We were inspired by these amazing snowflakes on How About Orange and decided to create our own crafty garland with the pretty paper folds instead of snowflakes! It’s really simple and the end result is stunning, and you’ll only need a few items: paper, scissors, and a glue stick! We used our double-sided, eco-friendly Pageant gift wrap — it’s really cheerful & festive!

Cut 10-15 6 inch squares of your favorite Smock gift wrap. We used Pageant.

Fold each square in half diagonally, then fold it in half diagonally a second time.

Use the scissors to make straight cuts on the triangle, and make sure each cut is evenly spaced apart – we created 5 cuts. Be sure to cut into the folded side of the triangle.

Unfold the paper, then begin assembly by bending the tips of the inner-most sections toward each other. Curl with your fingers to give it shape, then glue the pieces together.

Bend the next set of sections around in the opposite direction until they meet. Overlap the ends and secure with a glue stick. Continue this process until each section is combined.

Begin assembling your garland by gluing the ends of the ornaments to one another. Let dry, hang, and enjoy!

With the holiday season underway, we know that there’s going to be lots of gift wrapping in the near future! Add a special touch to your gifts this year with handmade bows — they’re beautiful and will add the perfect personal touch to all of your gifts. (And bonus — they’re really easy to make!)

You can visit us on Youtube to see the instructional video that we put together, which shows you the whole process step-by-step. We’ve also put together this handy set of instructions that you can print out. You’ll need some of our eco gift wrap, scissors, a ruler, and a glue stick or double-sided tape for this project. Happy wrapping!

If you’ve toured the Smock offices recently, you probably saw the amazing bunting some of our team put together a while back (and if you haven’t been on a tour yet, look below!). Today’s DIY project will show you how to make your very own bunting in just a few quick steps – it’s easy! And you’ll only need a few items.

You will need:

• Your favorite Smock gift wraps
• Twine, rope, yarn, or ribbon (we love the way twine looks!)
• Scissors
• An adhesive of some sort — hot glue or double-sided tape

The first step of this DIY is to determine how large you want the little banners on your bunting to be. Ours are about 7.5 inches wide and about 9.5 inches high. If you want yours to be the same size, we created this handy little cutting guide for your convenience! Next, you’ll want to determine how much bunting you’ll need (for 25 feet of bunting, you’ll need around 42 little banners).

Cut your banners out with your favorite Smock gift wraps — we chose to mix it up & use a little bit of everything, but there’s tons of ways to make yours. You could use just one pattern straight across for a uniform look, or alternate the front and back patterns to switch things up while still color coordinating. You can also pick a few to varying wraps like we did for a vibrant, festive look.

Next, you’ll want to secure the bunting to the twine — there are a few ways to go about this. Before securing anything, be sure to give yourself a little extra twine (maybe a foot or two) to be able to hang the bunting. Then, start by making a small fold along the top of the triangle banner (the fold should be somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/2 inch).  Use your adhesive to connect the twine & paper — we used a handy tape gun (pictured above) with double-sided tape to quickly secure the twine to the paper, and this made the process really quick and easy. If you don’t have double-sided tape, a hot-glue gun would work well, too. We haven’t tried this with regular glue, but we’re sure it would work if you use something to hold down the folds while the glue dries. You’ll want to space your banners about 1-2 inches apart.

After you’ve secured your banners to the twine, you’ll notice little triangles that form from folding the paper over (pictured below) — just snip these little overlapping pieces off with your scissors for a clean, even look.

Repeat this process until you’ve created enough bunting for your decorating needs! If you didn’t pre-cut your twine, be sure to leave a little extra on the end to make hanging a breeze. The end result will be a perfectly cheerful strand of bunting!

Making your own bunting?? Share your images with us on Facebook – we’d love to see them!

We’re in fall mode around here, and we thought the best way to kick off the weekend would be a little arts & crafts project. These paper pumpkins are super cute & pretty easy to make — and you only need a few supplies! Here’s what you should have on hand:

• A sheet of your favorite Smock gift wrap (I chose our Crochet wrap, but Koi, Jade, or Veranda would work nicely, too!)
• Scissors
• Brads
• A mini hole punch (or a pen/pencil)
• A stapler (optional)
• Tape or glue (optional)

First things first: you’ll need to cut a bunch of thin strips out of the gift wrap (mine were about 8 or 9 inches). Don’t cut the strips much longer than this, or it will get too heavy and your pumpkin won’t sit upright. I cut about 20 strips of paper, but you can cut more or less depending on how “full” you’d like your pumpkin to be (again, keep in mind that you want the pumpkin to stand up, so try not to weigh things down too much). The thickness can vary, but the length should be the same.

Next, arrange your strips in a circle like so:

From here, there are a few ways to do things. I chose to staple the bottom of my pumpkin together, and gathered about a third of the strips at a time and stapled them in the middle. When I had three little groupings, I stapled all three together to keep things secure. You could also use glue for this part, or if you’d rather, you can hole-punch the ends of the strips and use a brad to secure everything at the bottom. Using a brad will make it easier to adjust the “body” of your pumpkin, but I liked having half of the pumpkin secure and then making adjustments up top.

Next, you’ll need to punch a (small) hole near the end of each strip. After you’ve punched the holes, one by one, push the brad through each hole, and then secure the brad.

Next, you’ll want to make the finishing touches. I cut a medium and a thin strip of paper and wound them up tightly to create the stem and a curly little vine.

I adhered the stem by stapling & folding the paper, and then taped down the vine with a thin strip of tape on top.

And voila! A sweet little paper pumpkin — cute decor for fall AND a fun little DIY project for the weekend — what’s not to love!?  Are you planning on creating a Smock pumpkin patch?? Send us your photos on Twitter — we’d love to see them!

We were SO excited to team up with Antoinette at Paperista for the incredible paper project that we’re about to share. The stationery boutique wanted to create a super-special display for a recent bridal event, so they teamed up with a local college design student to create fashion out of paper. Rika VanHeerde Snyder – a student in the Apparel Design Program at the University of Minnesota and intern at Joynoelle – created the most amazing, one-of-a-kind, letterpress wedding gown and cocktail dress for the display. The dresses were made entirely from recycled Smock stationery and invitations, as well as a bit of our eco-friendly gift wrap. We were completely blown away by the end result — take a look!

Rika worked with hundreds of scraps of bamboo paper to create the dresses.

The corset top on the wedding gown is completely stunning. The gown was crafted with our ivory bamboo paper, and some of the letterpress ink colors that are shown include raspberry, mango and taupe.

The cocktail dress was created with our white bamboo paper and features pretty hints of blue (our Ceylon gift wrap).

A huge thank you to the lovely ladies at Paperista for choosing to work with us on this incredible project!

{Photos by Erica Loeks Photography}

Got the back to school blues? This DIY is an adorable way to spruce up your school books (or any other books, for that matter) and it’s super easy! You will need:

• Your favorite Smock gift wrap (our picks from the left: Pageant, Plume, Jade, April, and Beetle)
• A ruler
• Scissors
• Tape
• A pen or pencil

To start, you’ll need to measure and cut your sheet of gift wrap to fit your book. We recommend giving a 3-4-inch margin on either side of the (open) book, and then a 1-2-inch margin above and below the book.

After you’ve cut your gift wrap, fold up the top and bottom of the sheet. Be sure that the folds are not shorter than the book. Use a few pieces of tape in the middle to keep everything straight.

Next, with the book inside, fold the paper in half, making sure the sides are even. Then, take the top part of the gift wrap and fold it neatly under the book’s cover. Repeat this step on the bottom.

After you’ve made even folds, carefully slip onto the book, securing the book’s cover into the little pockets that the folds create. Secure with tape.

Tada! We are loving the end result. And since our gift wrap is double-sided, you can alternate patterns – perfect for prettying up a set of books to display at home!

We were clicking around Etsy this morning, and happened upon this incredible handmade notebook and instantly fell in love. And, really, how would we not love it? Made by Etsy seller RedOtter, this notebook features Smock’s double-sided 100% post consumer recycled gift wrap and it’s absolutely beautiful! Thanks so much to RedOtter for choosing Smock paper for one of your lovely journals and for making us smile today!

{Photos by RedOtter}