Christmas Gift Wrapping with Fabric and Kids’ Artwork

Our 3rd most popular Winter Holiday post is Liesbeth’s idea to personalize and beautify your holiday gift wrapping. Gorgeous!

I needed to get my gift to my family in Holland before Dec 5th (Sinterklaas). In a panic and with no immediate supplies at hand I went to the place that always has the answers – my basement craft and sewing war zone – and found some shimmery fabric I have been hanging onto for years, not quite knowing what it could transform into.

By sheer luck, this “oh oh” moment turned into an “aha” moment, and the best wrapping I have ever done. No costs, super fast (got it all wrapped within half and hour) and got more oohs and ahhs then wrapping that has taken me hours of work in the past. Score.

By: Liesbeth

You really do not need much of a tutorial for this, so let me just share the core steps:

• Get some cute fabric (any will do, but this transparent, shimmery fabric I used was extremely festive, kind of chic and its slight stiffness made the top stand up nicely).
• Cut loose square in advance. Make sure you cut it big enough so you have enough spare fabric around the gift. Simply wrap your gift in some tissue paper first (if your fabric is transparent like mine was) – use a colour in the same colour family as your fabric, or silver and gold is nice too). Place tissue-wrapped gift inside fabric and simply bunch up on one end.
• Tie ribbon around the bunched up fabric. Do this tightly.
• This is the fun part. Take sharp fabric scissors and hold parcel dangling down and cut the fabric about 4-5 inches above where you had tied the ribbon.
• Voila! How pretty.
• I did some very simple name cards, cutting some natural-coloured, textured cardboard paper (which I had in stock) with a scalloped cutter that is usually for cupcake toppers. I hand-wrote the name tags and hot-glued to the ribbon.

Note: you can use this idea for any gifting occasion outside of the holiday season. Just imagine the possibilities with old fabric. I am planning to cut up this old skirt I never wear but that has the prettiest silk flower print, and use it for some girlie gifting.

Fabulous Gift Wrapping by Le Papier Studio

Thanks to the amazingly talented Vana Chupp of Le Papier Studio, you get a two-for-one in this post. Le Papier Studio featured some wonderful wrapping a while ago. Have a look!

Another later Wrapping Addition to this Post: Using Kids Artwork

A few days after this post went live, my 3-year old son wanted to wrap some gifts he got for his sisters and his dad. We wanted to make it special and show it was from him and then the idea came to me: why not use the artworks he cranks out at school every day.  We set to work – his art and some old ribbons I have in my Christmas wrapping & decorating supply box and voila. We can’t wait for Christmas morning when the family gets these very personal packages.