Fun Gift Wrapping

With just a few days left before Christmas, many of us are probably scrambling to wrap the gifts we bought for others. I know that’s the way I usually am! If you want to spruce up your gifts a bit this year then we can help. I know it’s the thought that counts for the gift, but when it comes to the “wrapper” it’s kind of nice to have something a little bit more exciting and different. Some times when I get a fancy wrapped gift I get truly excited just for the gift wrap and I don’t want to open it; it could almost be a decoration. I think it’s so much fun wrapping gifts especially if you do it in an interesting way. I often will find different shaped boxes to wrap my gifts in, maybe add some rocks inside etc. to make it seem like something totally opposite from what’s actually in there. You can also wrap the gift in your own homemade wrapping which we shared with you a couple of Christmas’ ago - see it here.

You can also turn your gift into a decoration to make it look like something else, like these ones...

After looking at your gift, decide on a “thing” to turn it into. Some shaped gifts are easier to turn into things than others.

Be creative. Start off by wrapping your presents in a plain brown wrap or newsprint and then go from there.

If you wrapped coloured paper around the gift then you can draw things onto it to give it depth like seen in the fireplace gifts. You can also paint it or colour it with felt if you prefer, like the doghouse and car. The giant sled has some cardstock attachments and some colouring on it.

To alter your gift shape a bit, you can use cardstock to add on shapes as most of these gifts have.

You can attach tissue, sticks, cardstock cut outs, or even felt/fabric like how the stockings are on one of the fireplace mantles.

You can also attach things on the outside to elevate your gift.

Wrap your presents first in the wrapping paper of your choice.

For the angels paint a face on cardstock. The body and the wings are made of wide gold ribbon with the wire edge so you can position them as you like. A skinny ribbon gets attached on for the arms. Then used gold braid as accent but you can also use it for the hair. Just pull it apart gently and attached as desired. Glue it all on with a glue gun directly onto the wrapped gift.

The candle gift was also wrapped first and then the candles were attached afterwards. To make the candles, little cylinder tubes were wrapped in red tissue paper (you can make some from cardboard or cardstock if you have nothing like that hanging around your house). The holly used to cover the ends of the candles was real but you can use fake as well. Then attach flames made from shiny gold wrapping paper and adorn with little festive bits like bells, ribbon, bows etc.

However you wrap your presents will be much appreciated I’m sure, but if you want to try something a little different now you have some ideas to run with!

Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Thanksgiving is coming up so we’re going to give you some ideas today about how to decorate your table if you’re having a big dinner to celebrate.

We’re making a centrepiece today. Actually we’re making a two part centrepiece. First of all we are cutting out different shapes of leaves to make sort of a runner for the centre of the table. These leaves are used as a decoration but they are also used as a special keepsake. You can get all of your guests to write things that they are thankful for on the leaves and then you can read them all after your dinner and keep them or hand them out.

So for the leaves, we used a Silhouette to cut out shapes or you can find a variety of leaf shapes and trace them. Pick a range of Fall/leaf colours to use and make enough to cover the centre length of your table.

Next to make the second part of the centrepiece you will need a few more ingredients. You can go to the dollar store, craft store, or grocery store to find supplies.

You will need a couple of vases depending on the size of your table and how much you want to decorate. Size and shape are up to you. We chose three glass vases. One is taller and skinnier for the middle and the other two are shorter and a bit fatter. We decided to go with very simple straight up and down cylinder shaped vases.

You’ll also want to pick out some candles. Again the size and colours are up to you; you might want to stay away from the really tall and skinnier ones though. We tried out some tea lights along with some bigger short white candles.

Next buy some bulk or packaged dried items like beans, lentils, etc. We went with popcorn kernels, red lentils, green spilt peas, and kidney beans because their colours are very Fall like and complement each other.

Lastly make sure you have some twine or thick ribbon that you can tie into a nice bow.

To put these centerpieces together layer your dried food in your vases. You can do them all the same or different, up to you. We’ve done the two smaller ones the same and the middle one different.

You’ll probably want to have at least two different colours per vase.

Place your candles on top and then tie your ribbon or twine close to the top of the vase.

Arrange the leaves on your table and then place the vases in-between.

Now you have a table all ready for a big Thanksgiving dinner!