You can do so much more with a gift than simply wrap it in pretty paper. Just ask blogger and illustrator Lisa Manuels, who used to organize gift wrapping workshops. In this blog we share a few of her tips and tricks for making your gifts truly memorable.
Decorating paper
There are all kinds of ‘ready-made’ gift wraps available, not just in a variety of colorways, but also with different prints on them. Yet it is also rather nice to decorate and personalize the paper yourself. Here are a few ways:
DIY stamps
Stamps make plain brown or white paper immediately unique. And making them yourself is even more fun. Potato stamps do not last for very long—rubber and foam work better. You can use a pencil with an eraser on the top to stamp dots, or cut out a triangle with a knife. You can also cut out simple shapes from foam, like triangles, houses, bows, hearts or circles. Use some double-sided tape to stick them to a wooden block of equal size (from a pack of building blocks, for example), and stamp with ink or with paint.
Masking tape
Stick someone’s name, initial or age onto the gift. Or cross the tape around the package as if it is a ribbon. You can make all different kinds of shapes, like a house, heart or geometric shape. If you cut the tape out into small triangles, you have a flag garland.
Stickers
Create a pretty pattern with simple round stickers or 3D stickers.
Drawings
Draw a pretty pattern or geometric shape with a fine liner. You really don’t have to be a wonderful artist to do this, a few dots or lines are sufficient. Or write over the whole paper with words or letters.
- In Issue 25 you can read more tips & tricks for gift wrapping ánd we included some pretty gift wrapping paper for you to use.
Text and photography Lisa Manuels
