Pretty Paper, Pretty Packages, Pretty Ribbon, A Progressive Post Completed.....

"Pleasure is spread through the earth in stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find."

~William Wordsworth 1806~

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at the Quill! Today I will be wrapping gifts. (How cute is this little box all covered in seed packets? )

I am not a buy and wrap as you go kind of gal. I like to have them all in a pile of my art studio floor and pick and choose from all the papers and goodies in there for wrapping. (And this one in brown packing paper with jute string embellished with real greens and pine cones is a simple nature inspired look.)

I came across a wonderful link to the talented Heather Bullard of Vintage Inspired Living where she has showcased some wonderful ideas for your gift packaging needs and I just had to pop in and share them with you in case any of you are last minute gift wrappers like me! Heather has been featured in Romantic Homes, Romantic Country, and Somerset Life.(This photo is the property of Heather Bullard)

Here is the link for part one of her Vintage Holiday Gift Wrap Ideas. Here is the link for part two. As well as the links for part three and part four. Trust me, you will not want to miss out on these links!

You will also want to run right over to Hydrangea Home who has the most fantastic post on gift wrap, just look at this package!
And this one!(These photos are the property of Dawn of Hydrangea Home)

I do so love a pretty package! I am off to try some of these ideas out for myself. I'll post on what I come up with later in the day if you care to drop back by for a peek! Wrap up something pretty today!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

PROGRESSIVE POST UPDATE:

I began my gift wrapping by gathering the common items like scissors, tape, wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbon, bows, tags, etc. I also added some fun flea market finds to jazz up my gifts. I spent around $15.00 for unique flea market wrapping supplies.

Now lest you think ALL the gifts under my tree look like this or that I have the kind of time and energy to create them to all look like this, you would be wrong. I wrap one special package for every person on my list, I have a short list, and anything else is just in normal paper and ribbon or gift bag and tissue paper. The other thing is that I use a lot of what I have on hand and try to look for things like ribbons and embellishments throughout the year.

Here are the items I began with, a linen Christmas towel, two Italian silk scarves, a little Hallmark sled that still had it's original tag on it, a mini jeweled picture frame, and a free cookie tin!I also found this cool tin with a peek-a-boo window, a lined basket with snowmen on it, a little wooden snowman ornament, and four tin hearts with Santa painted on them, a large snowman bucket, a vintage camera box, and a super cute glass reindeer ornament.

I laundered the linen and scarves and cleaned everything up really well and then the fun began! I started with the cute little sled. I wanted to make a Santa bag to put some small gifts in. I used two piece of red felt and a piece of white yarn. I trimmed the top of the felt with a pinking sheer and then blanket stitched three sides of the bag closed, leaving the pinked edge as the top opening. I ran a gathering yarn around the bag and add two green wooden beads to the yarn ends, adding a drop of clear drying glue to the knots to prevent raveling or from the beads coming off.I wrapped up a tube of play dough, a package of stickers, a story book, a candy thing~a
~ma~bob, (it has a clear ball on top with a ball in the center that spins and lights up with colored lights when you push the button and has candy in the handle), and filled mini zip bags with mini colored marshmallows (a current favorite snack of the recipient), and stuffed the Santa bag, lashing it to the sled. A favorite stuffed character sits at the helm to guide the sled into the hands of one tiny boy who thinks stickers, play dough, story books, marshmallows, and cool light up thing~a~ma~bobs are the "it" gifts of the season!The next gift is a gift basket using the large snowman bucket. This is a movie themed gift. I gathered favorite soft drinks, popcorn, popcorn seasoning, movie candy, a couple of plastic popcorn holders, and a movie.
I placed all the items in the bucket as shown below:
I wrapped the movie in a snowflake paper and tied a piece of white yarn on for a bow, placing it on top of the goodies.
I thought a bucket full of snowballs would be a fun way to "wrap" this one. Using some fiber fill that I had on hand, I formed "snowballs", tucking them around the edges of the bucket rim. I continued to build them up, dotting hot glue and pinching the balls to secure them together until I had the whole present covered. I sprinkled on white glitter to give them a snowy effect.
For the tag I used supplies I had on hand. From textured paper I cut large circle and glued it to white card stock. I used silver pipe stems to form the lettering and glued it in place. I glued the circle to a bamboo skewer and wrapped the skewer with silver pipe stems. I added royal blue curly ribbons and stamped "TO: FROM:" in red ink on the back of the snowball tag. I stuck it in the "snowballs" and placed it under the tree. If this gift were traveling elsewhere to be given, I would have wrapped the whole thing in tulle and tied it off at the top to ensure that snowballs would not dislodge, but the recipient will come here and probably won't want to take the snowballs home anyway.

This pretty package gives a hint as to what it contains by the little frame secured to the top as a tag. This one is wrapped in ordinary wrapping paper. I used one of the silk scarves to tie around the center overlaying it with a piece of lace. I added a gold wired edged ribbon bow this a mini jeweled frame tied to the center for the tag. For a bit of extra embellishment, I added a paper flower and leaves. I didn't want to glue on the flower and ruin the scarf so I glued the leaves to the back of the flower and then glued on a pin back, fastening it to the lace just above the bow.
Remember that Snowman Soup? Well here is how I am wrapping it up for one couple on my list. I found a part of a vintage snack set at a flea market and decided that would be a fun alternative to just a regular mug. I placed a piece of padding between the plates and tied them together with a ribbon. I filled the snowman basket with fiber fill and nested the plates and cups in the "snow". I added two packages of cocoa mix, two candy canes, and a little organza bags of chocolates. I placed the snowman soup recipe on top. I gathered the whole basket up in white tulle, tying it off with a raffia bow. The little wooden snowman serves as a tag. I stamped "TO: FROM:" on the back with red ink. This little gift has a rustic elegance about it with the fine bone china snack set and tulle vs. the raffia, wicker, and wood. (One should not blog and wrap at the same time ~ I forgot the marshmallows and had to open this one back up!)

I'm off to tackle that cookie tin next so stay tuned....I'm back! Here is the free cookie tin in all its glory! I packaged a vintage cake plate in this one. This one was an easy fix. I cut strips of scrapbook paper to fit the edge where the writing was and used spray glue to attach the paper. I tied it up with a green silk paper ribbon and used the left over tulle from the top of the Snowman Soup package to make a frill to glue to the back of a mini faux package in the same scrapbook paper. I wrapped a piece of foam core in the paper and embellished with gold pipe stems and a red button. I added ribbon and pipe stem loops to the back and tied it in place this the ribbon ends. I glued the package into the middle and added a tiny "TO: FROM:" tag to the tiny package to identify the giver and recipient.

I am back with a few more favorites at the end of the wrapping day. YEAH!!!

I originally got this peek~a~boo tin for myself to use in an art project but the recipient will appreciate it far more than I would because it so "them". I combined it with an old camera box and chocolate coins for gift within a gift within a gift! This recipient collects vintage cameras and I thought this one would be cool for their collection. I used a decorative scissor to cut up a piece of sheet music and an old book page plus added a little plain shredded filler to line the bottom of the tin. I filled the camera box with gold foil wrapped chocolate coins and then nested it in the shredded pages. I topped the package off with wide grained ribbon and a handmade tag.Here is one with the little tin Santa ornament attached.You might remember the handwoven pins I made for gifts, here is how is used them as package toppers.I hope you have enjoyed a few of my favorite gift and wrapping ideas as well as those of the other ladies I linked to. I hope your Christmas is packaged in pretty memories!

Happy Wrapping,
Miss Sandy