DIY Gift wrapping....

 ....creating unique wrapping paper...

Hopefully, like me, you have all your gifts sorted by now...

As much as I would've liked to have made all my friends and family's gifts myself, a big part of this years gifts are in form of gift vouchers (as requested)...

I guess it's a sign of the times we live in....people are struggling for money, and receiving gift vouchers for Christmas, is the only way you can treat yourself to what you really, really want...

But lets face it: An envelope with a gift voucher is not the most exciting thing to give....or to receive..

So in order to make my gifts a little more special, this year I've, in addition to the gift vouchers, got everyone a little something (silly and inexpensive), just so I could gift wrap the presents...

Because a beautifully wrapped present really shows that you care....

So I decided to make an extra effort with my gift-wrap:

I've stamped my own design wrapping paper and tags....and I spent some extra time in making each present a thing of beauty...and saved myself some money in the process...

 

In today's post I want to show you how I did it...

First I made some easy and cheap unique stamps to customise my wrapping paper with..

Buying designer stamps can get quite expensive, so I've come up with a way to make your own ...for just a few pounds....and with bonus left overs...

On a recent trip to Hobby craft, looking for some festive stamps , I came across these pretty wooden decorative shapes, and I realized that they would be perfect for making my own stamps with.

 There are lots of designs to choose from, and for only 50pence to £1.50 for a pack of 6, you'll have some left after making these stamps to decorate your presents with as well....I chose some pretty birds, some stars and some snow flakes for mine, then I simply glued them onto some cardboard coasters.....

When the glue was dry, I used a foam paint roller to roller on some white acrylic paint before stamping my designs onto some brown parcel paper (you can pick up a large roll of this at your local post office for a few pounds)...

I also used some of this genius coloured parcel paper from Tiger...It has a different colour on each side, and is good value for money  for £2 a roll...and printed my designs onto...making several rolls of  my own unique design wrapping paper in a variety of colours...

I made some easy matching gift tags, by printing my designs onto some brown luggage tags that I picked up cheap from the post office...

 

The result is a whole range of unique gift wrap....

With my presents all wrapped up, I dug out my plethora of ribbons, bakers twine and decorative accessories: I used Christmas tree decorations, like bells and baubles,  as well as my left over wooden decorative shapes...  

Some I kept quite plain, with just bakers twine and the matching gift tags and decorative wooden shapes to the wrapping paper....Others, I got a bit more creative with: I used washi tape, greenery, snowflake decorations (From my etsy shop),mushroom baubles and pretty clip-on birdies (both from Tiger)....

I took the care to make each present as individual and beautiful as the person receiving it...

....it no longer matters if they just contain a silly something with a gift voucher...

These presents are sure to wow come Christmas...

The vintage-looking wrapping paper is also from tiger, and see how I made the matching vintage gift tags in this post.

I love how these turned out...

What do you think?

Do you make your presents look amazing??

Please share if you have any great wrapping tips of your own!

Next week I will be back with some easy Christmas decorating ideas, and I will be talking about the history of the Christmas tree...

Thanks for popping by,

xxx

June