Using What's On Hand...

You don't have to drive yourself crazy with a bow maker and fancy papers.

This morning I shooed the Terrible Two out of the bedroom and barred the door.

If I didn't, they would unwrap gifts as soon as I wrapped them....Even though they know that they are just blocks of random sized balsa wood.  They have it in their heads that as soon as the block is wrapped, it magically turns into a real gift...Just for them. 

The first photo shows what you can do with card stock type scrap booking paper. 

The one with the tree on the left is partially wrapped to show you how to deal with the thickness.  I wrap the card stock around the block, creasing it sharply before gluing anything.  Then I wrap it around and at the corners I cut a V out that way there is no folding to be done. 

If you want to make bags, do it the same way, but only crease one end of the box.  The other end will be the open top of the bag.   The ribbon in this photo(box on right) was simply curled on a pair of scissors quite a few times and then glued down to the box.

Next, we have regular paper.  The three that kind of match are pieces cut from a regular sheet of wrapping paper.  It was striped and one of the stripes, the red one, was wide enough to wrap a small box...Inspect the rolls before you buy them sometimes they are striped like this and sometimes the background behind the larger illustrations are patterned.

The red and white one at the right is simply quarter inch Joe Hermes wallpaper.

The left front one is decorated with some of that self stick silver paper trim.  The other one in front is again, just coiled on scissors.

This last bunch is paper samples from the old Current Card catalogs from the eighties.

They used to be quite generous with their photos of papers and cards that they were selling.

I haven't looked yet, but I imagine that you could find similar images on the net, to print and use.

The cards were samples from the same catalog and I just attached them to some scrap booking card stock.

Now about those fuzzy pompom type bows on the packages....I took my tweezers and twisted the end of some of the metallic chenille stems in a circle and kept twisting until I got the size I wanted and cut them off.  It helps to cut a bit of the fringe from the bottom before gluing on the package.

There you have it.  No bow maker and no fancy paper. I used regular Elmer's white glue to put everything together.  Now it's your turn.  I have to go hide all of the presents before Tessie and Zar get a hold of them....I don't want to do it all over again.

See you tomorrow.