Printing Christmas wrapping from the Internet has pros and cons. There are many, many amazing graphic designers who offer designs that are far better than you will ever see in a store. Many are free, as a way to introduce you to their work. You can print on recycled paper. On the down side -- the size is usually limited to letter or legal size paper, so unless you are pretty crafty with tapes and design, you are limited to small gifts. But more importantly, the color options are only going to look as good as your color printer and your color ink levels. So I usually stick to black and white designs.
When I found this creative designer on Etsy, I thought she had come up with the perfect solution. She offers black and white designs that you can color in with markers or pencils. You could certainly use them as is, but coloring sounds fun and her designs really lend themselves to coloring. They are beautifully intricate. She has gift wrap designs, gift tags and more!
Here are her wrapping designs:
And she has a template for Christmas Crackers/Bon Bons! I have read descriptions of Christmas Crackers for years in English novels, and never understood what they were:
From
Whychristmas.com:
Christmas crackers are a traditional Christmas favorite in the
UK. They were first made in about 1845-1850 by a London sweet maker called Tom Smith. He had seen the French 'bon bon' sweets (almonds wrapped in pretty paper). He came back to London and tried selling sweets like that in England and also included a small motto or riddle in with the sweet. But they didn't sell very well.
Legend says that, one night, while he was sitting in front of his log fire, he became very interested by the sparks and cracks coming from the fire. Suddenly, he thought what a fun idea it would be, if his sweets and toys could be opened with a crack when their fancy wrappers were pulled in half.
Here's her template:
Happy coloring!
