by Aisling Ashbery

Created on: July 26, 2010

You can make a gift extra special by tossing away that department store wrapping paper.  There are so many more creative ways to house that gift from the heart. Add a personal touch to your present with a few of these creative gift-wrapping ideas.

1. Handmade Paper

This is not as difficult as it sounds.  All you need is some brown craft/butcher paper, or even a paper bag that’s blank on one side.  Visit your craft store to get a few colors of acrylic paint.  Metallics look really sharp on the brown paper.  Paint a design on as much of the paper as you’d like to use.  This could be anything from a repetitive print of stars to a whole scene.  The important thing is just that you cover the paper stylishly, but the nice thing is that you don’t need to be an expert painter for it to look nice.  If you get a little sloppy, that just gives the paper a modern look. Once you’re done, you can wrap the present like normal.

2. Homemade Bows

Sure, store-bought bows are pretty, but a big beautiful handmade bow gives a really unique look to a present.  All you need are some old magazine pages and a stapler.  The coolest-looking bows are made from advertisements that have a lot of pictures, either bright or black-and-white (depending on the look you’re going for).  Avoiding text will help the bow look classy.  Cut the pages into strips of equal width the long way on the paper (so the strips are long as opposed to short).  Loop the ends of each strip to the middle and staple them there.  Then staple four or five strips together in the middle.  Lastly, loop one more strip so that it stands straight up, and staple it to the middle of the bow.  Voila!

3. Add a Charm

If you have a local bead store, you can likely find many cute beads and charms that aren’t too expensive.  If you don’t have a bead store near you, search rummage sales for old jewelry with interesting charms that you can take apart.  Tie a cloth ribbon around your gift for a trim, and string the beads/charm on the ends of the ribbon for a truly special touch.

4. Double a Scarf

If you have a somewhat awkwardly-shaped gift (like wine or a basket), make your wrapping double as a gift by buying a pretty scarf and tying your gift up in it.  Any hostess will appreciate such a beautifully wrapped gift!

When you open your mind to the possibilities, you can see that there are so many ways to make a gift special.  You may never use that department store wrapping paper again!

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