Practicing making origami frogs out of gift wrap for tomorrow's Maker Faire NC!
gift wrap
Dads & Dudes: Personalized Father’s Day Gift Bags
Wrap your Father's Day gifts in personalized style! Emma Jeffery, our lovely visiting author from the blog Hello Beautiful shows us how to create gift bags with custom-printed Spoonflower gift wrap!
I haven’t yet thought about a Father’s Day gift for my husband or my dad, but I have thought a lot about the packaging I will wrap it in! For a truly meaningful gift giving experience, I made personalized gift bags from Spoonflower gift wrap.
I used a photo collage of my children on one side of the bag, and a personalized greeting on the other. I designed my gift wrap so that the text and photos were positioned in the correct places to fold into a 9"x8" gift bag. The finished dimensions of my gift bags are: 9” wide, 3” deep and 8” tall. To make a different size gift bag you will need to change the position of your designs accordingly. I chose these measurements because you can fit six gift bag templates perfectly onto one roll of 26" x 72" Spoonflower gift wrap with zero waste!
I started by taking photos of my children and editing them into a collage using Picmonkey. I then opened a new file in a drawing program on my computer. I started by making the page the dimensions of one gift bag template: 26” x 12”. After selecting a background color, I imported the photo collage I had made. This is going on the left side of the screen, centered around the 4.5” mark (using the ruler at the top of the screen). I added text to the other side of the bag, leaving a 3” space in between for the side of the bag.
The black lines illustrate how I envisaged the bag layout and set out my designs accordingly. Pay attention to the ruler at the top of the screen in your drawing or photo editing program. This is your best friend when you want to make sure your photo or text are centrally and correctly positioned. Also keep in mind that the top and bottom 2” will be folded in and you should keep your text and photos away from those areas.
Once I was happy with the design, I saved it. I then created a new document and changed the page size to fit half a sheet of Spoonflower’s gift wrap; 26” x 36”. I imported my saved design into this new file.
I created a couple of extra designs for upcoming family birthdays and repeated this design on Spoonflower to create 2 gift bags of each design. You could have 6 bags of one design or 6 individual designs– it’s up to you! To create the gift bags, cut each template away from the roll of printed gift wrap and fold the top and bottom edges 2” to the wrong side.
I like to use a bone folder to ensure I get crisp, clean folds. Open up the folds.
Next, score the fold lines at 9”, 12”, 21” and 24”. Remember, the final two inches will be your flap for sticking the sides together.
Start to construct your gift bag. Put glue on the 2” end flap and adhere to the other side of the gift bag. Tuck the folded top edge inside the bag.
Fold the bottom edges as if you were wrapping a parcel. Put glue on the final flap and press down from inside the bag to secure.
Optional: Cut a piece of cardstock (an old cereal box will do) 3” x 9” and place in the bottom of the bag for reinforcement.
To finish, measure and punch holes along the top edges and thread ribbon through, tied at the ends to secure the handles in place. For reference, my ribbons were cut 15” in length each.
Now all that’s left for me to do is find the perfect gift to put inside the bag!
About Our Guest Blogger
Hi! I'm Emma, and as well as working on the Fiskars Design Team, I blog over at hellobeautifulblog.blogspot.com/
I'm an obsessive sewer, often leaping into projects with more enthusiasm than talent, more bravado than skill and more good luck than anything else. This technique has worked well for me so far and more often than not, I make things I love, even if they're not absolutely perfect. And though I'm no expert, I have a passion for fabric, color and design. I know what I like and what I like makes me smile.
Dads & Dudes: Biker Gift Wrap
Need handmade gift ideas for the dads and dudes in your life? For the month June we're sharing DIYs that are perfect for guys! To kick off the month, Mariah Palmer of the Everything Golden blog visits to share a simple tutorial to transform vacation photos into custom Spoonflower gift wrap!
I’m a graphic designer with a love for textile design and sewing. So when I found Spoonflower I was over the moon with joy. The possibilities are endless!
This year I created custom wrapping paper for my dad's Father's Day gift. I have a very special papa whose favorite activity is cruising the mountains on his motorcycle, so I thought it would be fitting to create a motorcycle gift wrap design and another with some photos of our beloved Idaho Mountains. You can purchase the motorcycle print here, or, use your own photos.
Here's how:
I used Adobe Photoshop to create the design. I wanted to use a few photos so I compiled them into one file to fit on one roll of gift wrap. Spoonflower wrapping paper roll dimensions are 26in x 6ft (72in).
I started by creating a photoshop file with the dimensions of 26” x 24.”
Then, I fit together 3 images to fit the width.
Once I uploaded my file to Spoonflower, I chose a basic repeat, so that the images would repeat along the length of the roll. You could also pick one photo, size it at 13” x 13” and select a basic repeat for your design layout on Spoonflower. You'll need to use high resolution photos for this project. When sizing your photo, keep in mind how your design will wrap around your gift.
Now you're ready to create your own custom gift wrap, perfect for a special present!
About Our Guest Author
Mariah is a creative wanderer in design, photography, and style A nature lover to the core she grew up in Sun Valley, Idaho, spent some time in Colorado and is now happy at home in Bozeman, Montana, wher her laser physicist husband and a smarty pants border collie named Indie. Her biggest source of inspriation is found in the solace of the mountains.
Wrappers’ Delight: See the Top 10 Birthday Gift Wrap Designs
Regular readers know that a few weeks ago we launched custom gift wrap. This past week we challenged designers in our contest to think about birthday designs that would look good on wrapping paper. The winner, chosen from a field of great entries, is "Party Animals" by Ttoz Designs. Congrats to Ttoz and the rest of the top ten this week!
The final voting results:
1. 444 votes for Party Animals by ttoz
2. 417 votes for Cupcake_Vine_WLIN by wendy_lin
3. 411 votes for Birthday Bunting by coggon
4. 398 votes for Lets go to the party by cjldesigns
5. 373 votes for Birthday Party Pets! by pattyryboltdesigns
6. 362 votes for birds & flowers by khandisha
7. 341 votes for Sweet Celebration by amandamcgee
8. 327 votes for stitch_gift by maeli
9. 321 votes for birthday by wiccked
10. 308 votes for Everyday Birthdays by juliesfabrics
[Read more…] about Wrappers’ Delight: See the Top 10 Birthday Gift Wrap Designs
Vote For Festive Birthday Gift Wrap Designs
Although most of the designs in our latest contest would look lovely on fabric, the focus of this week's challenge is actually gift wrap. Vote for the birthday-themed designs you like best, and you may have a chance to order your favorites on wrapping paper next week!
This week's intrepid competitors are:
1. 130501_221242 by jellybeanquilter
2. 20120713_4722_01 by angelnewsi
3. 30945773b by hmilwicz
4. 620154_rr-GrandmasRoseRibbon2-changed3
by grannynan
5. a chocolate BIRTHDAY by
rcm-designs
6. A Hearty Party Time by edsel2084
7. A Little Birdie Told Me…. by
jennartdesigns
8. Amadillos Birthday on black by
sydama
9. And Here is Your Party Hat! by
robyriker
10. aniversário_bolo-1a by gaby_braun
[Read more…] about Vote For Festive Birthday Gift Wrap Designs
Custom Printed Gift Wrap Is Back!
Today we're beside ourselves with excitement as we announce the official launch of custom gift wrap on Spoonflower! As of this morning, you can upload your own design and have it printed on a roll of custom wrapping paper for only $15. Spoonflower designers can also choose to make any of their existing designs available for sale on gift wrap.
Those of you who follow Spoonflower probably know that we did a trial run for custom gift wrap in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We've taken what we learned from that trial run and created what we hope is a fully-hatched set of features around gift wrap. The satin finish wrapping paper, for example, is slightly lighter than the paper we offered in the fall.
Spoonflower Gift Wrap:
- 26in wide x 6ft rolls of gift wrap (66cm x 1.8m)
- 48 lb satin and 26 lb matte high-quality paper
- Full-bleed printing from edge to edge
Our custom gift wrap is perfect for creating unique wrapping paper using photos, kids' drawings, or your own designs! It's also great for scrapbooking.
You may note that at the moment there is no shopping page for buying your favorite designs on gift wrap. Once the Spoonflower design community has had an opportunity to have a crack at gift wrap and to make a library of designs available for sale, we'll launch the shopping page. It should be up in a week or two!
Friday Photo: Gift Wrap For Zombies

Among the rolls of wrapping paper getting ready to go out the door, we've spotted some amazing and unique designs. Among our favorites? This brain wrapping paper, which might be just the thing to use on gifts for your little zombies.
Ruby Star Wrapping Book Giveaway
With the limited-release launch of Spoonflower gift wrap last week, we officially have gift-giving on the brain here at Spoonflower HQ! So what better to give away this week than a signed copy of Melody Miller's new book, Ruby Star Wrapping? Melody Miller is the designer of the popular "Ruby Star" fabric collections released by Japanese fabric company Kokka, and her quirky, vintage-inspired aesthetic comes through on the many projects in this new book co-authored with Allison Tannery. Gift-wrapping projects are organized according to the size, shape, and squishiness (or lack thereof) of the gift being given, and you'll find many creative ways of presenting your gifts using fabric, paper, ribbons, and other materials that are lovely, re-usable, and don't result in bag after bag of paper and refuse being dragged to the curb for disposal.
If you'd like a chance to win a copy of this book dedicated completely to the wrapping and presenting of gifts, just comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post, and include your Spoonflower screen name so we can track you down easily if you're our winner. Entries close next Tuesday, 11/20 and we'll announce a winner on 11/21. Good luck, to you all!
Last week, we gave away a roll of gift wrap to each of three winners, and those lucky folks were Christy Stephens, Tawny Regan, and Vickie Harmon. Congrats to the three of you, and we'll be in touch soon with details on how to collect your gift wrap!
Spoonflower Gift Wrap Giveaway
I have a dear friend who about this time every year begins gloating that not only does she have all her Christmas shopping done, she's made major headway wrapping everything, too. She is one crazy organized individual but perhaps with Halloween behind us, it really is time to start wrapping your brain around holiday gifts and trimmings.
To aid you in your holiday gift planning, we're excited to announce that we've launched Spoonflower gift wrap! This new limited edition Spoonflower product is a lovely one, a heavy-weight, scratch-resistant, satiny paper that can be used to dress up a gift for someone very special or for assorted craft projects where a high-quality paper with a vibrant print is called for. In our experiments, we found that tape used on this paper doesn't pull the print up with it when the tape is removed, so Spoonflower gift wrap is also very reusable and won't begin to disintegrate when curious little people try to sneak a little peek or when you're traveling with your gifts.
This week, we'll be selecting three lucky people to win a full roll (36 X 72 inches) of our new gift wrap printed with the Spoonflower marketplace design of their choice. To be entered into this drawing, just leave a comment here or on the corresponding Facebook post and do include your Spoonflower screen name so we can track you down easily if you're a winner. Entries close next Tuesday, 11/13 and we'll announce a winner on 11/14. Good luck to you all! This giveaway is now closed and a winner has been announced.