Every holiday season, I aim to do at least one homemade/handmade project. Last year it was ornaments for the tree. The year before that I made a few banners out of card stock.
This year, with the help of
Elmers and
X-ACTO, I tried my hand at a handmade gift wrap project. Using several products from both Elmers and X-ACTO, I set out to create a unique wrap for a special gift.
I started with a shopping spree at my local
WalMart. Did you know WalMart carries a wide variety of scrapbooking, sewing, and crafting supplies? Did you know that WalMart's selection rivals that of a specialty craft store? I was impressed by the selection and especially by the prices.
Here is a sampling of the selection. You would never find these prices at a craft store...not even with a coupon.
The scrapbooking aisle offered many different products for all uses in scrapbooking as well as in other crafts.
I got busy surveying EVERYTHING! There were plenty of #ElmersHoliday products and X-ACTO items that were perfect for my #GlueNGlitter gift wrap project. I found the perfect combination of products and loaded them into my cart. Shopping at WalMart rather than a craft store allowed me the opportunity to pick up a few other necessities such as apple juice and fabric softener.
Once I arrived home, I spread out most of my supplies and plotted my project. I used a few items that I already had on hand such as various types and colors of ribbon.
I bought 3 Elmers products and 3 X-ACTO products. Do you remember X-ACTO knives from high school art class? I never knew that X-ACTO actually made any items other than knives.
I bought 3 X-ACTO scissors; the Precision, the scallop, and the zig zag. The Precision scissors cost $6. The other two decorative scrapbooking scissors were each $1.98.
I bought 3 types of Elmers adhesives; glue spots, glue pen, and double-sided scrapbooking tape.
It was time to get started!
1. Wrap
I wrapped my gift in postal paper. I chose this type of paper because it was neutral in color and one shade. There were no prints or patterns that would compete with the adornments. Any plain colored paper, such as red, green, white, or this postal paper, will work best.
2. Ribbon
Choose a ribbon that will complement your adornments and your choice of color for your paper. Again, you don't want any colors to clash or compete with one another. I chose a cream ribbon with gold holly leaves. The cream is a nice contrast to the brown postal paper. Tie your ribbon as you wish. I chose to tie it around the box only once because I wanted to leave as much space for the embellishments. I am not an expert at tying bows. I sure wish I were.
It was now time to start decorating my package. I bought several cardboard punchout sets from WalMart. They did not have adhesive backing, and so I needed to experiment with the 3 different adhesives that I bought to determine which would be the best for each type of product. I had the glue pen at the ready since I thought it would be my best option.
3. Adornments and Embellishments
I wanted to go with a fancy look, but my daughters convinced me to go with a whimsical look. I am always accused of being on the more formal side. We bought the fun, Santa and snowman punchouts. I glued the cardboard punchouts onto the gift. There were only 2 different packages of punchouts available at WalMart. But each package offered an array of designs and sayings. The glue pen worked wonderfully on the punchouts. For some of the smaller punchouts, I chose to use the glue spots since getting a small amount of glue on a small punchout was often difficult.
Note: Keep in mind that I plotted out how I wanted the adornments to appear on the package. I strongly recommend that you do this. Otherwise, it will appear haphazard.
4. Handmade Adornments
In addition to the punchouts purchased at WalMart, I made my own ornaments out of card stock and ribbon. It was very easy.
First, trace a circle. I used the spool that the ribbon was on as a template, but you could use a glass or a mug.
I cut out the circles using the scallop and zig zag scissors rather than the straight-edged Precision scissors. The scissors added a fancy and decorative touch to the ornaments.
Using my 4 templates (which became 8; 4 for two sides of the package), I randomly decorated them using ribbon and various adhesives. When I looked at the finished product, I wished I had written on the ornaments. The Elmers Glitter Glue would have been perfect for this feature.
I have to point out here that my favorite adhesive turned out to be the glue spots. I thought the glue pen would win out over all others. In the end, I loved the glue spots. If you don't know what they are, then think of the sticky stuff on the back of a new credit or debit card when it arrives in the mail. Yes! It's that kind of glue.
After all my tweaks were made and all glue spots in their places, the #ElmersHoliday #GlueNGlitter gift wrap project was completed.
Front view
Side view (both sides are the same)
An up-close shot of the bottom of the front view.
Win! Win! Win!
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Disclosure: This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #ElmersHoliday #GlueNGlitter #CollectiveBias #CBias. All opinions expressed herein are solely mine and have not been influenced by Elmers, X-ACTO or Collective Bias.
