Christmas Decor 101: Presents!!

Alright so it's a bit of a stretch. But, when you think about it, wrapping is decorating the present. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. And we'll be ignoring that fact that it's been a week since Christmas... I've been celebrating the holidays and closing down the gallery, so I've been a bit busy.

I love wrapping presents, at all times of the year. At one point in my life, I had a seasonal job as a Christmas gift wrapper at a mall. Easily the worse job I've ever had, but I did take away some great techniques, and I still love wrapping presents. Now I just enjoy doing it on my own time with a bad movie on and a mug of tea at hand. I'm no the only one, clearly, as the lovely and charming Aunt Peaches will attest. I've tried to keep my paper and ribbon collection to a minimum to not have it take over more of my closet, so I have a lot of colours and themes that can be used for many occasions. I also try to optimize my paper and materials by having a theme every year for my presents.
Yes. I am that much of a dork. I've come to terms with this. Moving on.

A previous year's Christmas wrapping theme.

This is arguably the coolest wrapping paper I have. Not only was it found at Ikea, it's reversible. Oh yes. For this wrapping theme a few years ago, I spent an afternoon in front of the TV cutting out the fronds or petals of what became the floral decorations, and tacky glued them all down. The natural curve of the paper definitely helped here.

I'm also cheap. This is both handy and detrimental depending on the situation. I'm cheap because despite lusting over the beautiful paper from Anthropologie pictured below, I refuse to pay $12 for 3 sheets of paper that I have to get shipped to me.

*Swoon. Etc.

The bright side to this paper is that I can attempt to recreate it, in true DIYODS style! I found a fantastic tutorial ages ago on Eco Salon to make prints using a rolling pin. Done and done my friend.

So instead of using the foam shapes, I made lines with a glue gun on some craft paper. They kinda looked like bark lines on a tree.

In retrospect, what I should have done was wrap the craft paper around the rolling pin first, and then done the glue gunning. I also should have had a plastic thing to put the paint o and roll the pin through, rather than paper. The paper absorbed a lot of the paint before I could really roll the pin through it. 

The final turn out worked out fairly well once I had done a few practice rolls. Might do something in a brighter colour like the Anthroplogie paper next go round.

Merry late Christmas to all.

DIY Christmas wreath

So I gave a wee photo hint of the wreath I've made in the previous post. It's done now and with minimal burns from the glue gun! Win!

 Here's the process and finished product.

 First off, spend a few years collecting small ish boxes and desperately finding places to store them while waiting to do this project. I used predominantly some... medication boxes, chicken stock cube boxes and some cube boxes that held tiny lightbulbs. Also, start to swipe scraps of brown craft paper from work because you don't have the room for an entire roll of craft paper.

 Wrap all the boxes, either singularly or a few stacked together to have different sizes in said stolen craft paper. I did a test run with tape and the tape came off within days. Hot glue those suckers.

 I wasn't kidding. Do several boxes. 

 Find that unused ball of kitchen twine in the kitchen, and further wrap up the little packages.

 Using some old cardboard and a plate, make a ring shape for the backing of the wreath. Drawing in the chunk of the plate that's missing isn't entirely neccessary.

 Arrange the boxes in a pattern of your choice on the ring BEFORE GLUING THEM DOWN. Gluing each present down separately, add different layers to give some depth.

 While the glue is drying, enjoy your tea and Blackadder Goes Forth on DVD while the Gerbils occasionally scurry about. Also, add some extra hot glue to the back to ensure the presents stay on the backing. You can also add some wire to the back if you think it feels a bit flimsy, I found with all the presents glued together, it was pretty stiff.

And Bam! Hang that sucka' on the nail on the door that was left behind by the previous tenants. Y'all gotta wreath my friends.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I had bought some Christmas swags at Michael's since they were on sale recently, and I'm still on the fence about whether they work or not. I have a red frondy looking thing, green stalks with green berries and a random gold leafy-looking thing, not sure what you'd cal it. They're really pretty, but a little big, and/or too much for the wreath. Not sure. Dang it. We'll see.