sweet.

Candy Canes!

Candy cane, ribbon and gift stamp.

Go to Mypoppet to learn how to make the candy cane fabric twine.

This reindeer idea below was pretty cute, but it was hard to get to the original post. So  with apologies, I present the candy cane reindeer as your daily puzzle. How would you recreate it?

Would make a cute gift topper.

At first, I thought you could do this word version of candy cane with fabric twine, but you would have to get it to hold its shape.  Using modelling clay is probably a better idea.

crafty wrapping.

Peek a boo

This involves two layers of wrapping paper.  In the top layer, you make little cut outs letting colored paper or tissue or other paper show through.  I love this idea!

Wrap once with your "underneath paper" and then again with paper you have cut half the letters/symbols out using an exacto knife.

And of course this one. Originally from The House that Lars Built, shown on many, many blogs etc.  because it is just the best idea ever. I tried it with okay results.

More Wrapping ideas.

And finally, since Christmas is creeping up on us, let's close with a tree, Martha style.

Tree silhouette.

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!

rolling!

I saw this picture without a good explanation (or link to original page) and wanted to dissect the brilliance that it was.  This looks like someone slipped rubber bands around an old rolling pin to create a DIY stamp. Notice the paper wrapped around the rolling pin under the rubber bands which would technically make it possible to use a NEW rolling pin for this DIY. I loved this idea.

But then -- a hunt for rolling pin gift wrap opened up a new world for me.  This is not a new idea at all, I find and in fact there are many, many pictures of kids happily wrapping varieties of stuff around rolling pins to make gift wrap paper. And grownups talking seriously about rolling pin print making in videos showing how to do it. And so on. For example:

A more sophisticated take on this technique at this blog

Finished product!

So while I have missed out on the opportunity to give you any kind of original DIY gift wrap post, I did get on a roll covering the subject.

variations on a theme -- kraft plus

I have been posting wrapping paper from some great Etsy shops. If you want to make the paper last longer, or reuse any particularly beautiful wrapping paper you are gifted, I really like the idea of banding or embellishing kraft paper with more colorful papers.  To wit:

Howjoyful offers a free download of this cute button paper.

This is such a great idea for all those free download paper designs. If that isn't simple enough, how about buying paper ribbon and seals?

Paperjacks makes it easy by creating paper ribbon you can buy

Paperjacks paper ribbon and seals on kraft paper

Tissue paper is underrated.  I love how this blogger folded it to turn it into a band.

Easy washi tape, tissue and kraft paper wrapping

simple wrapping paper design

 Kraft paper, calligraphy pen, and twine.  I used a straight edge and made xes with both sides of the calligraphy pen.

A Norine Original! :)