After my recent trip to the School of Christmas is Derby I was inspired to do a little extra with my grift wrapping this year.. rather than just shop bought paper thrown at parcel on Christmas eve!

The beautiful wrapping shown to us by Fabulous places and Attic Birds-

So instantly I wanted to revert to my childhood and bring back potato printing! So whilst Tom was out running one night I made my potato prints, got some brown wrapping paper and some left over Farrow and Ball paint and gave it a go!

I choose a tree and star print. 

Turns out it takes a lot of wrapping paper to wrap all the gifts up! So be prepared, have a lot of space available to dry large sheets of paper! or maybe a hair dryer so it dries quicker!

Once all the paper had dried I set about wrapping, don't rush things... I sat down in front of the fire, with wine... and all the gifts in piles ready to wrap. 

Rectangle and square gifts are of course pretty easy and looked great in the printed paper- 

I added gift tags to the back of the parcels so I know who's gift is who's.

Some of the smaller gifts I left like this, some larger ones I added a little raffia twine-

With raffia its then really easy to add a little foliage at the last minute just before giving the gifts, I've added rosemary, eucalyptus and some berries in small hand tied bunches. 

Odd shaped gifts... that I didn't want people to guess... I've popped these inside an empty toilet roll and then wrapped them up as crackers! This way I'm confident my nephews won't guess the strange shaped toys!

For my nephews and niece I wanted to create something a little more fun... so I've drawn little cars to their gifts and tied on mini christmas trees- these have turned out so cute! 

There are some really great ideas over on pin interest that I wanted to try but ran out of time... but I've create a board if you fancied a look- 

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/glosters2333/gift-wrapping/

If you're not feeling adventurous or don't have the time to print your own paper, just adding a ribbon to normal gift wrap jazzes up a gift and makes it a little more special- 

 Hope this gave you a little inspirations, don't forget to share any ideas you have over on Instagram @glostersporthmadog. 

Have a very merry Christmas guys!

M x