Over the summer, there were quite a few birthdays to celebrate including 3 out of 4 of us in my household so I decided to try out an idea I had about handmade wrapping paper.  I am a bit dubious about calling it handmade though since I didn't actually make the paper and because I used rubber stamps and inks for the images.  At the very least I made plain brown wrapping paper a bit more interesting!

This one was for my other half's birthday present.  He said he liked it but I think he was more impressed with the fact that I saved a bit of money on wrapping paper!  Oh and my six year old son helped me to do the stamping.

 Next up was the wrapping paper I did for my nephew who turned 4 this year:

I'm not as happy with this one mainly because I think that the kites (yes, they're supposed to be kites!) look a bit like tadpoles from afar and that overall it is not a fun enough wrapping paper for a child, despite me colouring the kites in.  Maybe it would have looked better if I had spaced them a bit more uniformly on the paper in rows. 

I bought some recycled sugar paper to try as well because it is a bit lighter in colour and may show up different coloured inks and markers a bit better.  I've even thought of illustrating small sizes of paper by hand but I think that may be a bit too time consuming. Overall, it was a very fun experience and I will definitely do it again.  Maybe even to wrap up orders from my shops when I come up with a design that I really like.

Hi,

I think this is turning into a little project now!  Here is the latest box that I've covered with decorative paper.  I wasn't sure how the two different patterns would look together but they don't seem too bad now that the box is finished.  Again I used the Xyron 510 to put adhesive onto the bits of paper which makes the whole process quick and painless.

This is the box before:

It used to be the box for the exczema lotion that my kids have to use and I cut it down a bit so that I could put my marker pens and things in.  Not terribly exciting looking but it worked!

And here is it now after it's makeover:

Much better now, no?  And my work table (dining table!) is a brighter and happier place to be.

I reuse a lot of boxes in my house.  Mostly I use them to keep my pens and beads and other supplies in and they are currently all over my dining table since I took it over for my crafting use.  It generally looks ugly and untidy so for a long time I've wanted to start covering them with decorative paper to try and make the table look a bit prettier.

So I bought a Xyron 510 Creative Station machine for really cheap on Ebay because it can add adhesive to almost anything that's not too thick and not too wide.  The width limit is 105mm wide I think.  You can also create stickers, laminate and make magnets with it so I thought it would be a good investment if it worked well.

I started with this small box that used to hold cotton buds:

and voila! 

I think it looks so much better now and it's much more fun to keep things in.  For the larger boxes I guess I'll have to try and use pva glue or something on large pieces of paper but it really was fun and easy using the Xyron for this project.  The edges do look a little rough but that's just my cutting and folding that I need to practise.  Overall I'm quite pleased and will be doing this again!