Creative Gift-wrapping

Following on from my last post on creating some Graffiti Giftwrap, I thought I’d look at a few more ideas for some creative gift-wrapping with kids. Of course there are loads of ways you can create gift wrap. The following are just a few ideas:

• Last year we made decorative paste papers for gift wrapping,

• We also had a go last year at using cookie cutters to stamp out decorative papers and cards. This can also look good on a standard brown packaging paper background, especially if you use some gold paint. There are lots of seasonal cookie cutters about such as simple stars and Christmas trees, and this makes a really easy activity for young children to do.

• Children’s hand and foot prints can also make a great wrapping paper with a personal touch. Or why not try printing using just one finger to make a ‘dotty’ paper.

• You can print with all kinds of different objects to create a decorative result – vegetables can be surprisingly effective for this. I can recommend Traci Bunker’s book Print and Stamp Lab which I found especially inspirational – it’s full of fantastic ideas for creating decorative prints on paper.

• For smaller presents, if you find yourself drowning in children’s artwork, why not use some of it to wrap a present by itself – it’s a great way of wrapping presents for grandparents and other relatives.

• Create some doodle wrapping paper by wrapping a present with plain paper, and let the kids get to work decorating it with drawings and doodles using coloured and metallic pens.

Of course giftwrap isn’t just about wrapping paper, and sometimes you might want to use a giftbag  – especially if you are giving several small wrapped gifts. Plain bags can be decorated by children in just the same way as paper, and are a much nicer and more personal way of presenting a gift than using the mass-produced gift bags which are available.

However if you want a small gift bag, you could try making one yourself using a piece of your child’s artwork. I haven’t yet tried this myself, but intend to do so, as there are lots of tutorials for it on the internet. You will need to start with artwork on an A3 size of paper if you want to create a small bag.

Having wrapped your present, don’t forget the gift tags and bows. In one of my earliest posts I did a feature on using children’s artwork to create gift tags and cards.

And I found this tutorial on Pinterest for making decorative gift bows using young children’s scribbles.