Design Happens

The holidays are sneaking up on us fast! Hanukkah began this weekend and Christmas will be here in less than 2 weeks. If you’re like me, you’re in gift wrapping crunch mode.

Honestly, wrapping gifts is one of my favorite things about the holidays but wrapping guys’ gifts can be tough — the trick is to keep them seasonal and masculine. For my mens’ gifts this year, that means this awesome blue plaid ribbon (love!) and handy-dandy, works-with-anything Kraft paper.

Another Kraft paper bonus: Thanks to its thickness, you can paint it without rippling the paper. So for Grant’s gift, I painted on a chalkboard gift tag then topped it with a blue plaid ribbon rose (in honor of his bowtie obsession) and a sparkly snowflake ornament.

Step 1: I planned to add the ribbon rose on one side and have the chalkboard tag take up most of the remaining space so I first taped on a band of ribbon to determine the tag’s placement. Next I used a ruler to mark out a rectangle, leaving the corners unmarked. To round the tag’s corners, I sketched around a small tin then erased any pencil marks that wouldn’t be covered by the chalkboard paint.

Step 2: Painting the tag was easy. I used a 1/2″ chip brush to fill in most of the pencil lines and a small artist’s brush to get into the tight corners. Don’t worry if the paper starts to wrinkle; as the paint dries, it will flatten back out. I tend to paint thickly so a second coat wasn’t necessary. 

Step 3: After the paint had fully dried, I used a metallic silver paint pen to clean up the tag’s outline then used a chalk pen to fill in the “to” and “from.”

To Create the Ribbon Rose:
Step 1: Pull out the wire from one side of wired ribbon in your left hand while you gather the ribbon up the wire with your right. As you pull the wire, the ribbon will begin to spiral. 

Step 2: Still holding the excess wire in your left hand (this will act like a stem), begin tightly wrapping the ribbon to form the signature spiral of a rose.  

Step 3: Continue gathering the wire and wrapping the ribbon until you’re happy with the rose’s size. Cut the ribbon, then pull a bit of wire loose from the opposite end and twist it around the wire “stem” to keep the rose from unraveling. Finally, use the wire stem to attach the rose to the gift and voila — beautiful holiday gift wrap that’s dude-approved! 

+ MORE CRAFTY GIFT WRAP IDEAS:
25 Creative Gift Wrap Ideas
‘Tis the Season for Gift Wrapping
Stylish Holiday Gift Wrap Ideas
Free Printable Gift Tags & More