Gift-wrapping is on our list of favorite things to do. We love customizing each gift and finding beautiful new ornaments we can use and new techniques that can make the process more enjoyable and fun. Selecting a color or a pattern for the wrapping paper is not a very easy task. You could make this whole process easier by simply opting for brown paper and getting creative when it comes to tags and toppers.

Brown paper is pretty much like a blank canvas which puts the focus on the bows, tags and other accent details which you might use when wrapping your gifts. So look for ways to play with contrasts and colors. For instance, after you’ve wrapped your gift in brown craft paper, decorate it with a straw star. You can find the instructions that show you how to make it on Splashofsomething. You need straws and string.

Add a custom tag to make your gift look special. You can also add some small Christmas ornaments along with it. Tie them with some gold thread and attach them to the gift. You can find a more detailed description of this technique on Annamarialarsson. Feel free to customize your tags however you want. You can print them or write them by hand.

Since it’s Christmas, you could use some small pine sprigs or evergreen branches to decorate your gifts with. Add them as ornaments for your brown paper gifts to put some color on the design and to avoid a boring and impersonal look. If you’re wrapping several gifts, you could use white paper for some of them and brown paper for the others. The result will be a minimalist Scandinavian approach. {found on thebeautydojo}.

You can find a few similar gift-wrapping ideas on Atilio.metromode. The examples featured here use brown wrapping paper for a vintage and chic look and they have custom tags made of things like dehydrated citrus slices or cinnamon sticks and pinecones. You could also use a printed photo as an ornament. Don’t forget the twine.

Another lovely way to personalize your brown paper-wrapped gifts is with stamped messages. In addition, instead of wrapping the gifts in paper you could put them in brown paper bags. They’d look lovely, just as suggested on Thebeautydojo. The materials used in this case include twine, a stamp pad, paper bags, a hole puncher, alphabet stamps and eucalyptus branches.

If you want, you can make a beautiful ornaments out of leaves and branches. You can spray paint them and then use them to form beautiful flowers. You can use the flowers to decorate gifts, as ornaments for napkin rings, decorations for the Christmas tree or for the home in general. You can also add berries, evergreen branches and custom tags. The idea comes from Tuttiguardanolenuvole.

If you’re the cute and quirky type that likes to spread joy and cheer with every gift, check out this fun idea that we found on Craftandcreativity. Basically the idea is to wrap the gift in plain brown paper and to draw a car on the front. Then make a miniature pom pom Christmas tree and tie it to the gift to make it look as if it sits on the roof of the car. Tie it with twine.

You can make your gifts look classy without overdoing it with the colors and patterns. In fact, just use brown craft paper to wrap the gifts and then decorate them with some string and paper straws and wooden beads. It will look lovely and it will have that casual chic look that everyone loves. You can find all the details on Thehomesteady.

If you feel that brown craft paper is just a bit too simple for you, there are ways to change that. For example, you can use golf foil to add some glamour to your wrapping paper. Making gold-foiled paper is easy. You need the plain paper, gold foil transfer sheets, double-sided tape, liquid adhesive, paintbrushes and scissors. {found on idlehandsawake}.

Another option is to paint the paper to give it a more personalized look. Use brown paper, paint, paint brushes and stamps. If you’d rather just freehand something, forget about the stamps and just have fun painting. Practice on a separate piece of paper and then start creating your final design. Let the paint dry and then wrap your gift. {found on threadbarecloak}.

If you enjoy putting tags on your gifts, then make some custom ones for this year’s Christmas gifts. You could make them out of clay. Roll the clay on a flat surface and use festive cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. You could make tree-shaped tags or you can make them look like snowmen or snowflakes. Bake them and don’t forget to make a hole at the top so you can hang them. It’s all described in more detail on Greenhealthycooking.

Speaking of tags and cookie cutters, we also found a similar idea on Adventures-in-making. However, the tags in this case are actual cookies. Here are the ingredients used: a cup of cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of cloves, 2 tbsp of nutmeg, a cup of applesauce and 2 tbsp of glue. Note that the cookies are not edible. They’re decorated with glitter which makes that pretty clear.

If you’re a fan of simple and chic designs, perhaps you’d enjoy the ideas suggested on Almostmakesperfect. Here you can find out how to paint brown craft paper using white paint. The techniques are diverse. You can either go with a brushstroke pattern, a paint splatter design or a dry brush look. All three look really beautiful.

When you’re using brown paper to wrap your gifts, you usually feel the need some a topper or an ornament that could contrast with the paper and add some color to the design. The mini wreath toppers featured on Brepurposed look really cute and they’re pretty easy to make as well. You need mini wreaths (you can make them yourself out of some thin branches), some green moss and string.

The wreath toppers featured on Sayyes are a bit bigger and they suit larger gifts. To make such a wreath you need greenery (olive and bay leaves or some other type), berries, floral wire, metal wire, and a glue gun. Make the wreath structure out of metal wire and then attach the greenery to it using floral wire. Don’t forget the berries. You can also use glue to keep the leaves attached.

You can make a lot of fun and cool designs using paint. You can even let the kids paint some brown paper so you can then wrap gifts in it. It doesn’t have to be anything complex or perfect. Try a geometric pattern with triangles as shown on Splashofsomething. You can outline the forms with a marker. Add a pom pom topper for some diversity.

Instead of pom poms, try something similar but also different: string bows. The bows are really simple to make. Just take some baker’s twine and wind it around a few of your fingers a bunch of times. Side it off and tie some string tightly around the center. You can then cut the loops on both sides or just leave it like that if you like the design. The idea comes from Splashofsomething.

Instead of using regular ribbon or twine to wrap the gift, you could make garlands. The idea comes from Paperandpin. To get a similar look use brown craft paper for the gift and then make a garland using twine, mini bunting, mini envelopes, eyelet tags and tape. You could, of course, personalize the gift in lots of other ways.

There are also a few interesting ideas on Dwellbeautiful. Some suggests decorating the gifts with ribbons, others to use stamps to create a custom design. Another option is to make custom gift tags and also to decorate the gifts with mini ornaments and bells. Check them out and pick your favorite.