Gift Wrapping Art – Collage

For me, a wrapped gift is always a work of art (however it’s been wrapped or by whom!)

Google dictionary describes art as “An expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

I’ve never been in any doubt that acrylics, canvas and a set of brushstrokes isn’t the only way to produce a creative collaboration called art! Wrapping paper, sticky tape and hands can create something as beautiful, interesting and absolutely just as powerful (if not more) at tapping into human emotion.

From the joy you get on seeing a beautiful design of wrapping paper to the excitement and pleasure someone has when they receive and open a wrapped gift, the art of wrapping is extremely emotive and always worth any effort and time put in, whether you like wrapping or not!

Now you could hand a gift over in a plastic bag of course (…listen if Tracey Emins unmade bed can make it then why not) but if you don’t want to chance that your artistic message will be translated into ‘didn’t give a monkeys’ then taking a bit of time to create something beautiful and releasing your inner ‘banksy’ with your own unique style on things is definitely the way to go!

No one ever lost marks for putting a bit of time and effort in did they?

So this months blog is about daring to be different, to unleashing your inner Gift Wrapping free spirit and to addressing a bugbear of mine all at the same time ….The act of wasting something beautiful that can be reused!

It so pains me to see a beautiful quality gift paper go to waste after its been lovingly ‘ripped’ off a gift and ok whilst I admit to thinking my Grandmas folding and salvaging gift wrap all those years ago as being a bit (!?) of a ‘hoarding’ thing to do, I totally get it now.

Reusing and recycling is so the way to go and really satisfying to do so…My crafty, nay thrifty way to use used gift wrap? I cut out the bits of it I love, that make me happy or remind me of the person who gave me it and I do all sorts with it, including adding to journals, mood boards etc and my absolute favourite…Using it to make Gift Wrapping art by way of a collage!

Now this month we’ve been given a gift in our own beautiful Designers Guild Tourangelle Peony Paper so it seems fitting to use it as our example. OOh yes, who could bare to throw this delight away! So here goes… See what you think!!

Step 1) Keep the bits you love and that can be resued. In this case as it had been a good sized gift given to me I was able to salvage quite a bit of paper (so satisfying when that happens!!)

So as this paper is double sided we’ve used the grey marble effect side to wrap a small gift and cut out several flowers for decoration.

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Step 2) Start laying out the pieces to make a collage and once you’re happy with the positioning, simply take some double sided tape or glue and fix in position!

Step 3) Decide if there’s anything else you’d like to add ie ribbon, gift tag etc and your masterpiece is complete!

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Of course don’t stop there…As well as reusing gift wrap there’s just so many other materials you can keep and add to your wrapping art. Here’s some we did many years ago. A bit of food for creative thought!

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