Re: Holiday Presents from The Heart
Personalized gift wrap makes even a small gift seem special 
10 Gift Wrapping Ideas
[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]
Make your holiday present stand[/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
out from the others. Try these[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1][FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
creative ideas.[/FONT][/SIZE]
- For an elegant package start with gold foil wrapping paper. Set off the gold with a fabulous topper made of small evergreen twigs and holly berries. You may even want to embellish a 2" grapevine wreath or tie in miniature pinecones. Place your arrangement in a large box and lightly spray with artificial snow or glitter. Next tie your topper onto your package with elegant burgundy ribbon. Don't like gold foil? Use heavy tin foil instead!
- Giving a cookbook to someone for Christmas? Wrap it in a tea towel. Tie your package up with colorful ribbon and add some measuring spoons to the bow. Practically any kitchen gift can be wrapped in tea towels, dish cloths, table clothes or decorative tins.
- Heavy kitchen foil can be used to wrap a gift in. You can either wrap the gift straight in the foil, or you can scrunch the foil up to create an interesting effect and then wrap the gift. Add some green, red, or gold ribbon. Why not tie a personalized Christmas Ornament to the bow!
- Buy ordinary brown wrapping paper (or use clean paper grocery bags), using a festive rubber stamp, stamp all over the non-shiny side with black ink. Then using a metallic pen (red, green, gold, silver, purple or blue), add little squiggles. Tie with metallic ribbon.
- Tie tinsel around a package instead of ribbon. You can use raffia too. If you want a natural look to your gift, use string.
- Pack Christmas baking presents in decorative tins you can purchase at the dollar store. Line the tins with waxed paper, add your baking, put on the lid and tie it up with pretty ribbon. How about adding a recipe card and measuring spoons to the bow!
- Give your gift an antique look. Use old books of poetry, sheet music or beautiful illustrations from resources that are no longer needed. Carefully separated pages from their binding, to wrap your tiny treasures in.
- Use tulle when you can. Buy your tulle either in yardage's or ribbons in various colors (tulle is much cheaper than regular wrapping paper). To wrap with tulle simple place item or items in the center of a cut piece large enough to cover all items with approx. 5”–6” as selvage. Gather all the fabric to the top and tie with a scrap piece of tulle or ribbon. Remember that you will be able to see through the tulle. But that's OK!
- Bag it. Purchase decorative bags at the dollar store. Or, take a brown grocery bag, decorate it with rubber stamping, paints, stickers or pasted pictures. Tie various lengths of colorful ribbon to the handle to close the bag.
- Put it in a basket or box. The dollar stores have a great selection of pretty holiday baskets and decorative trinket boxes. All you need is a little see through wrapping and a colorful bow with wisps of ribbons hanging down.
http://www.youthonline.ca/christmas/giftwrappingideas.shtml
More ideas...
Traditional, store-bought wrapping paper can be very lovely, but wrapping paper that you embellish yourself adds a truly special touch to any gift package.
Step 1. Use brown or white kraft or butcher paper to wrap your gift. Place a sheet of kraft paper onto a flat work surface. Embellish the paper using rubber or sponge decorative stamps, with a stamp pad or paint from a shallow tray. Keep stamped designs evenly spaced, and allow paint to dry thoroughly before using the paper to wrap a gift.
Step. Use decorative stamps on plain brown or white boxes. Simply decorate the box with the stamped design of your choice. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly and decorate the box with ribbon and a bow.
Step 3. Let your children draw pictures on white kraft or butcher paper using crayons or colorful markers. They can use this paper to wrap their own gifts to friends and family.
Step 4. Recycle plain or colorful gift tissue paper and use it to wrap a gift. Decorate tissue paper with silver or gold stamped designs and tie it off with a matching metallic ribbon. Use this option for small, delicate gifts.
Step 5. Use stamps to decorate the plain, white tissue paper used in most shirt boxes.
Step 6. Use fabric to wrap your gifts instead of paper. You can find inexpensive fabric scraps in the remnant bins of most fabric stores. Try wrapping winter holiday gifts in velvet or velour. Use coordinating metallic ribbon to embellish your packages.
Step 7. Wrap your gift in a fabric that serves as a gift itself. For instance, use scarves, towels, cloth napkins or tablecloths instead of wrapping paper.
