• Scissors
• Tape
• Brown paper labels
• Glitter markers
• Ribbons and bows
• Wrapping paper

When getting a couple arty supplies for my brother, I spotted some glittery tape, which of course I had to get to spice things up a bit! Admittedly though I kept forgetting about the glitter tape while wrapping but I made sure to use it on my chummy's gift, as I know she has a glitter problem ;)


As there is still a few hours to go until Christmas and the great gift exchange, I haven't included what exactly I have bought for people and how to wrap such awkwardly shaped object or boxes, but one crucial tip for gift wrapping is to remove the price tags! I stuck mine onto a piece of tissue I was using to wipe one of my markers onto as it was leaking a little.


Here is my collection of gifts by the fireplace as we haven't put up any decorations as I write this as our household has become aggressively un-festive but I tried to use the cosiness of the fireplace and some fairy lights to make up for the lack of the bottom of a tree. If you miss a bit of green, here is last year's Christmas post for you :)


Yes, you are allowed to start singing "brown paper packages tied up with string"... I kept it very simple with this gift by tying a simple string bow, which I hadn't done before but decided to see how it looked with this small package and I quite like it.


Usually I would use ribbon to tie gifts, making the loops of the bow as long as the ends to cut them, leaving six ends of ribbon which I curl to make big, bouncy curly "bow" on the gift. Doing these always make me think of Will Ferrel's Elf, where Zooey Deschanel's character is told to make "6 inch ribbon curls honey."

Last year I bought a little something for all of my friends, leaving me with a bag full of brown packages with red ribbons or bows, with the names in green and I loved it because it was oh so festive and glorious, but this year we did secret Santa, leaving me with fewer gifts but an opportunity to get a bit more creative and try out other things to do with all my brown wrapped gifts.


I kept most of my gifts pretty simple, using different coloured bows and ribbons, I thought the simplicity of it made it beautiful and sweet, keeping the traditionally festive colour scheme. And as you can see here, beginning to get a little creative with tape.


This is one of the more oddly shaped items, I tend to wrap things like this - including bottles of booze - like a Christmas cracker, or rather half a cracker. First tightly wrapping the bottom of the object to fit the shape of it, I twisted the top and taped round it, masking the mass of tape with a tag to write the name on and make it look a little more presentable, hiding the more messier wrapping.


For these next two gifts I got a little more creative with ribbons I kept from presents given to me, probably a weird habit but it goes straight into my box of gift wrapping materials to use next year as it's perfectly reusable. For this larger box I wrapped two different red ribbons taping it into position at the back and polishing it off with a bow.


A much smaller box had a similar treatment, with the ribbon tied in the typical cross shape, tying the ribbon together at the back and covering the cross over of the ribbon with a bow.

I hope this has inspired you for some last minute gift wrapping or even to save for next year. I also hope you enjoy the pictures I had some fun taking them - as well as wrapping of course.