Creating Silhouetted Gifts

Now that the Christmas hype has died down and my cold has lost its grip on my sinuses, I'm back with a quick little tutorial on creating a special silhouetted gift for your child.

Thank you to my dear Pretty Handsome Guy for his guest post. I'm glad you all enjoyed a good laugh at his expense.

 

Christmas morning my boys were greeted by magical North Pole snow footprints (baking soda) leading up to the tree.

In an effort to keep the Santa myth alive, the two presents from Santa were constructed in a different style from the other presents under the tree.

My six year old exclaimed Christmas morning, "MOM! Santa knows what we look like!" So, I think I fooled them again this year.

Materials:
Scissors
X-acto knife (optional) and cutting surface
Profile picture of your child
Spraymount
White sheet of letter size paper
White cardstock paper
Black cardstock paper or construction paper
Chalk, Bistro marker, or White paint pen
Pencil
Glitter spray
Glitter glue

Start by creating your child's silhouette. (My silhouettes took many steps in Adobe Photoshop, but I'll give you instructions for the easy way.) Simply take a photo of your child turned sidewards (preferably in front of a blank wall.) Then enlarge the photo on a copier to the size you want to use. Lay the paper on top of the black cardstock and cut them both at the same time. I prefer to use an X-acto knife for the cutting, but you can use scissors if you like.

Unless you have a graphic program or a template to draw perfect ovals, you will need to draw one freehand. Wait, wait, don't freak out. You can do this!

First, fold a letter sized paper into fourths.

Draw a curve on the paper with the fold sides inside the curve.

Cut along the line.

Open up your paper to reveal your oval. If you don't like it, try it again.

Once you are happy with your oval, trace the folded oval onto white cardstock paper and cut it out.

Wrap your present (be sure to use wrapping paper that your child has never seen in your home!)

Spray the back of your cardstock oval with spray mount and adhere it to the present.

I added some glitter spray to the wrapped package to give it a little extra sparkle! (I know, it doesn't really show up in the photo.)

So, here is a close up of the glittery goodness:

Spray the back of your silhouette head with the spray mount and lay it inside the oval.

Next, add a bead of glitter glue around the edge of the oval. Note of caution: Allow the glue to dry before setting your package upright or it WILL run. Of course I learned the hard way and had to unglue my package from the shelf it was sitting on. Drat!

Here are the presents before I added the "To & From" on them.

You can write your child's name on the silhouette using chalk, bistro marker or white paint pen. Or leave it blank if you wish, your choice.

That's it, not too hard, but the results are stunning. You could use this gift wrapping technique for any special present.

I have to share with you a little something that warmed my heart Christmas morning. My oldest carefully cut off the fronts of all the presents that I gave him to preserve the creative gift wrap designs.

He saved them all including his silhouette from Santa.

In stark contrast, my youngest tore into the packages as any other eager four year old boy would.

Fixing Common Gift Wrap Problems - Guest Post by Pretty Handsome Guy

Brittany came down with a cold yesterday, so I thought I'd fill in for her today and share with you some common gift wrap problems and how to deal with them.  Think of this as the polar opposite of her Creative Gift Wrapping series of posts.

The Squish and Tape and Tape and Tape

Do you ever end up with a present that hangs out of the wrapping paper?

No problem, simply squish the gift inside the packaging as far as you can...

...and quickly fold over the end and slap on some tape. Then use some more tape to close the gaps,

and just for good measure add some more tape. Hey, tape is cheap, no need to be stingy with it!

All done, and the goal of hiding the present has been achieved!

The Panel (not to be confused with the type of pants pregnant women wear.)

How many times have you cut your wrapping paper only to realize that it is too short to go around the package? When it comes to wrapping presents I adhere to the adage "measure never, just cut it".  I mean seriously people we aren't building a house here, what you are wrapping is meant to be destroyed anyways. 

Here is the solution! It is called the panel. Simply cut another piece of wrapping paper the width of the gap (or maybe a little wider.)

Tape it on (no need to match up the pattern, no one will see the bottom when it is under the tree.). Bonus points if you can manage to use 2-3 different types of wrapping paper - just tell everyone it is a "holiday medley". 

Super easy solution and the best part is that you don't have to go back and cut a whole new piece of wrapping paper.  The environment will thank you for this one.

The Nip, Tuck & Roll

Now we are down to one of the most common wrapping problems. What to do when you have too much wrapping paper on the ends of your package.  And yes I realize most of these "problems" are a function of not measuring in the first place but whatever.

Normally I would simply roll the sides in until they meet the package, but in an effort to neaten things up a bit, you can simply gather the end in your hands and snip off the excess.

Now simply fold in the end towards the box.

Continue to roll the paper in...

...until you reach the box, then smash the end down with your hand to flatten it.

And tape your end down.

Done. Problem solved, any questions?

Adding a Gift Tag (bet you've never seen it done this way!)

I found the little key tags that Brittany bought for tagging her presents. Creative idea and all but sheesh a lot more work than a stick-on "To/From" tag.  But I devised a new way to attach them to the gift without ribbon.

Simply grasp a corner of your package and use a hole punch to make a hole in the gift wrap.

Then take a piece of tape and twist it into what I call a tapepick (looks like a toothpick.)

Thread the tapepick into the hole you made in your gift wrap.

Then grab another piece of tape and fold it over the ends of your tapepick to secure them.

That's it. Thanks for reading my post today. Hopefully Brittany will invite me back to show you how I make a bed in less than 10 seconds!

- Pretty Handsome Guy

Creative Gift Wrapping Day #6

This is it, the last day of my Creative Gift Wrapping Tutorials. I saved these adorable silhouetted animals for last.

Snowy Polar Bear

Materials:

Wrapping paper

White card stock paper

Snowflake hole puncher

Key tag
Satin ribbon

Jingle bell

Black & white pom poms (nose & tail)

Small black button

Elmer's glue

Hot glue gun

Wrap your present as you normally would.

Using this template (click on the photo for a larger version and then print it out), cut out the polar bear shape on white card stock. Better yet, if your printer will handle it, print it out on card stock and then flip your bear over to the white side.

Glue your bear onto the gift package.

 

Punch out some snowflakes. (I used some white and some light blue that would show up better on top of the white bear.)

Cut one piece of red ribbon for the bears collar. Then glue the collar and snowflakes onto the package using Elmer's glue. Then glue the button and pom poms using hot glue.

 Thread a jingle bell onto some satin ribbon, then tie a bow onto a key tag.

 Hot glue the bow/jingle bell onto the bear's collar.

 Factoid: Polar bears are my favorite animal! Did you know that a polar bear's skin is actually black? And the bear's hair is actually transparent hollow tubes. This serves three purposes: 

1. The tubes are hollow so they store air in them. This acts as an insulator. 
2. Plus, it helps the polar bears buoyancy while swimming. 
3. Remember how I said their skins is black? Well, because the fur is actually transparent, it allows the sun to reach the bear's skin and help warm them. Cool, huh?! 

Dove of Peace

Materials:

Wrapping paper

White card stock paper

Satin ribbon

Sprig of rosemary or other evergreen twig

Hot glue gun

Wrap your present as you normally would.

Add your ribbon on the diagonal corners.

Click on the dove silhouette below to see the full size image. Print it out on the cardstock paper and cut out the shape to use as a template, or use the reverse white side of the shape.

 

Use a hole punch to cut out the eye. Hot glue your dove to the package and hot glue the rosemary underneath the dove's mouth.

Have fun with this creative package. Add the words PEACE, or bend the wings up to make them three dimensional.

This dove will work on a variety of sized gifts. Here she is on a vertical present.

"Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men"