Wrapping Paper Coordination

I ran out of tags but my black sharpie marker seems to go with all my wrapping paper😉. The older I get the less I care about the wrappings. Ribbon only goes on my kids main/big gift so they can tell that pkg is special.
Merry Christmas!!!

sistah!
i re-use gift bags, and am too disorganized to even go with bows.
but i am the world's worst wrapper. it's like folding fitted sheets. i think that part of my brain is just not there. i'm in my mid-50s and my gifts still look like a kindergartner balled them up and wrapped them in tape.
so no, the notion of coordinating paper and tags seems like molecular gastronomy to me.
:) khairete
S.

My mom, the florist and artist, set the wrapping bar WAY too high for me to ever reach! Our Christmas packages looked like something out of a magazine, elaborate fluffy bows with multiple types of coordinating ribbons, coordinated ornaments artfully dangling, hand lettered tags with swirly Santa writing... I threw in the towel my first year with a kid old enough to have to be in bed while we wrapped! We always have a jam-packed holiday schedule, and are usually wrapping gifts until 3am, so if I can make the tape stick to the wrap and not the dog, I am doing well! That's why the universe gave me boys, who wouldn't appreciate the fluffy bows anyway, while my mom had 2 girls :)

I am addicted to paper! Wrapping paper, bows.. Special tags.. I am all over it.

I was a stationary Buyer for an upscale store and I LOVED the Paper showrooms. To be able to spend $1000's of this stuff. I was in heaven.
Especially since it was not my money!

Even as a child I would wrap fancy packages, add treats or flourishes to the tops of the boxes..

When our daughter was young, I would give her plain paper and let her color, paint or hand or footprint the paper.. Then use that as the wrapping paper. Even brown paper bags, with cut outs or paint can be really cool.

I still try to think up ways to make them even more fancy than the year before. Fresh greens, fresh flowers, Dried leaves, feathers.. Antique ornaments..

And then the ribbons. I love making huge bows. I have a bit of a collection to pull from, when I get tired of the designs, I sell the bits and pieces in Garage Sales.

I do all sorts of things in my businesses, wrapping packages is one of them. I sell my bows.. I was even hired by a company to design the packaging, for them to send out to other companies with a custom made gift. I was spray painting leaves gold on my driveway for about 2 days..

I would love to do a workshop where I give insider tips on how to wrap, make bows, design wreaths, garlands and trees.. I guess when I find time.. FYI, if I cannot find it wholesale, I purchase when the paper and ribbon is on sale super cheap. Some of the Ugliest wrapping paper or ribbons can be actually quite beautiful in the right combinations.

I know, I am weird and geeky..

We have 6 kids all getting 5 gifts each, plus their Santa gift. Plus, my mom sent me $ to buy the kids gifts from her, that I will now need to wrap. Plus, all the gifts for relatives, and even though we weren't supposed to this year, I bough my husband some gifts and he bought me a few too. We haven't even STARTED wrapping a single gift yet. I am FREAKING out! Coordination went out the window for us! We'll be slapping together whatever we have around midnight for the next 2 nights. I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

The only coordination I will do, is making sure Santa gifts are wrapped in different paper from our gifts. Then hide the leftover roll so no one discovers it!

I usually buy one of those 3-packs of coordinated paper from Walmart.

IF I buy tags, I try to find some that match... But usually I just write the name on the paper.

Bows? Psh.

:)

I'm just happy to get things wrapped :)

I love to wrap and it's an odd random talent of mine. I just baked and frosted a chocolate cake that's as ugly as sin (but super yummy), but I can make any package look like a pro did it. My paper is coordinated with my ribbons and bows that I carefully select. One thing I do, though, is have separate and distinct paper for santa gifts, which I just wrap plainly so no one knows it was me who wrapped them. I do this still even though my boys are 18 and 19 years old, lol!

Gifts leaving the house get coordinated paper, bows and tags. Otherwise, the gifts in my house get the paper bought on clearance and left over from other years, no bows, and the names are written on the paper with a sharpie. Once I bought a gigantic roll of paper, and every single gift was wrapped in the same paper. That was coordinated, but kind of boring.

Although I admire trees that are coordinated and matching colors and ornaments, and then the gifts are all wrapped, tagged and bowed in matching paper that goes with the tree...mine is definitely not like that.

I purposely buy different colored and styled wrapping paper. The kids get all excited to see all the colors and prints. I don't care much if the bows match and most of our gifts are in gift bags and stapled shut so the kids can't peek. lol So, no theme at all and I like it that way, less stress and who really cares anyway???!!!

Nope, I shop clearance and just am thankful for things being wrapped. I even skipped bows this year!

Typically I use brown wrapping paper. It suits any occasion so I don't have to worry about having the right paper on hand. Also it is thick enough to wrap well and hide the gift inside beautifully. The brilliance stops there, though, because I decorate it by hand to suit the occasion. Admittedly I have more enthusiasm than I do artistic talent but what the heck. I have yet to hear any complaints about my approach and lack of artistic merit. I avoid bows because I have a tendency to flatten them.

I did this one year and the presents looked beautiful. I had to go to an up scale store and ask if they had any wrapping paper that I could buy is a large quantity. It took about four years to use it all up. But boy did the presents under the tree look great!

When shopping at the end of the season, try to get papers that coordinate well together.

Wrapped presents under a tree are great regardless of the wrapping paper.

Have a wonderful day.

the other S.

PS I am still sewing mine and we need to leave for my son's house out of state.

I stock up on after-Christmas clearance, too. But I still buy with colors and style in mind, not just whatever is there. Wrapping paper and ribbons (supplies) are a real weakness of mine, but there have been a few years that I bought nothing, because I thought what was out there for sale was ugly, or it didn't match my taste.

I tend to have an average of 25 rolls of Christmas paper on hand at any given time, some partially used, some brand new unopened (and probably 35 rolls of ribbon). And the same with gift tags. I have found that if you stick with the traditional colors (silver, gold, red, green) it is hard to go wrong with tags. I have some blue and neon ones, too, but not many.

My tree isn't "coordinated" as in every paper matches every other paper, but the style of paper is pretty much the same. No "kiddie" prints, and not really any "retro" looking stuff either. I like foil paper the most.

Happy wrapping!

Even if I made an effort to color coordinate, chances are the wrapped gifts from relatives would stymie that plan.

I'm happy to get them done, and this reminds me that my husband will need to sneak some 'santa' wrapping paper into the house! Kiddo is shopping with me today and likely to notice.

As I wrap I try to use tags sthat have a similar theme or color scheme to match the paper - but I often stop myself and remind me that no one but me really cares about that. certainlly the kids dont!

Moms out there who coordiante everything have OCD and must have all of their shoes lined up neatly in the closet before they go to sleep. That will never be me...

Nope...I don't have a Martha Stewart bone in my body :) Frankly, I consider it just fine if I have everything wrapped! I love the idea of color coordinated everything, but the reality is that I consider it way too much work to do!

My cousin does. Our packages are more like yours. We saw paper we liked here and there and it's all a hodge podge. I do tend to use certain paper for certain people. The girls used most of our colorful snowflakes and pink snowmen. I used the greens and stripes for DH and SS. We don't tend to do many bows or ribbons.

If you want a fresh start, you might consider freecycling what you have left and getting something coordinated next year.

I usually try not to mess with bows and ribbon because it can get expensive quickly and it is all probably going in the trash anyway. I go this really cute santa/roudolph paper at hobby lobby that has a bright green background and it was screaming for some red ribbon. Of course I dont have any wrapping ribbon only for hairbows which I will not sacrifice to the trash. So.... I saw my pile of scrap fabric. I remember seeing someone rip the fabric into strips for another project and thought why not? I found some bright red that had white dots (snow balls?) and ripped it and wrapped it around the packages. It looks so darn cute. I ran out of sticky gift tags so I cut some tags out of kraft paper on my cricut, added some washi tape and twine and viola! So mine ends up being cute and coordinated on accident. But there are plenty of reused bags and such that dont match. I only buy one roll of wrapping paper at a time so that is how much of it matches anyway. Merry Christmas!

I usually try to stick with some sort of color theme but it's all hand made. I don't go out and buy them