ideas for a husband's birthday wrapping

My husband's birthday week is upon us. In my family, we have birthday weeks, thanks to my brilliant daughter.  Why have one day when you can stretch out the be nice to the birthday person for a week?  It also has the excellent side benefit of making it possible to be a day or two late with a present if needed. Win-win scenario.

So now with this blog, I felt like I had to up my game a little. In the past, he would have been very happy with a paper bag.  So starting with kraft paper, (that's sort of a paper bag, right?) I decided to do a stencil and trim with jute.  My husband does decorative finishes on walls and furniture for a living, so I felt it was appropriate to at least go in that direction, hence the stencil.

A trip to Jo-ann's brought home a stencil and paint markers. (From the clearance bin, but I linked to similar stuff.) Okay, I could do this.  I didn't sweat filling in the stencil perfectly, this was supposed to look rustic, right?

And the reveal!

Hmm. Missing something. My eye kept going to the blotchy spots.  Well, since I had just finished a post on greenery out I went to the backyard to trim some overgrown bushes .

 Much better! More views!