Gift-wrapping for Secret Santa

Hello Crafters!

Hubby and I both took parental leave for 2 months and today we are both back to work. Since I work at home I'm typing this with my little Wildeman attatched to my chest, being adorable. Before he was born I posted a picture of a crocheted owl hat I made for him. When my hubby saw it he decided that he needed one to match!

Hubby and Wildeman in their matching hats!

I didn't have a pattern for an adult owl hat but the pattern for the baby hat can be found here.

But you've already seen the hat.

I know it's a little late for gift wrapping but birthdays come all over the place and you could use these for unbirthday presents too (I really want to start giving people unbirthday presents at random)!

In my family we draw for Secret Santa (or Secret Squirrel when my 3-year-old nephew is around, the complexites of holiday mythology are not quite within his grasp yet). This year I got my mother and though the present I made her is still unfinished (I'm still jet lagged from newborn-time) I wrapped the crap out of it!

I decided to go with a brown paper theme this year. 

First I covered the box in plain brown packing paper and added a bit of sunshine with a strip of this wicked yellow fabric I found in a thrift store.

 I made this flower from twine that I wrapped around the box along with the fabric strip and folded into loops. I used a hot glue gun to keep everything in place. Then I topped it off with a button from my button box. This wasn't the effect I was going for by any means, and this box was wrapped and re-wrapped a few times but I'm actually quite happy with the way it turned out.

And for my lovely Aunt who wasn't a part of our Secret Santa draw this year:

Click on the picture for a link to origami bow instructions. If I can make a suggestion: make the square in the beginning quite small. I made it big, it looked terrible and I had to do it over like 5 times.

More tomorrow! I have diapers to change.