So yesterday was the boyfriends birthday and I had been preparing and planning for it for a while.
The first task I set myself was to find a different way of wrapping his presents. I had already been and brought some brown paper as I wanted the wrapping to be quite plain, and then it hit me, I have masses of unused bits of yarn that are too short for most projects so I decided to put that to use and come up with some creative ways of using it with the brown wrapping.
And so I set to wrapping, tying and cutting till I came up with the following:
I was a little in love with the finished result and it was almost saddening to see them tore open…. well until the happy face appeared at seeing his gifts.
Here is a close up of the presents and how I achieved them:
Pin wheel – This one took the longest to do, all I have done is wrapped 3 pieces of yarn around the middle and tied at the back, I have then stuck a large pin wheel in the middle. Finally the circle of plain paper with my boyfriends name hand written on it was stuck in the centre of the pin wheel.
Checker-board – Here I tied 4 pieces of pale blue yarn vertically down the box and tied at the back, then I weaved 5 pieces horizontally through the vertical yarn and tied at the back also. On the third piece down I have attached a piece of blue paper with ‘Happy Birthday’ on it but making two holes at each end of the paper and threading through onto the yarn before tying it.
Rainbow – Exactly what it says on the tin, this one. I took 2 pieces of yarn in 11 colours and tied them around the box, this time at front. Once they were all tied I made sure the knots were in line and then trimmed the edges slightly. Finish by flattening the edges down in line with the yarn that’s wrapped around and you’re all done.
Yellow Pom Pom – Ah the fun of making your own pom pom’s. A lot of fiddling and mess was made here but firstly I wrapped 4 strands of yellow yarn around the gift and tied at the back. Once I had made the pom pom (tutorial to follow) I tied it in the middle, making sure I caught all four pieces of yarn to pull them into the centre as seen in the picture.
Messy – Well this one was obviously the easiest of the gifts. I tied one end of the yarn around the gift and then just wound it around repeatedly at any place and angle. Once tied off at the other end so it was secure I added the distressed hand written name tag by threading it under the yarn at each end.
The Green Bow – For this gift I wrapped the yarn around the box vertically and tied it, I then carried on wrapping it around until it was the thickness I wanted. I tied it off and hid my end then made the bow by wrapping the yarn around my fingers to make the loops and tying it in the middle. Attach it to the yarn on the gift and this one is complete.
Triple blue pom pom (back left) – Using one piece of long blue yarn I wrapped around the gift, both ways and tied it off. Once I had made the three blue pom poms I attached them to the front middle of the gift by tying them to the middle of the yarn where it crossed. Finish off with another handwritten distressed name tag and the last present it complete.
Now I know the rest of this post is wildly off my usual topic of crochet but I thought I would share the rest of my planning for Paul’s birthday.
A personalised card from our little girl and a little decorating of the envelopes to match the present wrapping was next
Lastly I set to work on a birthday cake! I settled on a basic vanilla sponge with butter cream filling, but the key to this cake was in the decoration.
say hello to the minions! It has its imperfections but it took ages to make and tasted yummy. Plus its recipient loved it so I’m more than happy. The 3D minion is made completely of icing so that its edible.
Sorry for going wildly off topic, I’m sure I will return to the world of crochet shortly but at the moment I’m enjoying trying out new crafts (its all Pinterest’s fault… I told you I have an addiction)
B xx
In Stitches 