Stamp Your Own Wrapping Paper

To save a bit of cash this year (if not time), I decided to buy some cheap brown parcel paper and some black tissue paper to make my own hand-stamped Christmas wrapping paper. I used a small knife to sculpt heart shapes out of erasers and bought some cheap ink pads in gold and red.

You need to use a very fine knife. The shavings will get everywhere so do the carving over a piece of scrap paper.

The tissue paper was good for wrapping the more delicate presents before wrapping them again in the brown paper. Again, I did the stamping over a large piece of scrap paper so that the ink didn't seep through to the table as the tissue paper is very thin.

I also found an old office stamp with letters so I could make the words 'Merry Christmas' for the little gift tags.

The stamps don't last very long since the erasers can be quite crumbly (I'm going to have to try some linoleum or rubber for a longer lasting stamp), but for a one-off project that's all you need really. They're also really versatile since you can make anything. Here's a little skull stamp I couldn't resist making.

Making A Heart-Shaped Cupcake Box

Once I'd finished making the cupcakes for Valentines Day that I showed you, I realised I kinda sorta didn't have anything to put them in other than a baking tin or something... which ruins the suprise a bit, don't you think. Anyway, I measured the size of box I'd need to fit three cupcakes to in comfortabley and set about making a template for one.

This is what the box looked like when it was finally glued together

A couple of bits kept coming unstuck but I had an idea how to fix that with some fancy, lacy crap. Yay!

And the insides are red, of course

Gluing on some lace trimming

Looks like the cupcakes fit! Afterwards, I ripped up some bits of parchment paper and stuffed it in all the little spaces around the cakes to keep them safe during transport.

A tiny-winy valentines card in an little red plastic bag...

Which sticks right inside the lid of the box. Neat

And here's the final finished product all tied up securely with a gold bow, ready to be stuffed in a Forbidden Planet bag and dragged around town for a day.

A Hot Chocolate Gift Idea

For my uncle’s birthday this year, I bought some cinnamon hot chocolate and I was trying to think of a way to make it more of a ‘present’ so I decided to make up a little packet of marshmallows to go with the hot chocolate

In the kitchen I found some mini marshmallows that I normally use for baking and a cake pop bag (you can use any small plastic bag)

 I folded a small label out of card and drew the design I wanted

Then I stapled the label to the little bag of marshmallows

And there you go! A little kit of hot chocolate and marshmallows ready to be wrapped up in a paper bag or some fancy patterned wrapping paper.