Creative gift wrapping ideas for bulky presents (1963)
From Better Homes and Gardens (December 1963)
Wrap a frying pan: Skillet Lollipop
Tape the lid inverted to skillet and cover with a cardboard circle. Pad feet with extra tissue paper. Wrap the skillet, smoothing tissue over cardboard and glue on a swirl of beads. Slip a colorfully wrapped cardboard tube over the handle and add a decorative ribbon.
Wrap a blender: Snowman gift wrap
Gather double sheets of tissue paper around the blender base and blouse it for roundness. Tape, and then repeat for center and head ball. Trim it with ribbon; top with a checkered paper bowl hat. Snip a tissue “thatch” for his blender broom handle.
Coffeemaker Penguin
Wrap the coffee maker appliance in white. Form and tape black tissue head over lid handle. Cover body with double sheets of black tissue leaving white vest exposed. Fasten with red bow tie and holly sprig. Add butterscotch candy eyes, yellow tissue beak and feet.
More gift wrap ideas
Fanciful package wraps for pennies are ingeniously contrived with brown paper, crayons, marking pen, self-stick paper, and cardboard. TV snack holds tangy tidbits; bake-shop, an elegant display of cookies; the boot, a prized jar of jam; and milk carton house, luscious candy.
Great gift wrap ideas for bulky & odd-shaped kitchen gifts (1961)
From American Home (December 1961)
The best way to gift-wrap a bulky or odd-shaped kitchen appliance or utensil is — don’t! Give it a fanciful shape, instead — with Christmas paper, ribbons, gay ornaments, and such.
Take an electric blender, for instance, and turn it into a frothy pink strawberry soda. Turn an electric tea kettle into a cocky rooster with wattles and comb of curly ribbon.
With a little imagination, a vacuum cleaner turns into Santa Claus, an oven-proof casserole into a sailboat, a coffee maker into a candlestick. We put a golden sunburst on an electric frying pan and king-and-queen crowns on a set of wooden canisters. Gaily wrapped gifts pop out of a toaster.
P.S. Don’t misplace the instruction book and the warranty!
Wild & wonderful new ways to wrap gifts
Toaster filled with presents: Pop-goes-the-present
Toaster has a wide ribbon band topped off with a pompon bow. Gay foil-wrapped gifts take the place of toast slices.
Teakettle decorated like a rooster: Cock-of-the-walk
Tea Kettle sports wattles of self-sticking red ribbon, blossom-bow eyes, and a comb of shredded 1-1/4″ ribbon in many colors.
Casserole dish made into a sailboat: “Sail Away” Casserole
Casserole dish is rigged into a jaunty sailboat with gift-paper sails held up by ordinary cardboard roller.
Electric frying pan with a golden sunburst decoration: Sunny-side-up
Frying pan is crowned with a glamorous sunburst made of gold foil and Christmas balls.
Kitchen canisters gift wrapped to look like a King and Queen
Canisters wear gold cut-out crowns, curled ribbon hair, cut-out eyes, and gold seal medals.
Blender gift-wrapped with huge decorative straws: Strawberry Soda Blender
This blender is stuffed with shocking pink foil, topped with fluffy pink ribbon pompons and angel hair “whipped cream.” Straws are paper-covered tubes wound with red ribbon.
8 high-style gift wraps for pennies
From American Home (April 1976)
Pretty wrapping makes a gift special. But when you suddenly realize that some of your Christmas presents are costing almost as much to wrap as they did to buy, then it’s high time for ingenuity and originality.
Utilize cleverness for big packages, instead of sheets and sheets of gift wrap and yards of ribbon. Usually, the fancy papers are your greatest cash outlay, so choose a less lavish wrapping and make it look festive.
DON’T MISS THIS: Instant wrapping paper: Free downloadable gift wrap
Newspaper can make a very impressive Christmas wrapping, with a little effort on your part: First, neatness counts; the corners must be crisp.
The ribbon — or at least the bow — must be a little more extravagant, and the paper should be more than just a regular inside page of the local daily. Perhaps a foreign-language newspaper? For children’s presents, use colored Sunday comics.
That sturdy green paper your florist uses is an utterly traditional Christmas color, especially when tied up with red ribbon. Maybe you can buy a few yards from him, or ask him to throw some extra paper in with your order of mistletoe and holly.
The brown color of grocery-store paper bags is immensely chic this year. Split the bags on the fold, iron them carefully and you’re ready to wrap. This “plain brown wrapper” is particularly effective paired with an orange or brown tie-up.
Discontinued wallpaper sample books from the paint store provide a wealth of stunning wrapping papers for small or medium-size presents. The wallpaper is a little stiff to work with, so crease it firmly with a ruler as you fold it around a box.
When you’ve got a really big box to wrap, paint it instead! Using poster paints in bright colors, slap on a giant, festive design, making sure your paint covers any printed advertising if you’re using the manufacturer’s box.
Black or green plastic trash bags can make the slickest looking wrap, and the price can’t be beat. Cut the bags to size, wrap them tautly — transparent tape holds the corners tight — and tie with silvery string.
How about that raft of fabric remnants you’ve put away over the years? Use them to wrap special presents. (If the gift recipient is a member of the family, you’ll get the remnant back anyway.) To wrap, fold material to size; baste corners. Tie on a pretty bow.