Every year I get overwhelmed with the choice of wrapping paper available in stores, one year I even managed to buy wrapping paper that had a light pattern on it, but the rest of it was see-through! I couldn't believe it when I started unwrapping it, I ended up having to use other plain paper underneath which was a waste of time, and paper!
So one thing I find that never fails is rustic wrapping, and all you need is a few bits that you can find in your local post office or home bargains store!
So the brown paper is recyclable, which actually a lot of wrapping papers sold commercially are not, often due to them containing a lot of plastic or glitter. The cording can be found in the garden section, or more recently the wedding section for these rustic and white themed weddings, and the gift-tags I found online, but have seen similar things in post offices in stationery sections.
So I usually start with just wrapping the gift as neatly as possible with the brown paper, it actually can work better if you use a little bit more than usual, as this allows you to put folds into it and not force it tight around the object.
I then add the brown cording, this can also work well with plain string or anything in this natural colour scheme. I usually put the tag on this as well with a plain greeting as to not give away what is inside the parcel.
I use letter stamps for my gift tags here and also on my products when I giftwrap them for delivery. I just find it looks more uniform and also when it gets a little messy it can still look nice.
There are a few ways the parcels can be jazzed up a little more, such as well just a simple printing technique. You can use the rubber on the end of a pencil to create a soft dotted print on the paper, this looks lovely in white. If you wanted something a little more botanical you could try printing a leaf onto it, with the veins showing the shape of the leaf quite effectively.
So there we go, that's how I rustic wrap, probably a lot of what I will be doing this Christmas myself! Pop a comment underneath if you intend to try something different with the wrapping this year!
