Christmas Gift Wrap, with Some Personal Flair

Yesterday I finally started getting in the holiday spirit by wrapping my first round of Christmas presents. (You see, we don't have a tree yet--I'm living with Mr. Grinch at the moment, and losing the Christmas decorating battle. I think a surprise explosion of sparkles may just be in order this weekend...) While the gifts are actually Nicole's that she bought for Micha (she's in a never-ending losing battle with German customs, it seems), my US mailing address means I get to repackage and ship them overseas, so I figured why not go all out and Christmas wrap them as well. I bought some fun colorful wrapping paper (I can't help myself, I love silly gift wrap!), but wanted to add a personal touch to the gifts as well. And since I'm mailing these overseas, a giant festive bow was out of the question. Instead, I found some of the silliest pictures of Nicole, Micha, and me that I could dig up on my computer (I slipped a gift for Nicole in there, as well) and printed them out in black-and-white to use as gift tags / focal pieces on the presents!

Here's all you need: wrapping paper, kraft paper, black-and-white printed photos (I printed them out on basic white paper), scissors, scotch tape, a glue stick, and some sparkly pens (okay, they don't have to be sparkly, but why wouldn't they be?).

First, I wrapped the gifts in my very sophisticated owls & stockings wrapping paper. Then I printed the photos (the sillier the better, in my humble opinion)--for the gift recipient, I printed a 4x6 image. And for the gift giver, I printed a contact sheet size image (about 1x2). I glued the photos onto kraft paper, leaving a border with enough room to write on at least one side, then glued the mounted photos directly to the wrapped gifts. Lastly, I completed the gift tags by writing a festive sparkly "to" on the recipient's photo and "from" on the gift giver's. And voila! A fun, custom, and completely mail-able Christmas gift, sure to put a smile on your gift recipient's face.

I pretty much can't wait to buy and wrap more gifts now. So be warned, if you're getting a gift from me this year, you can expect a ridiculous picture of yourself to be on it front-and-center. You're welcome.