More Brown Paper Wrapping Ideas

I had fun Christmas Eve staying up and doing the last minute wrapping.  Hubby helped me for a little while, and then went off to bed while I finished up the embellishments.  It did take a little longer than if I'd just slapped some regular Christmas paper on them...but not much longer.

I had a box of scraps I'd been saving from the Christmas gifts I'd made, some Christmas fabric that a family member gave me last year, and some other buttons and yarn...oh...and a glue gun...which I've decided is essential if you're going to do scrappy wrapping with brown paper.

(I have to give credit to Rebecca of Older and Wisor for introducing me to Scrappy Wrapping and the idea of using a glue gun to wrap gifts.  She is a gift wrapping genius.)

No step-by-steps for these...but I'll give you a quick run down.

My favorite one first...The Bunting Wrap.

This would work great with other colors for any occasion.  All I did was cut out triangles...I didn't even worry about them being exactly the same.  Put a stripe of glue across with the glue gun and throw down the triangles.

Sweet Pea had fun pulling at the flags before opening her gift.

And it went with the sweet Bird and Bunting Quilt that was wrapped up inside.  Click here for the directions and template.

Little Brother got a solar system quilt (again...more details to come).  I had some long scraps from trimming the edges as I prepared it for quilting, so I just tacked the end on the back with the glue gun and wrapped it around a few times.

Another long thin scrap became a bow after I wrapped it back and forth 5 or 6 time, added a few contrasting scraps, and tied it in the middle.  Then I glued the bow on with the glue gun.

He loved his Solar System Quilt...which I'll have more details as well as the templates available for in a week or so.

The scraps I had from trimming Firecracker's quilts weren't quite as long, but I loved the patchwork look of them, so they're slightly shorter strips which are each secured with the glue gun on the back.  The bow was made the same way as above and glued on.

She loved that the wrapping matched what was inside (details for this quilt coming soon)...

I've seen quite a few string wraps on brown bag packages, so I thought I'd try a few of those on the smaller gifts.  I secured with the glue gun on the back, wrapped, and then glued the end again.  I also found it helpful to include a spot of glue when I switched directions with the string.

Firecracker's main "toy" gift this year was a kid-camera.  So when I wrapped that one up,  I added a couple of photos to the outside and tied it up with some yarn.  My kids always LOVE photos, so this is a great wrap option, even if the gift isn't a camera.

I've also had a lot of fun with these scrappy button bows.  I glue strips around the package to look like ribbon.  Then I just use several strips...sometimes all the same fabric, sometimes different fabrics, and tie them in the middle with another scrap.  If them seem like they need a little more at that point, I glue a few craft buttons over the knot.

 

Sweet Pea noticed her pink and purple buttons immediately, because those are her favorite colors.

Or even just a simple string tied around the brown paper is charming.  Yarn like this always makes me think of my Nana...because her gifts are always wrapped simply with yarn...usually red.

And they looked lovely under the tree.  It was obvious to the kids right off which ones were from Mom and Dad and which ones were from the other important people in their lives.

I've still got plenty of brown paper left...and I'm looking forward to experimenting some more during the year.

You also might want to check out my previous post about brown paper wrapping that is especially Mail Friendly.

Or this tutorial on how to use beads and wire as embellishment on smaller packages.

And my sister Katie at The Red Kitchen has some other fun ideas with brown paper.  You really should click over and see her kitty cat package...