Creative Custom Christmas Wrapping

Every year I try to get creative with my Christmas wrapping.

This year I ordered a few more rolls of custom photo Christmas wrapping paper. Last year it was a huge hit, so I'm doing it again.


Just because I'm not a big Christmas decorator until after Thanksgiving has passed, doesn't mean I'm not preparing for the holidays as we speak.

In fact, I've been prepping for quite a while now.

Clearly, I've been crafting.

However, I've been getting the house holiday ready in other ways, too.

It started with a deep fall clean.

Then a peek through a few magazines and blogs. 

For decorating and gift giving inspiration.

And finally, I went through my Christmas buckets to take stock of what I had, what I wanted to display this year and what needed to go.

It was during this process, going through my wrapping paper stash, specifically, when I ran across a scrap, saved from last year that prompted today's post.

You see last year, at the very last minute, I got an idea in my head and by the time it all came to fruition it was really too late to share.

Then I forgot all about it.

Until this year, when the zipper broke on my old wrapping paper caddy back in October.


And I had to buy this new one.


Which by the way, I love.

It's huge, fits my very tall rolls and is much deeper than the my former model to store bows, boxes and my crafting collection of gift bags.


Anyway, inside was a tiny piece of the wrapping paper I ordered for my girls in December of 2020.

I don't know exactly what gift I was looking for, but somehow I ended up on Zazzle.com.

Have you heard of this site?

I hadn't, but the featured product was this custom designed photo wrapping paper and I was hooked.


Normally, I wrap gifts up so they match my decor. I use buttons and bows, vintage cards and handmade tags. 

And I never pay retail for any of it.

However, for some reason, I thought it would be so funny to wrap the kids' gifts up in paper with their faces on it.

A little absurd and completely out of character for me, but I suddenly had to have it.

Plus, there was no need for gift tags and my kids are adorable.

So I looked through all the numerous choices and picked one.

Now if the girls were smaller, I might've dressed them up in Christmas garb and had them unknowingly pose for a shot to use on a red or green version of the paper.

Or if we still had pets, I definitely would've put a bow on their collars and put their mugs on paper, too. 

Instead, I searched through my phone and their Instagram page to find something I liked and more importantly, a picture I thought they'd like.

I settled on two shots that were used during a recent song release, mocked up my paper and sent the order along.

When it showed up, it was beautiful. Very sturdy and the photos were crystal clear.

I wrapped everything up that afternoon, tucked the presents under the tree.

And said nothing.

Later that day the kids were in the living room and noticed the wrapping.

They thought it was amazing...super fun and totally hysterical to see their faces on their gifts.

So much so, that they took tons of pictures and videos and plastered them all over their social media, noting what a Christmas crazy their mother was.

Guilty as charged.

Now, to be honest, it did take some time to arrive, since it was a custom order item.


And it wasn't cheap.

It was a splurge for sure, but I did have a coupon. I believe that this week they have a sale and coupons on their site.

BUT.

It was a great novelty gift and I will totally be doing it again this year.

I might also be ordering a few other items, since personalization is their big specialty over there and I was very pleased with the quality. 

I can't share specifics though, those kids do read my blog.

And I wouldn't want to give anything away.

Well, at least not until it's under the tree.

And they're staring at it.

Face to face.

😉

Have you ever wrapped things up with personalized paper?