I tried it -- bow from pretty in pink

I noticed that one post I did Pretty in Pink  a few years back was very popular this Christmas season.

There was a bow shown in that post that I thought I would duplicate this year.

She originally used yarn.

Here's my version. Materials needed: twine, and something to wrap the twine or yarn around.

Instructions: I just made enough loops around the tape roll to make a bow that looked full enough and tied it off.

Final product:

Nice rustic look!

Happy last minute wrapping and happy holidays to everyone.

Christmas Gift Wrapping

Ribbons are so tempting

Re-use

I re-used a lot of ribbons this year, which makes up for using purchased gift wrap. :)

12 Days of Christmas

 This year, my husband and I are doing 12 days of Christmas. 12 gifts, each no more than ten bucks (more or less) we open them with our morning coffee.  He has done amazingly well! His gifts so far have been really thoughtful and things I would not have gotten but love now that I have them.

Here are my first wrapping efforts ready to go under the tree:

And it should be noted that my cats "helped me" wrap.  I don't know how I would have finished if they weren't messing with the ribbons and chasing the ends.😾😽

Etsy Cyber Monday Gift Wrap edition

Time to start wrapping.  Here are some great choices from Etsy that tend toward the ecofriendly side, are currently on sale but mind you its the LAST DAY for Cyber Monday, but these items are still cute if you miss the sale. Start indulging in beautiful wrapping!

The cottonandcanvasco has a bunch of cute Xmas stuff. Like this cute little bag. Right now 20% off.

Or go big with the super cute Reindeer bag!

How pretty is this? Southerners can get ecopoints by ordering from this Carolina maker. 

thurstonpost sends you three bags, tags and ribbon. Hurry for the discount

Here's where you can get all the special stuff to make your kraft paper look good. Twine, clothespins, gift tags, more.

Etsy Monday Studio Karamelo

StudioKaramelo has some very pretty wrapping paper and stamps for Christmas.  I was at a paper store last week and saw some wonderful stamping with heat embossing, so I am now on the hunt for particularly pretty stamps.

Here is what the shop owner says about her process:

"floralgeometrics.

On rubber & paper.Leaves and branches meet dots and lines. Floral meets geometrical.Pebble stones in my jacket nuzzling between my fingers, clacking softly, the hackly tangle of hedges having no beginning and no ending. A knobbed bough with moos, a fine structured umbel, an abstract alga, a winterly seed head. A fascinating beauty reveals in these simple shapes and pattern. I am taken with the lines of nature, those who are not exact and straight but nevertheless well-shaped.And dots. Again and again.That's karamelo.
With pencil and indian ink my motifs come onto paper. Handdrawn. Afterwards they are lasered out of rubber stamp or printed with pigment on paper.I do not only find my inspiration in nature, also the used materials are mostly made out of ecological resources without chemical additions.As possible all products and packaging are produced environmentally friendly and sustainable."

Pretty, modern christmas stamps

Great christmas assortment of stamps

Pretty conifer wrapping

Wrapper of the Week - Wrappily for the Holidays

The Holiday Season is coming -- otherwise known as Wrapping Olympics.  Time to feature ecofriendly wrapping paper makers who have really pretty wrapping! As I write this, Wrappily has a number of their designs on sale. Since a lot of those designs happen to be my favorites this is a great opportunity!

Stags and Birch

Mix it up with other designs

Like Festive Forest & Snowflake Confetti!

This store has a real commitment to ecofriendly wrapping using  fun, modern design.  At this time of the year, mindful shopping is important.  Where our dollars go determines the future of stores like Wrappily that are trying to determine the future of our environment.  Wrapping should be a mix of re-using, recycling other objects in creative ways, and when you do buy, buy from a store/manufacturer mindful of its impact on the environment.

Six coordinating gift wraps in this set!

Etsy Monday JaneCrick Christmas Wrapping

Holiday music is already playing through the malls, which are already packed with people getting ready for the holidays. While I am usually pretty grinchy about too early a start to the holiday season, this year some Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All seems like a really good idea. So let the season commence!

Four Fox Christmas Tags

For our wrapping inspiration, we are going back to England. What is it with all the super talented graphic designers who do wrapping paper who live in the United Kingdom?  This week, we are going to look at JaneCrick, a wonderful stationery store. Here's her "About"

"Jane, or Janey to all her friends, is by her own admission an incredibly loud, busy and bright kind of person.
Inspired by her love of Suffolk (where she lives), flowers and nature - she produces unique designs using vibrant colours and bold shapes.
When not creating new designs, or looking after her family and very ‘vocal’ Burmese
cat, she can often be found at her allotment, fighting the never ending battle against the weeds!"

Gingerbread Wrapping Paper Set

Holly and Robin Wrapping Paper

Reindeer Wrap

I have been pinning a lot of holiday wrapping ideas on my wrapping Pinterest board lately and they are  being repinned at a ferocious rate.  I am impressed with how far ahead everyone is thinking, since there is a lot of holiday wrapping ideas being pinned right now.  Certain trends are standing out to me, starting with  super cute reindeer ideas.

Bianca Vaniglia did a great tutorial on how to make this felt reindeer gift topping here.

Babyccino has a DIY on these adorable reindeer tags here.

Made by iSa does more cute tags that do double duty as napkin rings

DIY Gift Wrapping from dollar store and free printables

I have started my Christmas wrapping. My first package needs to go to my daughter, son-in-law and their family. So first, I did some scribbling, along the lines of what I talked about in this earlier post,

Materials:
White Wrapping Paper
Dollar Store Glitter Glue
Dollar Store Ribbons
Print it yourself gift tags

I was loosely trying to do a Christmas tree, succeeded better on one than the other, but I still liked them both. I wrapped, scribbled with the glitter glue, glued on a simple knotted ribbon piece for each and used gift tags I had printed. Done.

Next, I tried using printable wrapping paper and gift tags along the lines of these posts:
 Free Printable Wrapping Paper  
What with white paper

Materials:
8.5 x 11 printer paper
Glossy photo paper for the tags
Ribbons and glitter tape from the Dollar Store.
White wrapping paper.
Leftover glitter paper bats from Halloween
hole punch

The gift wrap I downloaded was from a french site,  hello hello.  When I printed, I made sure that the print settings put down maximum ink. One of the reasons I stuck with black and white is my inkjet wasn't doing so great with the colored versions.

I liked the reindeer antlers and the trees.

The paper I printed was 8.5 x 11, so works only on very small gifts. On a larger gift, I tried folding a band to go around the front, but ended up adding a couple different glitter ribbons and some glitter tape to hold down the edges of the band. Finally, I had some glittery cardboard bats that didn't survive Halloween that well so I cut them up to add some accents to the gift tags.

The tags I ended up using were from yourmarketingbff.com.. As mentioned before, I printed these on photo paper. They have a number of free designs, I started from this page because I found the tags from these pictures using the wrapping paper I had downloaded. 

Reindeers and Trees!

But ended up with this version which you can find for free in their shop:

And I'm Done.

Etsy Monday Printable Christmas Downloads

While not free, I really could not resist these Christmas wrapping and tag downloads from Wendyjune. As she says in her very Cute Etsy Shop :

"It all started in grade 3 when I won a prize for drawing an icecream.
Miss Marsden you have a lot to answer for.

I love to draw! You will find my original drawings featured on a range of beautifully produced products. Quirky cards, stationary, tea towels as well as a range of digital prints."

These Christmas Cat Gift Tags  are super cute.

Add these great gift bags and you are all set for small gifts!

Christmas Bird Decorations! Would look great on gifts.

Christmas Swan Gift Bags.

Maiko Nagao Free Printables

This graphic designer really has some excellent free printables suitable for the holidays on her blog.  Check this out:

Perfect graphic gift tags.

This works for more than the holidays, but I think it would be very holiday chic with some red ribbons.

Okay so not exactly gift wrapping, but seriously how cute is this anti-monster spray label?

Spray away the monsters!

More Cute and Free Holiday Themed Gift Wrap

Handmade Charlotte's DIY Nutcracker Gift Wrap.

Next, the link below takes you to some Hannukah designs as well as Christmas, that print out as big as 11 x 17.

MomsandCrafters

Preppy reindeers. So good.

Elli's preppy reindeer free printable.

Finally, this cute gift tag is a cross between a DIY (draw it yourself) and a free printable (there are instructions for both). PLUS there are a couple of other super cute designs you can download.

Craftberry

More free printable gift wrapping paper for the holidays

Whether you use it as an accent, or to wrap a small gift, free printable gift wrap downloads are out there in abundance.  Here are some more of my favorites:

Snowmen and package/trees from Bloesem.

The two patterns above were actually designed by Jessica Nielsen for Bloesem.  She has her own free downloads, this one caught my eye because it uses (one of)  Pantone's Color of the Year for 2016 Rose Quartz.

Jessica has this and other free, modern designs.

 This one from See Kate Sew is so perfect for certain gifts.

Any crafty fabric type gift would be so cute with this.

Free printable wrapping paper.

The internet, and better printers, has made the acquisition of wrapping paper at least for small gifts a very easy thing to do.  So many talented graphic designers out there share their work:

Tags AND wrapping paper to print.

 Here are some cute options from WhiteDahlia. Follow the link for more!:

One of the WhiteDahlia options

Giochi di Carta is a favorite destination of mine. Check this wrapping paper out!

Free printable wrapping paper.