Apologies if you’re after a round up of places to buy amazing paper to wrap your pressies. I’m afraid I can’t help you there as so far I’ve been mightily unsuccessful. Everything feels a bit ‘samey’ this year. Instead I’ve decided to stick with the old faithful and will be wrapping all my gifts in brown kraft paper and then adding neon pink string and a hot pink wax seal.
If you are having the same conundrum hopefully these ideas will inspire you to put a more creative topper on your presents.
Contrasting Trim
Here I’ve just added a slim strip of paper to the package and secured with glue. This is a great idea if you have some more pricey paper or just a slither of an old favourite. The musical note paper shown was leftover from an Ikea roll. Our intrepid cake baker, Charlotte showed me this amazing chalkboard paper from Not on The High Street. At £3.95 for a couple of sheets it’s not cheap but used in the way mentioned above you can make an impact and it’ll go far further. Finish off with a few ribbons.
Bakers Twine
Bakers Twine and Jute String is cheap as chips these days and you can buy it for as little as 10p a metre on eBay.
Don’t be stingy with this one, either tie in a bow or wrap round in a haphazard fashion for a quirky look. The numbered tags are available from Ikea.
Instagram Prints
I raided my stash of instagram prints to create an unusual tag. Add a snap of you and the recipient and there’s no need to even take the lid of a pen.
Greenery
I used eucalyptus on my pressie but you could also use dried leaves, ivy or a tiny bough of fir. Let loose in your garden and who knows what herbage and leafage might end up on your gifts.
Moving away from the natural, organic look and over to the glam I urge you to raid your local £1 and cheapie shops. When I say raid, I mean proceed nicely to the checkout.
Dots
The cream and gold spotty paper was a bargain from Sainsbury’s. I topped with sequin trim and jazzed up a plain luggage tag with gold rhinestone style letters from the 99p store.
Chevrons
This paper has to be my most favourite ever. It was from Home Sense last year and is luxuriously thick. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me it was actually meant to be a roll for lining your drawers. Here I used gold glitter ribbon and secured the tag in place with a mini gold peg (from Poundland). This makes a stylish alternative to a traditional sticky bow and is less likely to fall off the present.
Stripes
After teasing you with a paper you can no longer buy, I want to assure you that you are able to get this striped paper. I simply took a white sheet of paper and drew lines across with a bronze sharpie. A gold sequin disco bauble (from a pack from the 99p store) was secured in place with adhesive glitter ribbon.
Do you have a ‘scheme’ for gift wrapping? What have you gone for this year and have you had any luck finding paper?
Beautiful! Love love love!!
Aww thanks Marine x
Yay! I’ve been excited for this post, and you have not let us down Lauren! Love them all. Especially the sainsburys one. I’m going for a red silver and white theme which sounds odd but I think should work. My tags are all plain and I’ve bought a stamp with ‘Nadolig Llawen’ (Happy Christmas in Welsh) on it that I’m going to stamp on them. This all sounds random now I write it down. But the stuff does all look pretty. I’m going to do all my wrapping this Sunday after we put the tree up with Prosecco in hand and a Christmas film on 🙂 x
Hand stamping is such a good idea Sian. I love your colour scheme too.
Your Sunday sounds fabulous. Enjoy! x
Oh I so want that Chevron paper. Boo. Love the sharpie idea though. Wrapping is my favourite part of Xmas. I’m normally a Kraft paper fan but have actually gone for a mix of your two themes this year. Kraft paper with gold stags on (a bargain from wilko) and then gorgeous white and gold scallopped paper from the cute interiors shop in my village. Then finishing with a mixture of ribbons, sequins, baubles and little bags of homemade sweets. May use your little peg idea too I think. Need to get wrapping now. xx p.s. if you are going for Kraft and neon pink check out the amazing paperchase non xmas paper. Kraft with neon pink or neon yellow dots. Its fab! x
Charlotte – was just about to mention the Paperchase paper!
It’s fab isn’t it!
So my theme this year is neon! I have the aforementioned kraft wrap with neon spots & also a roll of plain craft. I also picked up 2 packs of awesome neon trim from Paperchase. Lauren, where did you get your neon pink string from? Not sure the Paperchase packs will last more than a few prezzies!!
Having said all of the above – I did just wrap all the presents going to the US in traditional red & white (brown kraft, red string & then a little ribbon made from some Merry Christmas ribbon)
Sometimes nothing beats a cute red & white colour scheme!
Yey for neon! I was going to get this one but worried it might have a bit of a plastic sheen? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-3-PLY-50M-POLYPROPYLENE-TWINE-ON-REVOLVING-HANDLE-GARDEN-DIY-NEON-PINK-/290721154402?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item43b054c562.
Ooooo you’ve reminded me I have green version of this. Will have to look at it tonight to see if it is too shiny!
Have you seen this wool? Looks quite bright & would be used to make pom-poms to decorate present with!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Costumes-Decoration-Knitting-Coloured-Blacklight/dp/B009EZY698/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417710706&sr=8-1&keywords=neon+string
The wool is ace! x
The paperchase paper is fabulous!
Adding homemade sweets is such a lovely touch Charlotte x
I love gift wrap! Normally I use brown craft paper with colorful bakers twine. This year I have bought some Scandi inspired paper and am matching it with red bakers twine and Nordic print tags. My Christmas tree scheme is a red and white Scandi theme, so hopefully the pressies will look lovely under it. 🙂
You can’t get more Christmassy than red and white, especially with a scandi touch. Where did you get your paper from?
Ooooo I love the polka dots! I use kraft paper every year but just change the accessories. This year it’s twine, a dried leaf with flecks of gold leaf and a salt dough tag. I love gift wrapping, I find it quite therapeutic and love seeing them all sitting pretty in an old wooden wine crate under the tree. I have a Pinterest board dedicated to it especially for these reasons! x
This sounds so beautiful Sian. Are you doing the flecks of gold leaf yourself or buying the leaves already done? x
Thank you! Doing it myself – with leaves picked up from Greenwich Park. My husband rolls his eyes but at least it saves some pennies when we’re already buying lots of other bits and bobs. x
My sister did something similar last year and it looked so chic – very effective x
Picking wrapping paper is my favourite part of Christmas prep! I’ve never gone down the Kraft paper route – I normally luck out with some lovely M&S wrapping paper instead, but it’s always appealed to me if I don’t find anything suitable.
In fact, I was in M&S today and had a quick look – nothing jumped out at me until I saw ones covered in little penguins! Cheesy I know, but they looked so adorable lol.
I’m intrigued to know everyone’s wrapping technique… Floor? Standing? Sitting at a table? Every year I end up spread out on the living room floor, lose the sellotape multiple times and have to fend off an over-helpful cat!
Haha Jo, I opt for the standing at table technique!
Same here… I use kraft paper every year and find various things to decorate it with. This year, I’ll be using this fab copper foil tape made by designer/makers Tom Pigeon. My mates little shop sells it and I’m in love! http://pencilmeinshop.bigcartel.com/product/copper-tape
I’m toying with making little chalkboard gift tags too but it might be overkill.
Jo… on the floor and covered in cat hair. ALWAYS. xx
Foil tape is lush Karen. Lovely shop too x
I must be your wrapping paper twin. I’ve done mine already…almost the very same as this! Kraft paper and some lovely kraft with white christmas trees I got in the Jan sales from paperchase last year… which I’ve teamed with neon ribbon (I’ve colour coded mine for the children so the babies are all neon pink but I’ve blue, orange, yellow and purple too). Then the other wrapping is this very spotty sainsburys paper. They look good together. It was a bargain at 3 for 2 and too pretty to leave under the conveyor belt.
Chalk board paper is dead easy to make using the chalk board paint and a mini roller. I keep a small tub in the kitchen cupboard and use it loads of make up signs and cards for things. It makes a nice wrap on its own with a chalk pen… good for a men’s pressie that’s a bit different.
You are so organised Amanda!
Very, very good idea to make your own chalkboard paper. I will have to give this a whirl.
Oh my goodness I love you all! I thought I was a little bit mental in my extreme love of wrapping, picking a theme every year, etc. Kraft paper is always my backup with reds and whites but I’ve seen so many lovely ways of jazzing it up this year that I want to try. My only problem now is finding all the right bits – I live in Abu Dhabi and they don’t take Christmas quite so seriously over here!
Oh no Kimberley, hopefully Paperchase ship to the Emirates!
I recently wrapped up advent presents for my husband in brown paper, different coloured curling ribbon from ikea with tags made from different coloured paper and glitter pens, again all different colours. The combination of all the different colours against the plain paper worked really well.
I was thinking that I would buy more paper to wrap up my Christmas presents but now I’m going to raid our current stash of paper and ribbon. We have at least one drawer full of the stuff as I can’t bear to throw out decent bits of paper from presents I receive. I love being creative and this will help me save some money too.
Hi Sarah, your advent presents sound brilliant. Brown paper is so versatile isn’t it – it can be modern or rustic depending on how you combine it.
These look beautiful! I think I need to dedicate a lot more time to wrapping my presents this year after seeing this. I love the simplicity of kraft paper when doing mine but may need to buy some more extras to jazz it up a bit xx
Hi Tracey, there seems to be more exciting things to put on the finished pressie than to actually wrap it in! x