It's a wrap...

Since I had a quiet Sunday morning to myself I decided to wrap a few presents.  And since we are keeping it super simple over here this year there were only a few things to wrap.

I had seen a cool monogram tutorial in a magazine while waiting for hubby to finish up buying wood at the hardware store.  I figured I would give that a try.  Remember y'all- I am NOT crafty, so attempting these little fun projects is always a humorous endeavor.  I must be slow to learn, because I keep trying- either that or I just like a good laugh now and then.

I started out with the box of baubles and bits I keep in my craft closet for such wrapping occasions.

I also picked up a roll of the very thin plain brown craft type paper at Home Depot.  It is supposed to be used to tape of the edges of rooms for painting, but I have found that for very little pennies you can use it as fabulous wrapping paper!  The little gold tags are water meter tags that we find on the ground and pick up in the new construction areas.  They are already used, and not recycled by the city- so I like to gather them for a bit of industrial on our packages.  I am all for up-cycling opportunities!

Take a rubber stamp and add some interest to your plain ol brown paper...

Plain white tags rubbed over some distressed ink for aging...  This one is "old paper" and gives plain white tags to a more vintagey feel...

First I attempted to make a star/snowflake from paper straws.   The straws are from Hobby Lobby and relatively inexpensive.  I was nervous about this one because I have no coordination when it comes to floral wire.  Oh yeah, you also need a bit of floral wire.

 
You start by bending two straws into a V shape.  Then wrap a bit of the floral wire around it to keep them together at the V point...

 
Then lay a third straw straight across the two V's and wire it it.  Ta-Da!  A star/snowflakey looking thing!  Add some twine and call yourself a wrapping rockstar :)

Then it was time to tackle the monogram/twine thing.  Here we go...

Start by wrapping the gift, then draw on the monogram you'd like to use:

Then grab some glue.  I suppose you could use a hot glue gun, but since I am prone to gluing myself to things I went for a safer option:  clear school glue.  Grab your twine, it's about to get crazy up in here!

Carefully put a bit of the glue around one of the letters, or part of a letter, and lay your twine on it.  It may be defiant and decide to go elsewhere, or stick to your fingers, but be the boss- make that twine bend to your will!

Keep going.  Wonder at some point why you didn't stick with Jewish tradition and forego a middle name... Nevermind the fact that you are Jewish and wrapping Christmas presents.  I try not to think on that one too much ;)

Then decide on the next kid's gift you are going to go with block letters.  Because, BLOCK LETTERS are just so much easier to manipulate with glue and twine...

Don't worry about the glue, it's clear it will dry and not show.  I'd pinky promise, but you'd be stuck with me.  Ba dum bum!  I'm here all day ;)