All Wrapped Up!

Ok the title is slightly misleading... It's not exactly "all" wrapped up but I've started....

I had to make a start last night as a friend and I our exchanging gifts tomorrow. I started with a box (I'm such a perfectionist and much prefer wrapping boxes!), wrapped the present in tissue paper but I felt it need something more....

I remembered a cd of vintage Christmas images I'd brought off eBay and hadn't used yet and this was the perfect opportunity. I printed an image of 2 friends... tied inside the box and added a wish ticket... much better.

The box I was using wasn't "Christmassy" so I decided i needed to add a bit more decor so printed off some more images and stuck them to the lid....if I'd had more time and thought about it more I probably would've covered the whole box in the images!

I then simply wrapped in brown paper and tied red ribbon around it, a Santa tag and it was complete... Voila!

I have wanted to use brown paper and red ribbons for my Christmas wrapping for some time but worry that those who don't share my "vintage" love won't quite understand it but seeing it put together I don't see how anyone could fail to not love how it looks.

Next up with my brother and his wife's stocking gifts. They both love gingerbread men (and ladies!) and when I saw this stocking on a shopping trip back in August (!) I saw a themed gift coming on.

I started with the gingerbread men candles which I found in a shop in the sale! Perfect start. Next was an eBay search "vintage + gingerbread" and I found the little fella you can just see in the picture, a Wade Whimsy.

More eBay searches led me to the story book my brother and I had as a child. A christmas tree decoration and some shaped playing cards and I was almost there. I finished up with some gingerbread gentlemen & ladies to enjoy with seasonal tea.

Unfortunately I was slightly ambitious thinking this would all get inside the stocking so I pulled out one of my red giftbags.... begun a google image search (ladies where do you find your images from?). I managed to find the perfect one and stuck it on the bag, a complimenting gift tag and it was complete....

Another successful experiment was white paper. I was inspired whilst walking round IKEA last week and spotted a roll of white drawing paper for an artists table. I already had the ribbon (brought in anticipation of Christmas) from a car boot sale. Due to the thickness of the ribbon I couldn't tie a proper bow but I quite like how the knot looks.

Next was some DVDs for my parents. I don't know about you but I love the surprise on peoples faces when they don't know what something is and unfortunately anyone can recognise a DVD shaped gift. It is a running joke with my father especially whenever the gift is handed over to say "and I wonder what this is"!

To tackle this problem I thought I'd wrap them seperately but hide inside a giftbag to at least leave guessing till the moment of opening.

I printed an image from my Christmas cd and stuck to another red giftbag, you can also see the tag I made for my mum in the picture.

More brown paper and red ribbon,

As I was going along I thought that the bag just didn't look finished... I picked up the green ribbon and trimmed along the edges of the bag... now it's finished.

Here are the final gifts for my parents,

I was really pleased with my efforts, as always I have an idea in my head and until I start I'm never quite sure how I want something to look or exactly how I'm going to do it but isn't that the fun of crafting?

If you could've seen the mess I created along the way, I wrapped on the landing.... I was printing of pictures and picking giftbags from one room.....cutting and pasting on my bed in my bedroom but it was definitely worth the effort and now I know where I'm going with my giftwrap I can't wait to tackle some more tomorrow, I'll be sure to share any new ideas I come up with.