Alright dearest procrastinators. It’s Friday the 23rd, and you have basically one day (subtract the car/train/plane travel to the house where you’ll be spending the holidays) left to wrap up those presents. Hats off if you’ve bought them, have them in hand, and aren’t still waiting on an Amazon Prime shipment.
Either way, on today, our last day of 12 Days Of Wrapping, we are pleased to bring you our last round of creative wrapping techniques using household items that you most definitely have on hand. But wait, you’re one of those people who’s arriving at your parents’ house at 11pm on the 24th? Worry not, we’ve got your back.
Materials:
– newspaper
– glossy magazines or catalogs
– scotch tape, gluestick or glue (basically any adhesive will do)
– scissors
– twist tie or needle and thread
Before dressing things up with paper flora, wrap up those presents in your most attractive newspaper pages. I found a Tiffany ad, an article on interior design and, of course, festive-looking puppies.
First, we have the Catalog Rose. To create this rose, find a brightly colored page in a catalog or magazine. Cut it into a circle – no need to measure around a bowl or anything, the less exact, the better. Now, cut a spiral out. You don’t need to draw it, but you can. You simply start cutting on the outside and spiral in, trying to keep the thickness of the spiral the same.
When you get to the middle (or bottom), cut out a small circle and save it for later.Next thing to do is to roll the spiral tightly starting from the outside in. Keep going until you reach the end. Now set the spiral down flat and let it expand a little. Voila, it should look like a charming paper rose!
Last thing to do is glue it down on the circle you cut out, tape it on your present, and c’est fini!
Our second bit of flora is a Newsprint Flower based on flowers or pom poms made typically using tissue paper. First, stack or fold newsprint so you have 8 layers. Now trace a circle onto those layers, and cut it out. Again, it’s ok if while cutting you can’t keep things totally perfect.
Poke two holes in the middle of your circle stack, and use a needle and thread to tie the layers together. You can also use a twist tie for this. Bunch the newsprint layer by layer and it will form the layers of a flower. Fluff as needed and you’re all set.
Tape or glue to the top of your presents and you’ve got a festive and eco-friendly flower topper!
The last one is a modified Snowflake Flower using pages from a colorful catalog (our favorite catalog pages to reuse come from Patagonia, Urban Outfitters, and J. Crew). Cut out a square that will fit on top of your wrapped present. Fold into a triangle. Fold into another triangle. And then fold into yet another triangle. Cut out a curve where the triangle comes to a 90 degree angle. Then back on the straight side, cut two curved lines (but don’t cut all the way through).
Unfold. Take the middle cut-out petal and glue it to the top so that each petal is attached point-to-point. Let the glue dry and then turn the flower over and glue each point into the middle. To add a flower center, we balled up a piece of catalog paper and glued it in the middle.
Fake ribbon with cut strips of magazine, top with your snowflake flower, and there you have it.
How do you reuse paper (mail, newspapers, catalogs) from around the house? We’d love to see your creative projects – drop us a line at hello@brit.co.
