How-Tuesday: Upcycled Gift Wrap

Published on Dec 13, 2011 in Make

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(Music by I’m From Barcelona)

Last week we showed you how to package your gifts in new and fun geometric shapes. For this week’s How-Tuesday, we’re returning to a traditional style of gift wrapping, but with a modern, upcycled twist. All of the materials you’ll need for this how-to are readily available around the house, so if you’re in a pinch and need to wrap a gift quickly, give this method a try!

Decorative Wrapping Paper

Materials:

Paper shopping bag
Scissors
Masking tape
Wine bottle cork (rubber cork preferred)
Utility knife (please note that using a utility knife in this project is not advised for children).
Ink pad, household paint, or correction fluid

Directions:

To make a homemade rubber stamp, take one end of your cork and make slight incisions with your utility knife around its edge. For a star/snowflake-like pattern, cut 3 to 4 triangle shapes on the edges of your stamp. Remove excess rubber/cork from your design so your pattern is raised a bit from the rest of the cork.
Lay your paper shopping bag flat and cut as big a rectangle as you can out of one side. Remove shopping handle if there is one.
Place the clean side of your paper up (the side without any logos) and decorate with your rubber stamp and ink pad. Let dry.
After the paper is fully dry, place the newly decorated surface face-down.
Place gift box upside down on top of your paper. Make sure there is enough paper to cover the box — this can be done by pulling two sides of the paper over the box to meet in the middle. You want a little excess paper in the center to assure that your box is entirely covered. Tape the center down with a piece of masking tape.*
You’ve essentially created a paper tunnel around your gift box. The flaps of paper on either end of your box should not be too long. You can gauge what is an appropriate length by folding one side down to meet the bottom — it should almost reach the bottom, but never should be longer (this makes it very difficult to wrap). Cut excess paper until you have desired length.
Take one side and fold the top part of your flap down, push the corners in to meet the box and crease the newly formed triangle-shaped flaps to a crisp fold. Fold these triangle flaps in and crease again, creating one triangle shape. Fold up and tape down flap. Repeat on the other side of your gift.

*For a more decorative tape effect, cut your masking tape strips 2 to 3 inches in length. With your scissors, you can slightly fold each end in half and snip the end off at an angle toward you (it will look like you are cutting off a triangle). Open up ends carefully and repeat to the other side of your piece of tape.

Foil Topper

Materials:

Foil
Scissors
Stapler

Directions:

Rip off 6″ of foil from the roll and cut into 2″ strips lengthwise.
Fold each piece in half lengthwise and smooth flat with your fingers to create 1″ strips.
Cut each strip into thirds and place over one another into a star-like pattern. Staple the center to hold in place.
To fringe the ends of each piece with your scissors, cut each flap into little slivers. Fluff up for a fun bow effect or leave flat for snowflake/star shape. Add a little loop of tape to the bottom of your topper and adhere to your gift box. Voila!