12 Days of Christmas 2014 – Day 6

‘Brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favourite things’.  This song has been playing over and over in my head all day, while putting this article together.  There is truth in these lyrics – brown paper packages do happen to be one of my favourite things.  It is also true that there is nothing new about wrapping gifts in brown paper, but in recent years it has again regained popularity.

There are a few reasons I like using brown paper to wrap my gifts.  Firstly, it is stronger that your regular wrapping paper, so it is less likely to rip.  Secondly, because of its neutrality it works well for any occasion. Thirdly, it creates a blank canvas on which a variety of creative trimmings can be unleashed.

We have tried three different ideas on these gifts.  The first is a combination of twine and a narrow ribbon (5mm wide) woven together.  It is probably the most time consuming of the ideas, but isn’t overly complicated.  For the second idea we wrapped the gift with a printed hessian ribbon and tied it in place with twine.  Simple, yet effective.  For the last idea we used two paper doilies and some more of the narrow ribbon.  We positioned the doilies and fastened them in place with a couple of pieces of double sided tape.  We then tied two separate pieces of ribbon around the gift to create the criss-cross look.  Perhaps a little more involved than the second idea, but it is still reasonably easy and very elegant looking.

I hope this inspires you to be creative this year when wrapping your own Christmas gifts.