Gift Wrap Ideas (1): Hand Printed & Hand Made

Gift Wrap Ideas (1): Hand Printed & Hand Made

Today is the first day of my 12 days of Christmas Gift Wrap ideas: Hand Printed and Hand Made.

I’m featuring my 10 favourite handprinted, and hand made gift wrap ideas from around the web.  Creative, simple and effective ways of decorating the paper itself that is used in the wrapping.  I love these ideas, because many can be personalised, or themed as required.  They can really show a personal touch. As well as being extremely cost effective.

1. HANDPAINTED

One of the first handmade wrapping papers I made was this incredibly easy rainbow painted gift wrap.  Check out the link here

2. PENCIL STAMP

This super cute heart stamp from The House The Lars Built was made using the eraser at the end of a pencil.

3. CLOUD STAMP

Stamps can be used to create any shape – vegetables make great printing vehicles, but have to be discard after use.  Erasers are also great, but need a cutting tool.  I used foam sheets to create this cloud print for a friends birthday.  The foam can obviously be cut using simple scissors to any shape.  The details of what we did are here.

4. LETTER STAMP

The Haystack Needle Online have used individual name stamps on simple craft paper for a really simple way to see who each gift is going to.

5. PERSONALISED NAME STAMP

Or go one stage further, and make personalised name stamps.  We made this for one of Abbis friends when we made her a personalised advent, (or countdown calendar) for her birthday.  The details of what we did are here.  And for details of how to make the stamps, look here.

6. ROLLER PRINTER

This Roller printing using a lint roller from Hand Made Charlotte  is a great way of covering a large area.

7. CHALKBOARD GIFT WRAP

You can buy chalkboard gift wrap, though simple black paper will work just fine.  Going Home to Roost has some amazing designs, some are available as a download to copy on their website.

8. BUBBLE WRAP PRINTED GIFT WRAP

This printing with bubble wrap from the celebration shoppe would be a great way for the kids to get involved with making the gift wrap.

9. DIP DYE PRINTING

Martha Stewart has a great tutorial for making dip dyed gift wrap.  I Think this is especially great if you want to add variation, but want a monochrome theme.

10. VINTAGE LETTER / SCRIPT  GIFT WRAP

2 great examples I found:  Firstly The Knick of Time copied a vintage French letter onto an engineering print.This looks beautiful, but printing the engineering print would be quite costly each time so a second example comes from The Sweetest Occasion  who have handwritten a love letter on craft paper.So thats my 10 best hand printed and hand made gift wrap ideas.  Do you have a favourite?  Or do you have another unique / creative idea you want to share?  I would love to hear how you like the gifts you give or receive to be wrapped.

And as a bonus, I’m throwing in a final idea for Hand Printed and Hand Made Gift Wrap:

11.  DIY WORDSEARCH GIFT WRAP

Ive seen a few of these around the blogosphere over the last few years.   A while back, I made my own version.  Multipurpose downloadable and printable gift wrap. Once printed, this can be customised for almost ANY celebration by highlighting the relevant words in the search.  A printable download is available here.

Or follow the lead of this gifter, and do a handwritten version. (Sorry I can’t find the original link to who made this)I’ll be posting the rest of the Gift Wrap Ideas series over the next 11 days.  (Maybe you’d like to subscribe, so you don’t miss a post.)