Holiday Gift Wrapping

Wrapping gifts for the holidays is one of my favourite things to do. I love making them look special and they look wonderful under the Christmas tree. If you will like to make your holiday gifts a little more special this year, why not add a little embellishment to your gift wrapping. Dress things up with bits of nature, beautiful ribbons, beads and perhaps even a little bling or glitter. I hope this little tutorial will give you some ideas on how you can wrap your holiday gifts.

Materials
Gift Box
2 Paper Doilies (size based on box)
Gift Tag
Small Pine Cone (optional)
Narrow Ribbon
Wide Ribbon
Jute or Baker’s Twine
Hot Glue Sticks
Hot Glue Gun
Scissors

Instructions
1. Centre the doilies on top of the gift box and secure with a small bead of hot glue. Then wrap the ends of the doilies around the top edge of the gift box. Secure the ends of the doilies with small beads of hot glue on all sides (you can also use double sided tape).

2. Wrap the narrow ribbon around the gift box and tie at the top centre.

3. Make a ribbon loop with the wide ribbon, then tie the ribbon loop to the centre of the gift box using the ends of the narrow ribbon. Cut the ends of the ribbons to the same length at an angle.

4. Hot glue the pine cone onto the gift box next to the bow.

5. Attach twine to the gift tag and tie the twine under the bow.

Happy gift wrapping.

Tips! Depending on how thick your doilies are you should use two doilies stacked on each other. The beautiful gift tag used for this project is from Gotamago at www.gotamago.com.

Jute Ornament

I love making holiday decorations and I am very excited this year to get started with some fun projects. This jute ornament can take a little time to make, but it is very fun and super cute for holiday decorating. You can make a loop for hanging or you can simply cover the styrofoam ball in jute and put on display. You can make them all the same size or you can vary the size of the styrofoam balls.

Supplies
Styrofoam Ball (desired size)
Jute Twine
Hot Glue Sticks
Hot Glue Gun
Scissors

Instructions
1. Turn in the end of your twine and glue onto the styrofoam ball with a small dot of glue.

2. Place a small bead of glue on the styrofoam ball close to the twine and wrap twine around the first piece of twine.

3. Continue the process of gluing and wrapping in small sections at a time until you cover the surface of the styrofoam ball and you are left with a small opening on the opposite end.

4. Cut the remaining twine to your desired length to make a loop for your ornament to hang from, or cut close to the base and leave just enough twine to fill the final space on the styrofoam ball.

5. Place a dot of hot glue in the middle of the small opening and press the end of the twine into the space.

Now your ornament is ready to use. Have fun!