Ad – Today’s post is a sponsored post with Aura Print. As always, all opinions are my own.
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE the run-up to Christmas. It’s a feel-good time of year and there are lots of fun activities going on. I’m particularly excited this year because my toddler is obsessed with Christmas trees and gets so excited whenever we see one.
I’ve noticed that so many people have been starting the festive season much earlier this year, basically as soon as Halloween was over. I totally support this and have already had my first mince pie (these ones are very easy to make) of the year, picked up lots of gifts, made my first batch of mulled wine and started to put up decorations. I think we can all agree that it’s the little things that are important at the moment.
I’m also really into the idea of getting more creative in various aspects of my life. Although I can be creative with photography and baking I’m keen to try some new things this year. Along with incorporating more decorations into my home I’d also like to level up my gift wrapping game. Years ago I was taught how to gift wrap at Beatties in Huddersfield, a small department store which has since been acquired by House of Fraser. Despite this I’ve never been super creative with my own wrapping, unlike my sister who uses felt bows, scarves, cinnamon sticks and whatever she can find to create the most beautiful packages for Christmas and birthdays. She collects things throughout the year and keeps everything stored in a special box of magical wrapping accessories.
So, this year, I feel inspired to take my gift wrapping to the next level. Why not? It’s good to try new things and I’d like to make my presents stand out a little under the tree. I think my toddler will love to get involved with this too so it will make for a fun festive activity we can do together.
Here are 5 simple ideas to get creative and personalise your gift wrapping. You can combine each of these ideas together or mix and match to create a truly unique gifting experience.
5 Easy ways to personalise your gifts this Christmas
Use photographs
I’ve seen this idea all over Pinterest and I think it’s such a wonderful way to decorate gifts and make them more personable.
Pick a simple wrapping paper as a base, I think brown parcel paper would work well and then find old photos of the recipients of yours gifts and attach them with a simple ribbon and a paperclip. This will give everyone a trip down memory lane and make searching for a present under the tree a little extra special.
Order your own personalised gift tags
Add a little personality to your gifts with personalised hanging gift tags. These are a simple yet unique way of adding a personal touch to every gift you give this year. I like that you can upload your own designs and get really creative. You could add your own in-jokes, family names or Christmas sayings. This is the perfect opportunity to add a personal touch to your gift wrapping without having to do any DIY crafts in what can be a very busy time of the year. They also do personalised Christmas Cards.
I was gifted these cute tags from Aura Print which is a Huddersfield based business. If you didn’t know, I grew up in Huddersfield and still have friends and family there. I always make a big effort to continue supporting independent and local businesses and now that Aura print are on my radar I’ll be stocking up on some fresh business cards for 2021. The best thing about the brand is that the quality is fantastic and the turn-around time super quick. I also like that the tags already come with a hole in and a festive read loop to attach to gifts.
As always, start with a simple base like brown or white paper and then add a complementary string and finally your personalised gift tag. Let the tag take centre stage.
Fabric ribbons and scarves
My sister collects ribbons throughout the year and uses them to decorate her birthday and Christmas presents. We also always return the wrapping accessories to her, unless someone wants to keep them and she’ll stash them away to use again.
Another way of doing this is to use scarves or cloths. This is the Japanese art of furoshiki.
Go natural
Natural wrapping accessories are wonderful at this time of the year.
Start with a simple base and then build upon this with dried fruit, pine cones, eucalyptus, cinnamon sticks and whatever you can find outside. If you are city centre based and haven’t come across anything you could buy a bunch of eucalyptus to distribute between your gifts.
Doodles
Start with black, chalkboard or classic brown parcel paper and then get creative.
You could keep things really simple and grab a few Sharpies and go to town decorating the paper. If you’re particularly creative you could try your hand with a chalk pen on black paper or find a way to use up all those stickers and rolls of washi you’ve been collecting.
You even could let the little ones get involved. They’ll have so much fun doodling all over the wrapping paper but to make it even more fun get them to make finger prints all over them paper and then turn them into snowmen.