Put A Bow On It: 3 Adorable Ways To Wrap Your Gifts This Year

You either love it or hate it: that inevitable holiday evening spent with a tower of gifts, a good ream of wrapping paper and – if you’re lucky – a gluten-free Christmas cookie or two. We’re the gift wrap-loving kind and were thrilled to spend an afternoon learning to wrap things up in style with Pressed Juicery neighbor, Abbot Kinney’s adorable Urbanic Paper Boutique.

Urbanic’s Audrey Woollen, who’s graced our digital pages a time or two before, and knows a thing or two about great-looking paper, let us in on a few of her favorite all-natural looks, ribbon-tying tricks and how to achieve the perfect crease (it’s all about double stick, people!) to make your holiday gifts next level amazing and ready to grace that tree skirt in style. Rifle through our slideshow for all of the looks and read Audrey’s tips and tricks below!

Supply Line:

Patterned recycled wrapping papers, kraft paper, velvet ribbon, baker’s twine, metallic cord, crochet yarn, rosemary, jingle bells, pompoms, feathers, foiled ornaments, woodland painted arrows, assorted tags – and tape!

Must-have tools:

Super sharp scissors, double stick tape, a clean flat work surface and a glue gun

Outside the box:

Common household materials can make for charming wrapping supplies: old maps, children’s artwork + painted newspaper all make great wraps. Stacked cupcake liners can be gift bows, old photos can be tags or toppers and circular label stickers can be used to embellish solid colored papers

Foraged finds:

I love snipping rosemary from our neighborhood to tuck into the ribbon. I enlist my sons to help and they love to gather up a few natural materials. They love to help place the tape on gifts too.

In the fold:

The way to wrap a perfect present usually involves less tape, and strong folds. You really don’t need a ton of tape to keep a present wrapped tightly. Positioned crisp folds will do the trick and a bit of double sided tape to secure your folds. Cutting out all excess paper will help you measure your wrapping perfectly, and sliding the scissors across the paper instead of cutting will give you the cleanest lines.

Detail that makes the difference:

Double up: Use two ribbons that contrast each other to wrap the gift – something natural, something metallic, for example.

Layer up: Add a strip of wrapping paper on top of an already wrapped gift for a patterned band.

Pile up: Position three dimensional interest items as gift toppers – ornaments like these geometric gold ones by Cody Foster, the feathers, jingle bells and rosemary have to be my favorite.

Eco-friendly find:

Smock Paper’s wraps (like the snow branch print used here) are beautiful and sustainably printed on recycled paper using vegetable based inks. Pretty impressive!

Eco-Odds and Ends:

Some of these papers are so pretty, I love to reuse the scraps left over from other gifts to fold and wrap around other gifts like a band. This adds a pop of pattern to a gift and will perfectly frame a ribbon or a bow.

String 'em up:

Pair up multiple ribbons on a gift to add interest and contrast. The best way to do this is to wrap both pieces around the gift simultaneously and then position just before tying the knot.

Label me:

For gift tags, we love working with classic shipping tags and building on top of them creatively with washi tapes, glitter letters, rubber stamps or even a bold monogram or scripty lettering. Everyone loves to see their name embellished on a gift just for them! If you’re looking for a ready-to-go option, the ‘Open Me’ tags by Meri Meri are pretty irresistible too.