DIY Easter Gift Wrapping Ideas

This post is sponsored by Spotlight’s Craft Month, in stores now through until the end of March.

Each year at Easter I cringe a little with the thought of the (rubbish) chocolate overload my children will experience. I now have the family “trained” to gift alternate items such as craft or small treats that the kids will enjoy for a long period of time such as a Matchbox car. Kinder and school are another story……In previous years I have attempted to come up with food gifts and ideas that are not laden with poor quality chocolate ingredients. I have perfected my recipe for Hotcross Buns to the best of my baking ability. We enjoy these Hot Cross Buns made with cranberries, white chocolate and lime zest each year at this time. This year I am making chocolate from scratch (not melting store purchased chocolate). I wanted to include my 4 year old in the process to help me create some fun and creative packaging for the chocolates.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the launch of Spotlight’s Craft Month. I was gifted a range of bright, fun and easy to use goodies that inspired me to create the items in this post for Easter this year.

Your imagination is the limit with creative packaging options so get creative. Think about ribbon, tags, paper, stickers and stamps. Use materials that you have available such as craft paper, string, or old magazines or cards.

For Easter this year I have made:

Gift Boxes:

We began with some plain boxes that were just over $1 each and some gorgeous scrap booking papers, as well as some old magazine pages that I had lying around home. I simply cut up different pieces of paper into various sizes and then stuck them onto the box using Mod Podge, a glue/sealer. I made sure that each piece of paper overlapped slightly and I tried to avoid folding over edges so that the lid still fitted well. I found a picture of the bunny shape, printed it and then used it as a template to make others that were then glued onto the boxes and bags for the Easter theme.

Creating these little themed gift boxes was a fun activity for the kids to get involved with, designing their own boxes to give to their friends. The small size is perfect to add a few gorgeous sweet treats or a little gift.

Gift Bags:

To make the bags you will require the paper to be 140 gsm, or thicker. Regular paper (for printing is 80 gsm thickness) is too thin to work well with the Gift Bag Punch Board I used. The bags were made using a compact tool by We R called a Gift Bag Punch Board. It allows you to use the punch and follow set scoring lines to quickly and simply make gift bags of 3 sizes. A bag is complete in a few minutes. Punch and score the paper/card using the guides and then glue it together. Add ribbon or string for handles or seal with a sticker, peg, tag or tape. The We R range also includes a punch board for boxes of various sizes.

I have been a fan of scrap booking/craft papers for a long time. If you are not familiar with them it is a booklet of decorative paper, each with a different design. I have been using them to make:

The range from Amy Tangerine at Spotlight stores, named “Rise and Shine” is featured in the products that I made. I used the paper to make the gift bags and to decorate the boxes.

Painted Glass:

Did you know that there is a product that can be used to draw on glass? My four year old loved using the paint pen and was quite proud of his decorating skills. The paint dries within 72 hours and is suitable for light washing or it may be baked for 40 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius to develop dishwasher resistance. The paint we used is called Vitrea 160 by Pebeo. The little glass vessel will hold Easter treats and then maybe a little candle.

Filling your packaging:

I will share my recipe for Handmade Lime Chocolate here next week. It is made from scratch with just a few ingredients. It is an easy recipe to make for friends and family to fill to your packaging creations.

Explore more craft ideas and materials:

Spotlight Craft Month is on now until the end of March with many stores holding craft workshops. You may like to follow them on Facebook for updates, information and giveaways over the month. Regardless of that it is a “go to” location for all craft bits and pieces at any time of the year!

*I was gifted some of the craft items used to create this post and I purchased some of the items myself. I will receive compensation for this post.

Have you started to get ready for Easter yet?