mess right now.

After you curl the ribbons, take one piece, hold one end in your left hand, hold the other in your right. Bring the ends together, hold them in one hand. Find the center (like folding sheets) with your free hand. Fold the ribbon again by bringing the center to the ends.

Now… you tie the center of that mess of curled ribbons to your gift. Repeat with the other pieces of ribbon.

If you can hold all your ribbons while folding the other pieces, you could fold up all your pieces first and then tie at the end.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic wrapping

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I didn’t realize what a polarizing topic this could be. Do you overlap the “tail” over the box, do you fold the “tail” so it just meets the edge of the box, or do you fold so that the “tail” meets in the middle and you have something that looks like an envelope? There is no right answer – I think it’s all personal preference.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Use a store paper bag instead of gift wrap

And the other thing about wrapping – how do you cut just enough paper? Well, you can measure your box, all the way around and then the ends or you could eyeball it like everyone does with some freestyle measuring to insure you have enough paper.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic Wrapping

Here’s how I like to wrap gifts.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic Wrapping

• Lay your box down on your unrolled gift wrap.
• Pull the paper around the box to make sure you have enough to go around plus about an inch. If you don’t, turn your box 90 degrees. You’ll probably have enough that way.
• Before you cut, check for end coverage, and crease lightly with your fingers.
• Cut the paper where you made a crease. If you happen to have a grid on the backside of your paper, you’ll have an easy time cutting straight. Otherwise, follow parallel to the roll and you’ll be pretty straight.
• Tape one edge of the wrapping paper to the box. This is the only way I can make my gift wrapping nice and taut. If you have double-stick tape, by all means use that.
• Wrap around the gift and before you tape your paper down, crease along the raw cut edge. You’ll have a nice finished edge. Tape it down in the center.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic Wrapping

• Ends – fold in the sides and when you press inward, you’ll find that the upper and lower flaps will start looking triangular at the ends. Make sharp folds for neater edges. Fold the bottom flap up and then the upper to close up the gift end. Tape in three spots, and repeat on the other side. (Or tape in the just one spot, at the tail.)

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic Wrapping

You could also make your wrapping look seamless just by taking your wrapping paper all the way over and then taping. Fancy, right? My kids don’t like this method because they can’t find a good spot to start ripping (in their opinion).

Lastly, give all the edges of your gift wrapped box a nice pinch. Just put your thumb and pointer finger together and run along all the edges. Makes for crisp corners.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic Wrapping

If I happen to run out of gift wrap (unlikely, but it happens), I like to use paper bags, craft paper, magazines, newspaper, old phone book pages (yellow, of course), etc. There are some fine looking magazine pages that really serve themed-gift wrapping well (like that small box in the upper left hand corner in the picture – watch ad from a magazine).

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Use other paper instead of gift wrap

Endless gift wrapping possibilities…

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic Wrapping

Don’t throw away the small cut pieces of gift wrap, either. You can wrap a small gift, or it can become a curly topper (you’ll see in another post)!

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