How To Make Your Own Gift Wrap

Wow, here it is Saturday and already the end of Birthday Week. I guess the party's gotta end sometime, right? It's been so great putting together assortment after assortment of smart birthday finds in party decor, recipes and paper goods. I only hope you've enjoyed looking through each post as much as I have creating them for you. But, before the party ends completely there is one last thing I'd like to share with you and that's some simple ideas and tips for making your own gift wrap.

Supplies You'll Need:

-plain wrapping paper; I've used parcel post in this how to but, butcher's wrap works great too. A white background will always show your colored inks better.
-ink or stamp pad
-rubber stamp or clear stamp and acrylic block
{tip: clear stamps make it easier to line up patterns}
-scissors
-tape
-ribbon

Gift Wrap How To:
1. Gather your supplies and find a clean area to work. Make sure you have enough room to lay your wrapping paper flat out. To avoid getting any ink on your furniture it might be a good idea to use a work mat. If you don't have one just substitute some scrap paper. I'd tend to avoid newspaper if you're working with butcher's wrap - news ink could stain your paper.
2. Measure how much paper you'll need to wrap your gift and cut to size. Lay your paper out flat. If it is curling up grab some heavy coasters and plop down on opposite corners. Now for your first stamped image - be sure to align it in the center of your paper and work out from there.
3. Continue to stamp in an evenly spaced row down the center. When you are ready to move onto the next row be sure to stagger the stamped image. You don't want the images in the center row and the rows next to it to line up. Just be mindful of keeping the same amount of space between each stamped image.
4. When you finish your second row continue on with the third in the same manner. The staggered the images from the third row should match up with the center row but not the second. Keep stamping rows until the right half of your paper is complete. Then work out from the center again towards the left until your wrapping paper is done.
5. Allow a minute or two for the paper to dry before you grab your gift and wrap it up.
6. Add your pretty ribbon, tie into a bow and voila your done!

If you're not a card person I'd recommend making a small 3"x 3" gift card to match your wrapping paper. Cut a piece of paper into a 3"x 6" strip, stamp it in the same manner you did the gift wrap, fold it in half, grab a hole punch and put a hole in the upper left hand corner of the card, thread some ribbon through, write a quick message and attach to your gift.

For more d.i.y. gift wrap ideas check out these articles:
-If you find it impossible to wrap a gift neatly check out this refresher, The Perfect Package, courtesy of Martha Stewart.
-This dip dye wrapping paper, also from Martha, is such a great idea. I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet myself, but it sure does look like a good activity. Hmmm...I wonder if it would work with tissue paper.
-Here's a cute how to from Creature Comforts, grocery bag pom-poms. I've made these myself before, they're super cute and fun and no one explains it better.

Well, that's all for today folks. I hope you enjoyed this little how to. Now go out and make something pretty!

Back to Basics

I think its so interesting how tastes evolve over the years due to what's available at the time, take for instance ink colors or printing machines. When the letterpress first came out it was the hip thing to lay the ink on the surface of the paper ever so lightly, called kissing. This made it look as smooth as possible. But today, in this digital age, everything looks smooth with ink sitting on top of the paper. Which is why letterpress printers now apply pressure when laying the ink resulting in a noticeable impression in the paper. It's their way of defining their craft and standing apart from a sea of laser printers.

For me, everything seems so mechanized and mass produced by one machine or another. Which is why I began to make one-of-a kind cards and custom invitations. When an invite is embellished with hand stamped images no two are ever exactly the same. I love that! I love experimenting with applied pressure when laying a stamp; just like today's letterpress printers do. I love applying pressure at one end of a stamp and lightening up on the other to leave a kind of faded or worn off look or I can add embossing powder to raise an image off the surface entirely. I mean really there are so many different ways to try things when you hand print them. I'm only limited by the range of my imagination and creativity. Which, thanks in part to the way my parents raised me is a pretty wide range.

When it comes to machines, I'm the only one at Birdcage Cards and I'd like to keep it that way, at least for now.

The Custom Process Revealed

Today I want to talk about what really goes into making a custom invitation order. I won't get into the steps involved in both placing an order and designing an invitation. What this post will cover is the steps of assembly, from picking out the right paper weight all the way to packaging for hand delivery. I think it's important for each customer to know exactly what goes into making their invitations in terms of time, cost, creativity and most importantly - love. Because, for a handmade artist, it is all a labor of love.

First Things First: Once the paper weight and color is determined its time to measure and cut. Remember, this is a handmade establishment. There are no machines programmed to cut out each piece of paper (at least there are no machines other than me).

For this order two sheets of paper were used to achieve the desired look which means twice the cutting. A mint green 80lb cover weight paper (medium weight cardstock) served as the background while the text was printed on a white 80lb cover weight paper. The text sheets were all cut slightly smaller than the green to create an even border of color around the invitation, but that comes later.


Here you see at the left the paper I start out with measures 8 1/2" x 11". It must be cut on the sides to measure 4" in width. The length is not yet cut.

Each piece is carefully inspected. Only crisp smooth edges are allowed. See where its frayed? This whole step can be very very time consuming.

Second: Once all the background paper has been cut and inspected its time to create the detailed lace work edging for the top of the invitation. Now you can see things taking shape.



Third: I measure the width I'd like the top flap to be and use the groove from my Fiskar's paper trimmer to help me achieve an even line when I score the paper. Now that the top of the invite has been detailed and scored its safe to cut the length of the paper to 9 1/4".


It's important to make sure that each piece of paper is measured exactly the same when scoring the top flap.

Fourth Up: After printing a test sheet on scrap paper and checking the layout its time to print the text. I chose an 8 1/2" x 11" size paper so its printer ready. Since a sheet of paper tends to have a smooth side and a slightly textured side its important to be sure to print on the same side each time when feeding the paper through the printer. This way all invitations are made using the same format.


I find that feeding one sheet of paper at a time ensures that each one is printed evenly. Yes, I use a ruler to make sure. Precision is crucial.

Fifth: More measuring and cutting; length and width wise. I pick a line of text and measure the margin from the first letter and then the last in order to assure that the text on each sheet is centered perfectly. As for the leftovers, the widest strips of paper are saved and used to bundle invitation and stationery sets. Anything else that can't be re-purposed is recycled.



Sixth: Now that all text has been printed and cut its time to add the images, in this case two little bunnies. On the scrap sheet of text that was printed earlier I experiment with the best placement of these little friends. They need to be perfectly centered. It helps to pick a specific letter from the line above and each time I'm about to stamp an image I look to align it with that particular letter.


First I stamped the boy bunny on all the invites then I went back and stamped the girl. I needed them to look like they were holding hands and stamping them separately was the only way to achieve the look.

Seventh: After each invite has been hand printed (stamped) its time to use my watercolor pencils and add some color. Once I pick up a colored pencil I use that color on each invite. For example, with the pink pencil in hand I color the dress and tint the inner ears of the bunnies on each invite, then I use the green and color the boy's shirt and the girl's flower on each invitation and so on until all is colored. It's easier than coloring one invitation at a time and picking up and setting down the pencils over and over.


Without any color these little bunnies look like nudies to me!

Eighth: After the water has been painted on and the paper dries (it shouldn't be that damp or you've used too much water) its time to assemble the invitations.



Ninth: This step involves tying lots and lots of pretty bows. Once they are all tied its time to glue them to the top of each invite and set aside to dry overnight.


So many pretty little bows!

After a good night's sleep I went to check on the invitations. The morning sun had cast such a pretty shadow on them that I had to capture it.

Tenth: My favorite part of every order is stacking all the pretty invitations, counting out the envelopes and bundling them together. There is nothing more satisfying than completing an order and getting it ready for its recipient. I always make sure to tuck a little handwritten note inside to let each client know how truly grateful I am to have been picked for the job.

Bundled with a thank you note written on my new Birdcage Cards stationery!

This little cotton tailed bunny hopped on over and went home with the invitations as a small token of thanks to a wonderful client. Hopefully it will pair perfectly with her gift to give to her friends at the bunny themed couple's baby shower she and her husband are throwing for them.

Since, this order was being hand delivered I was able to present it like a gift. Of course the wrappings had to match the invitations!

It's a Wrap:

So there you have it - a peek into the making of a set of invitations. I hope you have a better sense of what goes into completing an order. There are a lot of time consuming details, that's true, but each ensures that every invite put together is done so with precision every step of the way. This small order took two days and one night (for the adhesive on the bows to dry) to assemble and I loved every second of it.