Wrapping Week: Burlap Bows

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, were stashed hidden presents for family, friends, and spouse. They needed to be wrapped up and embellished with care, in hopes that the receiver would appreciate their flair.

Did you like my poem? I worked on it for a long time. I shoulda been a poet. But alas, I’m just a plain ‘ol social worker with an English undergrad I use only for blogging. This poetry crafting, blog writing, social working girl has quite a bit of gift wrapping to get done between now and December 25th. Did you think I would miss the opportunity to stretch it out into as many blog posts as possible spare you the details? Oh no, my friends. You are in for a week’s worth of wrapping goodness, starting with my proudest accomplishment of the weekend: the burlap bow.

You may remember that I like to wrap my gifts in brown craft paper, and that in the past I’ve spent a pretty penny on ribbon to gussy it up. This year I decided to get creative and avoid the highway robbery that is the ribbon aisle at Hobby Lobby and opt instead for less traditional embellishments. I vowed to look around my house and use stuff I already had on hand, then gave myself a $15 budget for paper and other embellishments. $10 of that went towards paper-$3 on two small rolls of craft paper (at Dollar General) and $7 on a big roll of white “project paper” (at Hobby Lobby). I hadn’t planned on getting the white paper, but I usually buy my brown paper at Hobby Lobby and they were out, so I bought the white stuff as a backup plan in case I couldn’t find craft paper anywhere else. Now I’m embracing the variety it adds to my collection of elegant little packages.

I started the wrapping extravaganza by locking myself in the guest room with every crafty item I own:

The burlap bows were a stroke of genius. I have a bunch of it left over from the burlap table runner I made once upon a time, but even new it will only run you five to seven bucks a yard. I simply cut it roughly into strips and tied it around stuff to add some rustic charm.

Notice the lack of a fancy bow. That’s just a plain ‘ol knot, but burlap makes it look special.

In the photo above I cut a long strip in half and tied the two pieces together (instead of wrapping the whole long thing around the box), then stuck it on top of the box with a dab of hot glue.

This paper lunch bag had a lot of cool things done to it, but the part with the burlap was accomplished by punching a big hole through the flap, then wrapping a strip of burlap around the back, under the flap, and carefully out through the hole, then tying a knot. The knot is bigger than the hole so it keeps the bag closed.

Some tips:

• Burlap is messy. Prepare yourself accordingly.
• Tape does not stick well to craft paper. This is the first year I’ve stopped fighting the tape and turned to hot glue instead, and I’ll never look back.
• Go forth with reckless abandon and get ready for everyone you know to ooh and ahh over how creative you are.

I’ll be here all week, showing you my tips and tricks for wrapping presents with non-traditional supplies. Get excited!

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