DIY

FUN & STRESS-FREE HOLIDAY GIFT WRAPPING

I love beautifully wrapped gifts, I think it’s just as important as the actual gift!  Even though, I bought most of my gift wrapping supplies last week, yesterday I just started officially wrapping gifts!  I’m kinda late this year but this really got me thinking about how stressful wrapping gifts can be…it can be one of those dreaded holiday tasks for sure.  I used to hate wrapping gifts, but now I actually love it and look forward to it, so I thought I would pass along the ways I’ve found to make it fun and less stressful.

BE ORGANIZED

You need to have your supples ready way before you’re ready to wrap gifts.  You set yourself up for disaster by not being organized.  Have a new roll of tape, tissue paper, boxes, scissors, wrapping paper, ribbon, bows, and tags ready to go before you start.  If you try to just wing it and look for things once you start you’ll loose your mind.  Another bonus of being organized is you won’t over buy.

USE PROPER BOXES

To have a properly wrapped gift you need to have square corners.  Parent’s with young kids, you know exactly what I mean.  Trying to wrap these plastic packaged toys with odd angles and edges is enough to pull your hair out!  Yes, you could just throw it in a gift bag, and sometimes that’s the only choice, but I find most people love the thrill of ripping paper.  So I recommend when you buy an odd shaped gift find a box that will fit it right away.

HAVE FUN WITH IT

I used to just grab a roll of Santa Claus wrapping paper and a package of cheap stick-on bows.  This method wasn’t fun for me, it’s no wonder I hated doing it.  Now I’m completely the opposite, I like to coordinate my packages and get really creative.  I spend a long time buying gift wrapping supplies and holding different ribbons and tags next to each other.  It’s like creating art or putting together an outfit!

DON’T WRAP TOO MANY GIFTS AT ONCE

Wrapping a ton of gifts at once is stressful and exhausting.  You’ll feel overwhelmed and probably start cussing – and that’s not the spirit you should be in.  So slow down and don’t overwhelm yourself.  I find the more gifts I was forced to wrap up really fast the worse they looked – haha.  I’m sure you know what I mean.  I like to make my gifts as pretty as can be and that won’t happen if I’m wrapping 20 at once.   I prefer to wrap my gifts over several days or even a week.

CONTAIN THE MESS

Gift wrapping mess is intense.  I like to keep all my supplies in a large plastic bin.  Make sure the bows stay on top so they don’t get crushed!  Also have a designated gift wrapping area.  For some reason for years I would wrap gifts on the floor.  Don’t do that, it makes the process so much harder to clean up!  I think a table or countertop works best.  I use my extra wide desk in our guest room.  After I’m done wrapping gifts I just place everything back in the bin and sweep off any scraps off into the trash can.

EXTRA TIPS

If your traveling, hot-glue your bows on.  I know it sounds intense but it seems no matter how well you push those stick on bows on they always fall off.  When we travel with gifts it seems we always lose bows, or they fall off and get crushed.  It’s a simple fix with a dab of hot glue.  This also works amazing when reusing last year’s bows that have lost their sticky.

Don’t worry too much about perfection.   I try to make my gifts pretty and perfect but if you look closely a few might be a little imperfect and that’s ok.  I think nobody really notices, they’re just happy with their pretty gift.

Really take time to measure and cut your gift wrap to the best size before you start wrapping.  There is nothing more stressful than trying to cut those long ends off when your gift is half wrapped!

I hope these tips help you!  I’m a former hater of holiday gift wrapping and now I get excited and look forward to it!

Laura

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