While Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year, the hustle and bustle can get overwhelming when you have a big family. I enjoy spreading the beauty of the holiday onto my gifts, baking and decor. One area I have found to save big time and money is in prewrapped present boxes. I stumbled upon those nice thick gift boxes at Big Lots and Tuesday Morning one year after Christmas and purchased them for pennies on the dollar. They come in every size and shape imaginable and are pretty much indestructible. I found some beautiful heavy foiled/flocked gift wrap and bought picks and ribbon cheap @ Michael's and Garden Ridge when they mark it 75% off.
Once you've gathered the basics, simply spread out the paper and get busy. Wrap the bottom and tops separately. I use repositionable scrapbook adhesive to get started in case I'm off center a little and once everything is positioned correctly I follow with hot glue to smooth down the seams. Make sure the paper is pulled tight before making your folds and adhering for a nice finished look. Once the box and lid are covered, adhere your ribbon to the inside of the lid, bringing it around to the outside to tie a bow (this is where the wired ribbon comes in handy). Make sure you adhere the ribbon and crease it to fit the inside of the lid exactly. Adhere a separate piece of ribbon to the outside of the bottom that will line up with the piece you tied to the lid. bring the ends over the sides and secure to the inside of the bottom and stuff with tissue paper to hide paper and ribbon edges. Place the lid onto the bottom and tuck a pick, gift tag and any other fancy thing underneath the bow.
I like to go back and secure everything with hot glue just for added wear and tear. You will be amazed at how beautiful they come out. Don't get overwhelmed with trying to wrap them all at one sitting. I wrap one or two a month. The good news, once you wrap them you can reuse them each year AND no picking up gift wrapping off the floor! I've also found already made boxes at Costco that even have the ribbon attached so just throw it in the box with some tissue, close the magnetic lid and tie in a bow. You can't get easier~
Don't stress if you find you have a gift that doesn't fit. Simply wrap it the old fashioned way, stick a bow on it and make a note to look for that size next year, or better yet...gift bag it!
Here's to a Happy and Stress Free Holiday!!
Merry Christmas to all~
