Our team has been getting crafty lately! Jen from our Everyday team (the mastermind behind our decorative National Stationery Show displays every year) put together a few decorative heart-shaped wreaths with Valentine’s Day in mind. She created both wreaths with extra envelope liners that were going to be recycled, but they could easily be made using any of our gift wraps. The first piece is a massive heart made of tiny paper cones. Jen started with a large piece of cardboard for the backing cut into a heart shape (and sized a bit smaller than the final product — you’ll want the cones to hang over a bit so they hide the cardboard edges), then made small paper cones and adhered them to the outside and worked our way in (check out this tutorial for some helpful visuals). We love our ATG guns for craft projects like this one, but you could also use a glue gun for this sort of project. 

Jen also created a heart-shaped wreath using a variety of rose gold foil envelope liner scraps, with hints of gray mixed in. For this wreath, she started again with a heart-shaped, cardboard base, but instead of cones, covered the wreath with small leaf shapes adhered with ATG. To give the wreath volume, Jen pinches the adhered end of the leaf just a bit before adhering so that it doesn’t flatten out. The leaves are then layered over the entire base until it’s covered and voilà! A festive (and reusable) Valentine’s Day wreath.  

We’ve got  a fun DIY featuring our double-sided gift wrap to share today that was recently shown on the Little Yellow Couch! These pins are a cute way to show a little love, or could even be used as prize ribbons. Check out the DIY instructions to make your own!

Supplies:

• Double-sided gift wrap 
• Quilting Ruler or Straight Edge
• Rotary Cutter
• 2″ Circle Punch
• 2 1/2″ Circle Punch
• Glue Gun
• Glue Stick
• 1 1/2″ or 2″ wide ribbon
• 1″ pin back

Directions:

1. Gather your supplies.
2. Cut a strip of double-sided gift wrap 2″ wide by 24″ long.
3. Accordion fold the paper in about 1/2″ wide folds continuing the length of the paper strip.
4. Apply the glue stick to both 2″ ends and glue together creating a cylinder.  Allow to dry for a few minutes.
5. Flatten cylinder to create a circular medallion.  Using your glue gun, apply a small dot of hot glue in the center of the medallion and hold circle together for a few seconds to allow glue to harden.
6. Using your 2 1/2″ round punch, cut two circles out of the gift wrap.  Using your glue gun, adhere one circle to each side of the medallion.  We chose to use the opposite design on each side.
7. Cut a 6″ piece of ribbon and notch one end.
8. Glue ribbon and pin to the back of the medallion.
9. If you’d like, print Little Yellow Couch’s Fan Club Titles on card stock.  Using your 2″ round punch (or scissors), cut out the circle.  Glue to the center of the front of your medallion.
10. Go make someone’s day!

Here’s a printable PDF with step by step instructions. Many thanks to the Little Yellow Couch for sharing this cute DIY with us!

We’ve got another special how-to post to share with you today from Carol at Jolie Colis! Last month we shared a beautiful set of gifts featuring our pastel Seersucker gift wrap, and today we’ve got another how-to featuring our Garden Path gift wrap for an extra pretty present! This approach would be perfect for a birthday gift or Mother’s day (which is Sunday, May 12!).

We’ve got a special treat to share with you today! Carol from Jolie Colis — a talented gift wrapper with an amazing local boutique here in Syracuse that offers custom gift wrapping for special occasions — put together some tips and tricks for how to create a gorgeous gift. We love this stacked set of gifts featuring our pastel Seersucker wrap that Carol put together — it would be perfect for a baby shower, spring holiday gift or even a birthday present!

You will need:

Christmas is right around the corner, and we love having an extra reason to get crafty around here! We made these festive Christmas Trees with our double-sided gift wrap for a little extra holiday cheer — they’re a fun DIY project and pretty enough to give as a gift — just be sure to make a few for yourself!

You will need: a cone/tree form (we preferred the cardboard cones, but styrofoam works, too!), paper, scissors, and a hot glue gun. Start by covering your tree form in the paper color of your choice. We used our Merry wrap for this tree. If you purchase a cardboard tree form, these typically have a point on top, but if you use a styrofoam form (like the one shown above), we recommend making a point with the wrap for a sleek look (see below).

After you’ve covered the tree form, you’ll need curls. LOTS of curls. We used our Merry wrap and our Mistletoe wrap for this part for some variety.  To make the curls, cut your paper into thin strips of varying lengths and widths — the variety will help the tree ‘fill in’ nicely. Then, begin curling the strips with scissors the way you would for curling ribbon. When you’ve compiled a decent amount of curls, begin adhering them to your tree with a hot glue gun.

Fill the entire tree form with the paper curls until you’re happy with the look. If you’d like, make a star to adhere to the top or leave it as is — and tada! A very merry (paper) Christmas tree.

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!