A Christmas Wrap

The good news is... my camera still works.
The bad news is... I can't upload pictures.

So in the meantime, instead of showing you what I've been doing, I'm left showing you what others are doing (which might be even better!). Once the camera is up and running again, I'll upload my own pictures. Until then...

I'm no ace wrapper. In fact, I still don't think I really know what I'm doing. (I just throw a lot of tape on it and hope it makes it to Christmas.) So for this holiday-wrapping season, a few ideas to make your presents picture perfect, even if you struggle to find the tape, like me.

Yarn Wrapping from Martha Stewart

How fun would this be! You just need plain paper in any color (which I keep on hand all year because it's always perfect no matter the occasion) and yarn (which I also have lots of from my many failed attempts at knitting).

Present Perfect Tip: Choose a color of ribbon to represent each member of your family. When you're decorating the gift, be sure you use ribbon that corresponds with the gift's recipient. That way, on Christmas morning, your sister will know she gets all the presents with purple yarn and dad all the gifts with green.

Fabric Wrapping from Better Homes and Gardens

In recent years, I've begun noticing a (good) trend toward reusable and eco-friendly wrapping. I mean, think about it: In my family, we always end up throwing away an entire garbage bag (or three) of wrapping paper, boxes, bows, etc. And while this idea from Better Homes and Gardens, isn't as eco-friendly as, say, furoshiki, the Japanese tradition of wrapping presents in reusable cloth (like scarves or blankets), it's still a lot greener than paper. Just keep all the fabric for the next year and use it again!

Splash of Color from Adrienne Wong, printmaker and graphic designer, New York City (via Country Living)

I know what you're thinking: "No way!" But it's only crayons!!! The designer placed shavings of crayons between sheets of tissue paper (three on top and three on bottom) and ironed until they melted. How cool is that??? Now for the cluster of tissue dahlias? I dunno... That might not be anything I can do.

Snowman Box Wrap from Roree over at A House of Cards

1) This woman is amazing. And 2) My mom's Christmas gift (shhhh...) is going to enable me to make a lot of these cool things Roree made for this Snowman Box Wrap. If you don't have a Cricut or something like it, many scrapbooking stores and hobby stores have die-cuts that will make something like this possible. (In fact, how cute are these snowmen and snowflakes from Cosmocraze on Etsy???)


This package is just layers of cut-out paper in different styles with a die-cut snowman on top. Looks like she wrapped the gift in white paper, taped around the box with a panel of paper and then put the snowman decoration on top. (You know, this is kind of like a bigger, more intricate version of my Christmas cards.) I love it!