Creative Christmas Wrapping

Finally back for another update! This one is something I have been meaning to post since Christmas. (Excuse the picture quality- I had to use my cell phone, my camera was dead)

Penguin, Reindeer, & Polar Bear Presents (Better quality, individual pics below)

 Here is the story: My parents and I decided to give money cards to my teenage nieces and nephew. We also wanted them to have a little something to open and be able to use on Christmas Day. Skittles is a old favorite of theirs, so they each got a bag. While I was wrapping, I thought it would be cooler to make it more interesting, instead of just sticking the Skittles in a box or gift bag. I had seen some pictures on Facebook of how people had wrapped presents to disguise what they were. Most used cardboard to build newly shaped boxes for presents, but I didn't have the materials or that kind of time (I was wrapping these late on Christmas Eve - Procrastinator!!)

I started to try to manipulate the bag itself, to see what would happen. I noticed that I could get a shape kind of like a body, really more like a beanie baby. Rubber bands were the best way to help them keep their shape. Once they were tied up, they were really sturdy. Here is what they looked like at this point:

Step 1: Make the body shape and bind with rubber bands

Next, I needed to add some heads to the bear and reindeer bodies. (The penguin didn't need anything extra, I just shaped his head and neck with the rubber bands.) I made the head forms by balling up scrap wrapping paper and using artist tape to bind it together and attach it to the body.

Step 2: Add head to Reindeer Body

Step 2  Cont.: Add head to Bear Body

The last steps were to wrap the bags with wrapping paper and add in little details. Wrapping was just trial and error until I got them all covered properly. I drew in eyes, noses, and mouths with a sharpie marker. Next, I cut and folded wrapping paper to make the ears and tails on the reindeer and bear, and the wings and beak of the penguin. I cut long strips of wrapping paper for scarves and reins for the reindeer. To make the antlers for the reindeer, I used a scrap wrapping paper tube and cut out the antler shapes. These were nice and sturdy, since this was a heavier paper and the curl of the tube made the antlers curve as well. This was a nice effect. The antlers were taped on. Here are the final pieces!

Penguin

Reindeer

Polar Bear

 The kids really seemed to love them.  They liked them so much they didn't want to unwrap them right away. They did take a stab at guessing what they were, and got it right pretty quick!

Fun wrapping experiment! I may try this again at some point, there is a lot of problem solving involved and it keeps things interesting!