This year I’ve decided all the Christmas gifts will be wrapped in brown paper. It started when I was re-using brown paper bags from the grocery store, wrapping the gifts with the insides of the bag so nothing but the brown showed. After I ran out of those I decided to buy brown Kraft paper from the Dollar Store {where else?} and continue on with my wrapping. I love the look of all the gifts in the house wrapped as brown paper packages. The monochromatic look is soothing to my tired eyes and gives a little space to get creative with the ribbon.
I created a handful of ways to wrap the brown paper packages, but this one only uses red ribbon and a brown paper bag from the grocery store. There really is something to simplicity, I love the way this present looks.
1. Start with plain brown paper 2. Place the ribbon underneath the wrapping paper seam 3. Pull the ribbon up and cross both strands 4. Twist the ribbons into a knot and flatten it across the package
5. Flip the package over & pull the ribbons taut 6. Thread one ribbon underneath the already taut ribbon 7. And then thread the second 8. Pull the two halves of the ribbon straight up
9. Now pull the ribbon taut 10. Now tie a knot
If you want, and I did want, tie the knot into a pretty little bow.
Doesn’t that look fantastic? All you need is a brown paper grocery store bag and some red ribbon and you’re off to the races!
Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
Love it! I wrapped my presents in brown paper and tied them with a ribbon as well but I also added some letter stickers from my scrapbooking stash to personalize the product.
That’s one of my ideas actually, I’m off to grab some crafty supplies to decorate the rest.
Love.
I love brown paper packages – I use wrap I found at Home Depot in the painting supplies – super cheap and easy as it comes on a roll. I just add colorful ribbons I find on the cheap since any color works.
Oh, we totally have some of that in the garage! Great stuff, super cheap idea.
I love that! What a brilliant and bold idea.
I aim for brilliant and bold.
*grin*
I’ve been using kraft paper for wrapping presents since I was a senior in high school. I worked at a boutique called The Brown Paper Bag and gifts wrapped in brown paper and accented with gorgeous ribbon bows were the trademark of the shop. I have loved the look of it since then!
As I’ve gotten older and more into repurposing and making do with what I have on hand, I’ve started using brown paper grocery bags.
It’s fun to decorate them with chalk or glitter pens – you can get really creative and get the kids in on it, too. But sticking with simple and elegant like you’ve shown here is very lovely and unique!
I’m going to show a few other ways I accented them, but the red ribbon might just be my favorite.