The Intersection of Design & Motherhood
These monotone gift wrapping ideas — created by Summer Watkins from things like burlap, old sweaters, ribbon and twine — have me feeling inspired. I keep staring at all the pretty details. You can find a full DIY here.
It’s been awhile since I wrapped a gift in a really lovely way. But I enjoy it when I do, so I should do it more often. What about you? Are you a gift bag girl? Or do you like wrap and ribbons?
images by Jenny Liu
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My name is Gabrielle Blair. I'm a designer and mother of six. We're currently living in a farmhouse in the French countryside. It is dreamy as can be. I post on where design and motherhood intersect.
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New to Design Mom? Here are 10 posts to get you started:
What to Wear To Middle School
Napoleon Dynamite
Our Birth Announcements
Potato Print Clothing
Having Another Child
Young Einstein Birthday Party
Little Red LightHouse Outing
Porch Makeover
Waving Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean
Build Two Toddler Beds for $75
Pimp My Ride: Family Edition
We've used our base in France to do lots of traveling. It's addictive! Here are some of our adventures:
A trip to Amsterdam.
Canoeing on the Dordogne River.
A Belgian Waffle Tour.
A wintery visit to Cologne.
Three cheers for Barcelona!
The tulip fields in Holland.
We saw the final match of the French Open.
One of our favorite spots is Mont St. Michel.
I wonder where we'll wander next! To see more of our travels, click here.
Wow! Time Magazine named Design Mom a Top Website of the Year. I'm blushing! See the writeup about Design Mom here. And see the full list here. You can find more press links, interviews and articles here.
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Every year, a bunch of us girls (we’re talking upwards of 30 people!) get together for a big gift exchange. We play bingo and steal other people’s gifts; it gets very competitive! And I have to say that the most sought-after gifts are the ones that are beautifully wrapped. We don’t get to open the presents until the very end of the game, but people get very territorial based on the lovely wrapping!
I love the simplicity of this. Very soothing to the eyes.
Gift bags: I like the idea that you can use them over and over again but I’m really not a fan of gift bags. I love a beautifully wrapped gift.
So pretty! We are doing something similar to this but with jewel tones this year. I love the cremes and whites, though.
I love the look of gift wrap, but the environmental friendliness of bags. This year however I’m just being a total mooch. Long story short: rented our house to move to China, gave birth to special needs baby, moved back, our house is still under contract, now renting a 120 year old farm house that is fully furnished. Snooping in old closets one day and found mounds of gift bags and tissue paper. I see it as the cosmos giving back to me. Granted the bags are covered in dust from the 1970′s, but that’s no problem since I found a bunch of old towels in another drawer that I cut up into rags.
For the past few years we’ve done wild store-bought Christmas wrap for the kids’ benefit (think Cars, John Deere). This year though, I bought a roll of brown kraft paper and am planning all sorts of cute ribbons and gift tags.
I love a gift that has been wrapped beautifully, but for Christmas it is gift bags for many things, just because there are so many gifts to give and I can fancy up a brown bag with beautiful ribbon and make it look special. The kiddos get wrapped gifts (often hard to wrap gifts) but not fancy because the paper is gone in 10 seconds flat. I
Wow, I’m on it today, I’m # 7. PleasePleasePleasePleasePlease i hope i win.
Shoot this isn’t a give away….SIGH
oh wow! I would almost feel bad opening these presents they are so pretty!
I have been loving to get wrapping paper at the dollar store that is just plane brown, almost like paper bag paper and either coloring/drawing on it myself or having my 2 year old son do the honors. It makes for fun all around.
LOVELY. I don’t think I could open it! LOL. thecoolkidsblog.com
I love how naturally beautiful everything is. So pretty, even before opening the gift!
Those are so beautiful! What a creative idea. I definitely enjoy wrapping gifts! It takes more time, but it comes from the heart :)
I’m totally wrapping obsessed. I never used to be (grew up in a house full of boys who wrap with duct tape and newspaper) but when I got married my mother-in-law had the most beautiful gifts and just the look of them was gift enough. Now I love to make gifts wrapped in love and beauty. If you are looking for reliable wrapping paper options, I go to places like Target, Michaels or Roberts (in the west) and Hallmark. I also go online for paper but those stores usually have decent options.
When I start with the wrapping of Christmas presents I love to wrap them in beautiful and creative ways. By the time I get to the last present I am tossing them in gift bags with tissue paper.
Seriously beautiful.
These are wonderful – I’m a wrap and bows girl myself . . . partly out of practicality. It’s much too easy for little people to peek in or even completely unwrap gift bags in the torturous days that they sit under the tree!
I am a gift bag person but this makes me want to wrap more. I love all the textures.
I love the idea of wrapped gifts and as a result have over 30 rolls of wrapping paper lying around this house! However, I find that I don’t give myself enough to do pretty wrapping and 90% of my gifts end up in bags. Bags are SO DARN EASY! I wrap more for Christmas than at other times, but I need to work on slowing down and remembering that wrapping can be part of the gift!
I love beautiful gift packages and try to make the effort, especially at Christmas, to make them extra special. As a kid I always volunteered to wrap gifts for my mom–my love of all things paper goes way back! These are really beautiful!
I love wrapping gifts. Every year I wrap all our Christmas gifts in jewel-toned foil wrapping. It makes such a beautiful and magical display of shiny colors under the tree. When I give gifts, I probably focus a little too much on the packaging, but I can’t stop myself. Yes, I’m the person who would be excited to find coal in my socking–if it were packaged right!
Wrap and bows all the way. I wrap a mean package, with neat seams and everything. Plus, everybody is like a little kid — unwrapping a package beats pulling it out of a bag any day! I’m with Rian, though, gift bags are so practical and reusable, and wrapping paper is so wasteful. But I looooooooove it, and am having a ridiculously difficult time giving it up.
I love creative gift wrapping ideas. It makes the tree look so beautiful when all the packages beneath are lovely.
These are SO inspiring! I think this weekend I’ll search around my house for scraps.
This really is inspiring. So, so pretty.
Wow, I absolutely love this colour scheme at the moment!! Super inspirational!! THIS is why I read DesignMom!! :D
That is beautiful. Inspiring. Gift wrapping is like fixing a beautiful meal for your family…a lot of work that vanishes quickly but brought a lot of joy.
I adore wrapping paper and ribbon!! I love the look of these packages too!!
Nice post. I’d love to see some versions of all red or all green! Then textures really come alive!
Wow, so pretty..great for the holidays or for wedding gifts.
I love this. I just wish my husband would understand my need for all things color coordinated when it comes to holidays and special occasions.
Beautiful! My inlaws and I have a kind of unstated “competition” on who’s packages are prettier. My husband’s aunt couldn’t be there for Christmas last year, so she mailed her presents, and even stuffed the bows with packing peanuts so that her packages were still gorgeous, even though they had crossed state lines in a cardboard box!
I love these! I sw them a while back and used them for inspiration for a set of favor boxes I did. You can see them here:
http://www.whipperberry.com/2010/08/emilys-favor-boxes.html
It’s always fun to see them again.
Kisses,
Emily
WhipperBerry
So lovely! I prefer gift wrap to gift bags…so much prettier (and more fun to unwrap too). :)