It's been ages since I wrote a blog post - I always intend too but life gets in the way - ya know. I was recently approached by StickerDot - a NZ based business who specialise in stickers, swing tags, printed cards, business cards, and the like - who kindly gifted me some stickers, and I knew the time had come to share with you some ideas for wrapping and decorating gifts. So here we are. Nothing too fancy, just some easy ideas for the every day person.
1. Use your kids 'artwork' as gift wrap. It's often colourful and crazy and it makes great wrapping paper for stocking stuffers, that special gift for a sibling, or even Nana or Poppa. It's a great way to use up those pieces that you don't really want to keep but can't bring yourself to throw away.
2. Go Brown with Extra. Sounds dodgier than it actually is this, is a great option when you can’t find the wrapping paper you love, or you want to make things more personal. Use plain old brown paper - readily available from most stationery stores and the likes of Kmart etc, and add the Christmas extra with custom stickers. Jump onto Canva and get creative, then let StickerDot take care of the rest. With a range of options and sizes, low minimum order quantity, great service, fast shipping and competitive pricing, this is a great option to really personalise your gifts. Plus they have a pretty epic sale on at the moment.
I've recently had some vinyl stickers printed with them which I will be using to add that something special to my parcels this silly season and beyond.
3. If you have access to a sewing machine and some fabric scraps (it could be old clothing you don't want, perished sheets that you dye etc) you can whip up some reuseable fabric bags to be used as gift wrap, or if you don’t have a sewing machine use the traditional Japanese method of wrapping Furoshiki. If you use these for your kids gifts, you can pop them away for future years. You can always make up some gift tags with a hand written note, or a sticker to give it a bit of interest.
4. If you have seen my Instagram posts recently you would have seen these dried orange slices make an appearance. This was a fun lockdown project with my boys that opened a whole world of possibilities. We’ll be creating a garland, some will be attached to salt dough discs (another lockdown project) and make their way to the Christmas tree, and others will be used as parcel decoration. See method below.
Happy wrapping everyone!
SLICED ORANGE DECORATIONS
- Preheat your oven to 60 degrees (Celsius).
- Slice the oranges into 5mm slices.
- Lay the slices on an oven safe rack, then place that rack on to a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake for 4-6 hours, turning the slices over every hour or so. If they are looking like they are burning set them aside.
- Turn the oven off and allow to completely cool before removing the orange slices (return any slices that you removed in step 4).
- Turn them into decorations - make a garland, add some string for Christmas decorations or use them as present tags.