How to correctly wrap a present

[3point8isgreat]

With the holidays coming up, I thought I'd do an overview of what correct and proper present wrapping looks like. And introduce you all to the weirdness that is Me and my life. Also figured it'd be a good way to practice this whole posting thing. Sorry about formatting, I'm not used to actually posting things.

So I should probably start of with saying my family, particularly my mom and her sisters, have a history of "creative" wrapping for presents. Their projects are all from "Doofus Inc." And are usually silly scenes that make use of my mom's pre-school teacher project supply stash.

Well one year my brother and I got the idea to get into this silly wrapping business. But we would develop our own signature: Animals. The result was this majestic beast:

This cow was made with inside-out wrapping paper and some black paint. Relatively easy materials to work with in the scheme of wrapping. Little bit of creativity in how to fold the ears and some tape for legs. No biggie!

This one required the destruction of the cow in order to access the present inside. I am yet to decide whether destruction or clean opening is better.

Now of course the next year we had to follow this up. We couldn't let this new found fun be a one year thing!

Here you see the Christmas morning scene of our turtle enjoying some carrots and pie along with our dog Eugene.

Keeping with the reptile theme the next year, we made a brontosaurus. Naturally it needed to eat the Christmas tree because an animal that big needs to always be eating.

It was at this point that my brother and I started to taper off and do smaller things that I've lost the pictures for. But I kept the tradition alive with friends.

First, I made an elephant using duct tape. I always joked that I liked to make things difficult for that friend. So inside the elephant is still more layers of duct tape covering the actual present and making it harder to access.

Then a few years later I made 3 of my friends' favorite pokemon. The construction of these was primarily duct tape. The Umbreon was done using black felt however. My first attempt at using any type of fabric.

I've also made a book and an oven for other friends, but don't have pictures of those.

While In college things started to get trickier since I no longer had access to my mom's preschool supply stash. But I made do! So when work did a gift drive angel tree thing, I chose two kids and went for it with a Pterodactyl and a butterfly for a brother and sister. Carrying these into work for the drop off got some interesting looks. I needed help just getting through the turn-style with them. The butterfly was another attempt at using felt. Even stuffed and sewed the little blue and pink wings. And had it wear the scarf that was part of the present.

I unfortunately lost all my photos of one I made for an ex. It was a bright green T-rex with monocle and flava-flav clock necklace, and a rocket ship.

But that started the trend of having to go all out for significant others.

So next up was my Boxen and a Boxcart. These started to get even more tricky. The brown suede was much more difficult to work with. Harder to attach, harder to hide mistakes. These are a good example of ones that do not need to be destroyed to open though. The left one's top comes off, and the right one's butt has a flap.

The latest one I've made was a copy of my now wife's dogs. So clearly this method of wrapping is superior, as it results in getting a wife. The fake fur fabric for these made a HUGE mess to cut up. But was totally worth it. Again I went for the top coming off and butt flap method, with the tail making the handle for the flap. Not sure where all my wife's pictures of these went. But this is the one I have, and the actual dogs for reference.

Not sure when I'll do another one. The last few took somewhere around 6-8 hours to complete. But I'm sure there will be more.

If you want to try something like this, I highly suggest colored duct tape. It's easy to get a great looking result, is much cheaper than any of the fabric options, and looks better than most paper.

[ItalianJobR53]

Those dog wraps are phenomenal!

[jminer]

@3point8isgreat This is amazing! I thought we were interesting for using wallpaper to wrap presents. This is another level!

[Taylor Martin]

Those dogs are adorable, but then again, so are all of the animals you made. Absolute masterpieces! It's a shame they had to get unwrapped.

[3point8isgreat]

@taylor-martin Technically some of them didn't have to get destroyed in the unwrapping. But eventually they do just take up too much space and start to fall apart. I think a flooded basement finished off the Boxen, and our black/grey dog peed on his own likeness.

[CB]

@3point8isgreat This is good Oppo.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

THIS IS AMAZING!

I have a long history of creative wrapping with gifts to and from my brother but they usually revolve around disguising the contents as best as possible. So sure, that Lego set can become a sphere that rolls around a bit. Or that game can become a multi sided geometric curiosity. You have inspired me to step up my game!

[Taylor Martin]

@3point8isgreat Your dog was just marking his territory I suppose haha

[RallyDarkstrike]

@3point8isgreat Wow, those last dog ones are insane!

I laughed out loud at that Squirtle...