Making Unique and Easy Artist Gift Wrap

 

Funky wrapped gift for my friend's birthday

When I finally finish making something by hand for a friend, I dread having to wrap it. Usually, I hate wrapping gifts. All the work went into making the present so I just want to be done. But one day last week I needed to wrap something and found a small painting I had done on a very old page from a German hymnal.

 

Fun and funky, highly original gift wrap.

So I wrapped the handmade item in tissue, taped the painting to another hymnal page, tied it all up with kitchen twine along with a metal tag, and Voila! Here's what I did...

 

My main tool for these pages below were pastels. I used super cheap but boldly pigmented Porfolios (available at Staples) and more expensive and lovely Caran d'ache (available online or in art supply stores).

 

What to draw? My cat walked by so I quickly doodled hert on the page and colored it in with pastels.

Could not be easier!

 

You can draw stripes, hearts, or stars if you want a more simple design. It's up to you. You could also draw something specific to the gift recipient like robots for a little boy, an angel at Christmas, and so on.

 

And if your gift is handmade with love, you could trace your hand and make that the central image. Trace your kid's hand if the gift is for Grandma.

She would love that!

 

I added a metal tag to a couple of these gifts. I used sheet brass, cut it out with my shears, filed the edges and then used this awesome metal punch to make a hole in it to hang on the wrapped gift.

I love this little metal punch. You use it just like a regular hole punch that you use for paper. I've tried the metal punch that is a screw punch where you turn and turn that metal bar. Bleh. This one is so much faster! I got it at Amazon.com!

 

I cannot find my Letter V metal stamp so I was happy to use Letter U, upside down Letter A, and upside down Number 4 as stand-ins. Afterall, love doesn't care what it looks like.

You can get a great set of letter/number metal stamps at Harbor Freight for only $10.

 

"Love You Sweet Friend"

If you don't want to mess with metal, you can make a super cute little tag with an old photo. I have lots of old black and white photos from the flea market. I use them frequently on gifts and cards. First I wrote right on top of the picture with a white paint pen from Sharpie. Once dry I wrote on top of that with a pink Sharpie.

I think she is precious sitting there playing. Perfect for a birthday girl!

And if your photo is particulary special to you, make a photo copy and use that as your tag. If you have a photo of the person you are giving the gift to, make a copy of it and doll it up as the tag.

Aren't these pretty? Turquoise crosses with big, old rhinestone drops made for my friend. They are getting the fun wrap treatment.

I put these in bubble wrap, keeping them fairly flat, then taped the edges of the hymnal papers together.

Next up, I found a fun little necklace my kids got at a birthday party. It's a little plastic heart full of soap bubbles to blow. It will make a great bow!

 

Love, love, love YOU

Think outside the box and use what you have on hand. Turn something ordinary like old photos and book pages into your own one of a kind orginal wrap!

This is the perfect size to put in a bubble mailer and pop in the post. Wouldn't this be a fun package to get in your mail box?

Comments

[Fonda]

I love this idea! Like you, I've usually made the gift and then I get tired at the wrapping stage...lol. Perfect!