I have the tiniest little announcement to make.
I'm Chinese.
No I'm not. That's not the announcement I wanted to make at all. It just sort of popped out.
The actual announcement I wanted to make was ... I haven't decided on my holiday gift wrapping yet. Which, if you follow my Christmas Pledge calendar you know was supposed to be figured out almost 2 weeks ago.
I just don't know what to do. I've done a sort of burlappy, rustic kind of thing the last couple of years, which I love but I think I want more sparkle this year. This first Christmas without the fella is going to be a tough one, so I figure I can combat that with a little sparkle. Or maybe a big Bulgarian.
I went through some of my old wrapping posts to see if some of them would give me any ideas, and they did. Which I am not going to tell you about just yet.
But, in case you, like me, haven't quite found the perfect wrapping idea, here are a few of my past wrapping posts to get you inspired. (click on each picture to take you to the original post)
Need more inspiration? Take a look at my Etsy Wrapping Gift Guide. Even if you don't buy something, it's a good place to get ideas.
And if you're running out of time and feeling a bit harried, you can never go wrong with any combination of plain white paper, brown craft paper, white satin ribbon and twine.
Also, for some reason at the moment, I'm feeling a kinship to anything with lanterns and dragons.
Janet
Karen, here is what I do. Love copper and chartruese, its my modern minds version of typical red and green, which I just dont do because it doesnt fit with my homes color scheme. I find gorgeous papers at Home Goods...dont know if you have one, Im in Sarasota 84 degree area, and then find beautiful wired ribbons in gold, copper, silver metallics. You can use it all year, but at Christmas, it is an unexpected, BLINGY, option. No one ever wants to open the packages, which allows you to go inexpensive because the wrappings are so lovely...let me just honk my own horn.....beep beep....or honk honk, depending on which part of the country you are in at the time of said "honking"! Honk honk goes out to you!
Karen
LOL. Right back atcha. Copper and chartreuse sounds great by the way! ~ karen
Kari
Ok, I'm inspired. The bird paper and the pine cone bows are beautiful and I'm going to do that! I've been there at Christmas and it sucks but little things like going for cocoa/coffee at night, holiday plays/concerts and looking at decorations really helped me. Just doing festive things more often than I normally would actually kinda worked!
Karen
Thanks Kari! I couldn't possibly do any more festive things than I already do, LOL. So I'm just going to take up excessive drinking. ;) ~ karen!
Kari
HAHA
Sara
By the way, it just dawned on me, you had a throw-away comment hidden in the middle of a paragraph where only the readers of every single word would catch it, that you need some sparkle for this first Christmas without the fella. Just wanted you to know, I read it. I have absolutely nothing helpful to say, other than I'm sorry you have to experience that this Christmas and I read it. I heard you.
Karen
Thanks Sara. I'm not feeling sorry for myself. But I know what's ahead and it will definitely need some sparkle. :) ~ karen!
Barbie
OK! LOL I know this post is about what wrapping paper I'm thinking of using.....but....hahahahaha! I just clicked on Marti's nextfella.com link!!! I think you should try it Karen I really do! And search for a Chinese guy! LOL
stephbo93
I am absolutely astounded at the thought that people put into this. I just grab whatever is in the wrapping paper bin and then either slap a sticky bow on it or quickly tie a coordinating ribbon on it. My husband? He's lucky is he can figure out how to cover the present completely with the paper he has chosen.
Glenda
I have always enjoyed wrapping gifts for Christmas, taking after my mother in her joy and creativity. Last year I was particularly pleased with my "creations", having added swarovski crystal charms on each package along with the bows, etc. I also made handmade tags. Unfortunately, my dil and family are not impressed with such things. It was a bit of a "downer" when the granddaughter was tickled with the red swarovski crystal on her package, but her mother said, "just throw it away, it's just a decoration". I was so stunned I couldn't think of a thing to say as it went into the "trash bag" .... I'm prepared should it ever happen again. A comment such as "oh, and by the way, I was so tickled to find the "whatever" that I've attached to the bow -- I hope you enjoy it as part of the gift." Still enjoy wrapping special gifts for those who appreciate the effort and creativity. This year I've been slow in picking out wrap as I have so much left over from last year ... guess I will see how I can use it look different than last year.
Karen
Glenda - Here's how you deal with that ... you yell "OMG ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? WERE YOU RAISED IN A CAVE??? THAT'S A SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL!! TAKE THAT OUT OF THE GARBAGE RIGHT NOW!!! Or something like that. ~ karen!
Glenda
Ha ha ha . Love your response Karen! Wish I had said that!!!!!! I'm still giggling.
Erin Hall {i can craft that}
also you might find it interesting, I know i did, you can get custom made Wrapping Paper from Spoonflower http://www.spoonflower.com/gift_wrap Its kinda pricy for my cheap ass but I am keeping it in mind for future years. You could get custom paper with your cleaver on it. or whatever you want. plus they have a library of great predesigned options.
my mind was blown.
Karen
Oh! Fun. I"ll have a look right now. Thx! ~ karen
Erin Hall {i can craft that}
this year i am going for dollar store kraft paper (dollar tree has some with stars etc) MAYBE some plain gold paper,if i decide to get all fancy. and a wrapping of yarn. gotta use those left over bit somewhere. As for tagging not sure yet. might just stamp the name right on the package.
Sara
Soooo...I mailed invitations to my daughter's birthday, bought wine for Thanksgiving and received the requested email from my nieces and nephews of their Christmas wish lists, and watched the first twenty minutes of Elf with my son. Does any of this count?
Karen
If you had said you got the first 30 minutes of Elf in, I could have given you points. Sorry. My hands are tied. ~ karen!
kelli
omg. Bowie. Morrisey. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Think I'll be wrapping up gifts to ME with that paper!
Karen
The Bowie paper is my favourite. LOVE it. ~ karen
Susan
I'm going with maps and red ribbon. In the process of cleaning out the upstairs storage room, I found a box of maps that go back twenty or more years. They've been in the box, so are still in good shape. Some are even the same map, sent by some organization wanting a donation or me to subscribe to something, I don't even remember. Anyway, I think they'll look nice and colorful. We don't do lots of gifts, we do a few more expensive gifts to each other, of things we wouldn't purchase for ourselves. So it won't be overkill to have six of the same wrapping. I may even try tinting them to either make them look quite old, or to make them look quite Christmassy. Haven't decided yet, but tinting them won't take long...a tea wash or a stamp pad applied in the right places. The presents are already here. I'll make a final decision on wrapping after some experimentation this weekend.
Karen
Maps. love it! ~ karen
kate-v
just today I came home from the Nearly New Shop with eight (8) beautifully decorated Christmas themed tins in several shapes and sizes - from about 2" x 1"x 1" to 10" x 6" - the total was $4 plus tax. They are in perfect condition - don't smell like last years (or who knows what years) cookies or anything . I will go every day until I get enough to finish the gift wrapping. It going to be a great Christmas and I'm already wrapping up eight (8) presents. If the Nearly New doesn't get more nice ones, I'll use gift bags from the $ store. that is good enough for me as they are 3/$1 and the tissue paper only costs $1. Don't have any really big gifts to give this year. If I finish my sister's sweater I'll just wrap a ribbon around it once it's folded - the yarn is that pretty. I have gift tags left over from the past so I'm nearly ready.
Connie Marshall
For years, I have wrapped gifts in white tissue paper with different curly ribbon. The wrap is inexpensive, so I have more in the budget for gifts, and it looks great under the tree- festive without competing with my tree, which is never themed, but a mixture of old ornaments, homemade ornaments, whatever strikes my fancy at Target, and what friends have given me so it is a hodgepodge of colors and shapes and lights. In my family, I tie each person's packages with a different color ribbon (nephew gets green, SIL gold, etc.) and curl the ribbon in different ways.
Kristin
My brother in law used to wrap all their presents in the wackiest way possible. Random boxes inside of boxes, sometimes there'd be a can or two of tuna to add misleading heft, and once he wrapped and presented me with my own copper sauté pan that I'd left at their house at Thanksgiving. (He instructed me to open it before I started cooking the dinner, so I could bake my traditional gingerbread tarte Tatin.)
Last year I chose plain brown paper, with a combo of various gold lame, brown satin, cream satin ribbons, and (the most economical ties of all), brown wool yarn! I wrapped the yarn around the gift several times each way, and still had enough for all the gifts plus some left over. And I cut out dark brown paper and gold paper gift tags, and used either a gold pen or a brown pen to write names. Anyway, the theme was brown, cream and gold because I was finally organized enough to get out my grandmother's china and set a pretty table. Oh, and I had a box from one of my gift purchases that had some round holes in it, so I used it as a ribbon dispenser! A lucky fluke.
Wendy
Okay. I never worry about wrapping. I always have brown paper, gift bags, tissue and ribbon kicking around. I'm Jewish, so nobody really cares in my family about the theme/look, as long as it doesn't look to Christmas-ish. Sometimes the whole "blue/silver/gold" thing works, but usually the channukah wrapping is so . . . ahem . . . "yawn."
Having said this. My presents always look better than anyone else's, except maybe my mom's. I learned to wrap from her. We use bright colours, curly ribbon, and that's the end of the whole business.
My husband used to wrap things in tinfoil. He learned to wrap from his mother, who is lots of wonderful things, but a good wrapper is not one of them. He comes from a long line of furtive, odd gift givers. Envelopes with money. Weird jelly smelly candles. Strong hand soaps. I love them all, but their relationship with gifts is funny. Mine is not. I never remember how much I spend, I never worry about whether the gifts are "equal" and I never, ever hand it over shabbily wrapped.
On Sunday morning, I'll be frantically wrapping . . . and they'll look great, because that's my thing.
NikiDee
I always color coordinate my paper (when I don't use craft paper... Gawd I love wrapping with craft paper). Sometime the sparkle can just be in the ribbon you use or even added to a wrapping paper you love but it just isn't sparkly enough. Spraycan sparkle to the rescue!!
Shauna
I save all the brown packing paper from the many Amazon shipments we receive through the year and use that as wrapping paper for everything. I wrap with pretty baker's twine. It's too similar to what you've done in the past, but I'm thinking you're going to have go with a bedazzle machine and lots of glitter. So much glitter that you have a glitter frenzy and it ends up in the floorboards of your home, so you'll have sparkle all year long.
Trissi V.
Brown paper packages tied up with string,,,these are a few of my favorite things (why do I keep breaking out in song).
I have paper bags from Whole Foods to wrap the Christmas stocking stuffers (they look at you weird when you grab a big bunch and run out the door screaming). Plan brown craft paper wrapping for the bigger items, which only one or 2 people will be getting (everyone gets their big gifts early ( I got mine in September).
jj
Oops- didn't see that Shannon (Hi Shannon!) Had already suggested the Furoshiki!
Great minds think alike!
amy watson
I do a real old fashioned Christmas tree every year, I have ornaments that are 35 yrs old, and handmade ones and special little things I do like pinecones and little apples and candy canes, but about 5 years ago I bought a very large roll of white butcher paper and a roll of brown craft paper...They will last me the rest of my life :) Si now I trade up one year white and the next brown with twine and greenery and tennt pinecones...This year I am doing white and going to stamp green Christmas trees on the paper and use pretty red ribbon and vintage gift tags.... I can't wait, it will be gorgeous...and I am really excited about stamping all that white paper (not) , and I really want to find a pinecone stamp...any suggestions ??