Holiday Paper Wrap Up Kick Off

Happy December to you! In order to celebrate this celebration-packed month, I’m thrilled to be kicking off a brand new holiday series here on the blog. Today marks the beginning of my Holiday Paper Wrap Up—8 DIY tips and tricks for getting your gifts in tip top shape, using everything from yarn and bells, to Instagram print outs and stamps as embellishments.

I’ll be sharing a project every Monday, Wednesday and Friday now through Christmas week, so grab your double sided tape and creativity—it’s going to be one festive ride. UPDATE: See below for the full linked list of tutorials!

1. DIY wooden ornament gift box topper
2. DIY Sharpie box gift box topper
3. Pom-pom gift box topper
4. DIY Instagram photo gift tag
5. DIY Christmas or Hanukkah calligraphy stamped gift tag
6. DIY felt holly gift box embellishment
7. DIY jingle bell gift box topper
8. DIY fabric gift box wrapping

First things first, though. To guarantee that we hit the crafting table with confidence, let’s talk wrapping 101. To school us on this perfectionist’s art, I asked my sister to give us a complete run through on the steps. As a past president’s office intern at Colonial Williamsburg, she has hours and hours of donor gift wrapping experience, and typically shoos all of us away from her wrapping station thanks to our subpar skills. Happily though, the process isn’t tricky at all to master. Here’s how.

First, lay your wrapping paper on a cutting mat and use a straight edge and razor blade to cut the paper to size. Then set your box on the paper and fold the paper up and over the sides, making soft creases at each of the corners. Once all of your edges are creased, set the box aside again and use your fingertips to sharply fold and crease all of your edges.

Next, grab your box once more and place it inside the creased paper. Add a length of double sided tape to one of the outside ends of your paper and then press it to the box. Then add another length of double sided tape to the other outside edge of the paper and press that to the box. Ideally, you want this end to butt right up to one of the edges of the box so that no visible seams end up on one of the planes, so you may need to trim to suit before taping.

Now for the corners. Start by gently running your fingertip over the edge of the box’s end and slowly move down the length of the box’s edge. This will cause the paper to naturally fold inward. After running your fingertip down the entire edge of the box, the paper will naturally crease. Help it along with your fingertips and then add a length of double sided tape before pressing the fold flat to the box. Then, turn the box over onto the next flat plane and repeat the process until all four edges have been folded over and taped to the box’s surface. Finish by repeating the steps on the opposite open end of the box.

And that’s it! Special thanks to Minted for inviting me to try out their personalized wrapping paper for this holiday campaign. I can’t wait for my family to see the pretty patterns I chose and the little surprise of seeing our last name printed right on the paper itself. It’s the little things, am I right?

P.S. The 14 Days of Love holiday season giveaway event is going strong! Click through to Make+Haus for your chance to win $150 to Blurb, to Design Improvised to enter the $150 Home Decorator’s giveaway and to  Handmade Mood for a Kate Spade NY New Years Planning Pack.