Gift Wrap Ideas # 6: Fun with Fonts

Most gifts I wrap involve a tag somewhere along the line, but for a few parcels this year I'm skipping the tags and using names and other messages as the decorative element:

The idea behind this look is really simple - though it takes a little time to put into practice - and will make your parcels really stand out! I think it's an ideal way of decorating gifts for men and boys who (let's be honest now) probably have no interest in a "pretty" or "chic" looking parcel and can't undo a ribbon to save their lives. This is certainly the giftwrapping idea which has had the most positive response from my boyfriend!

First up you need to make some letter templates. Print out the letters you need using your computer - you'll need a pretty big font size but this will depend on the size of the presents you're wrapping, and remember to set them as "outline" to save ink! I used Arial set to bold to make nice fat simple letters, and I should have printed out a whole alphabet in different sizes to save time as I just kept thinking of more people this idea would be great for.

I just printed my letters onto paper but if you wanted to use them a few times (or just to make using them easier) you could print onto card instead. Cut them out and you've got your templates:

 

To really save time you could print the letters directly onto coloured paper... but doing it the long way you can use a variety of decorative papers or use up all those small pieces of giftwrap you get left-over after wrapping your parcels. Draw round each letter with a pencil and cut it out, remembering to reverse the letters so they're the right way round when you turn them over (if that makes sense!). Then use some prittstick-type glue (something light that won't seep through the wrapping paper you've used) and stick your message onto your parcel.

I used bright red giftwrap on nice shiny gold paper for nephews and neices who like something cheerful...

... and more muted, subtle choices for our friends - vintage sheet music and an old map of London...

 

... and lovely gold lettering on kraft paper, which is probably my favourite:

I'm sure you can think of lots of variations - letters cut from pictures in glossy magazines for example would work really well on brown paper, and plain white letters (nice and easy to print straight from your computer) would also look pretty cool.


Please feel free to borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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