Friday 14 November 2008

Gift Wrap Ideas # 2: Pompoms

I love pompoms! They're so fun to make, and add a quirky crafty feel to anything - especially parcels.

 


All you need is some leftover yarn (if you don't knit yourself, be nice to someone who does or look in charity shops for leftover balls), some cardboard, and a bit of time and you can make pompoms a-plenty to cheer up any gift.

This is a great project to involve your kids with, though they might need a hand with the fiddly stages: there's a great pompom tutorial here that explains everything brilliantly in case (like me) you'd forgotten how to make them.

Any colour yarn will do, but I chose a nice festive red and a modern green to look terribly chic (darling) against my brown paper parcels. I am a big brown paper fan, but you could use any sort of wrapping paper for this look: the pompoms just take the place of ribbon and bows.

Tie lengths of yarn round your parcel as you'd do with a length of ribbon and knot securely. I used three pieces on this parcel but you can experiment and see what you prefer:

 

Then use the two long ends sticking out from your pompom to tie it onto where the yarn crosses, this can be a bit fiddly but knot it as securely as you can and then trim the two ends so they can't be seen:

 

You can use one big pompom:


Or group several together (maybe several in different colours?) to give your gift a real wow-factor:

 

If you're still loyal to old-fashioned ribbon but still want to add a pompom-y touch to your gifts, you can easily use them to decorate your tags... First off, punch a second hole in a luggage tag:

 

I impatiently stabbed mine with a pencil but you could make your hole much more neatly I'm sure! Then take a smallish pompom, thread the ends through the two holes...

 

... knot them tightly at the bag of the tag, tie a bow and trim the ends neatly...

 

... and hey presto, a pompom tag:

 

Just remember you might want to keep these presents out the way of cats & dogs! :)

Please feel free to borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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26 comments:

Jennifer Rose said...

that is a really good idea and a very nice way to decorate presents :)

Selfsewn said...

absolutely fantastic!!
Clare x

Anonymous said...

oh wow, love it!
i thought to use pompons to wrap my gifts to, but your colours look soo great!

Knit Sew City Girl said...

Again, this is such a great idea. I like this!!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Just wanted to say a big THANK YOU! After a stressful day teaching Year 1 - you are part of my daily wind down, don't ever stop blogging!

I might make some pompoms with my 5 yrs olds as part of our Christmas Crafts shenanigans...thanks for the inspiration.

xx

Jennifer said...

these are so cute. what a great idea!!

Jo said...

What a cute idea!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the lovely ideas for wrapping!
i'm going to make a post about them on my blog, linking back to yours. is it a problem for you?

Bugs and Fishes said...

Thanks for the lovely mention on your blog Nana! I'm always happy to see people post my pics etc on their blogs as long as they link back & give me credit as you have :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I absolutely adore your gift wrapping ideas using brown paper - my favourite. Pom-poms look gorgeous, and I think the gold cake wrappers look stunning. xx

Alice said...

Hi there, hope you don't mind but I've just featured this in my blog. I love your creative ideas. They're fab!

Tonya Staab said...

I've had this bookmarked ever since you posted it. I finally got around to making a pom pom tonight to attach to a gift. Thank you for a fabulous idea.

http://www.currentlycrafting.com/2009/04/pom-pom-crafts.html

Morgane LL said...

that's a lovely idea!!
morgane.

Born Blonde said...

I saw this idea of yours in the latest issue of Woman's Day and thought it was so cute. I hope you don't mind if I put it on my blog (with a link to yours of course). Thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

EXACTLY what I was looking for! We made these as kids and put eyes and stuff on them as pompom goobers. :) I want to make them for my friends' gifts this Christmas and other gifts as well...they'll ABSOLUTELY get a trip going down memory lane! Thank you from the bottom of my pompom goober lovin' heart!

White Cabana said...

These are just too sweet! I'm going to start making them (in white!) for my Christmas gifts...never too early to start holiday prep, right? You have so many lovely ideas. Thank you for sharing them with us!
-Jordana

Purnima@a creative project said...

HI there!! I love your blog and your gift wrap ideas. I have featured your
lovely gift wrapping idea on my blog.
http://acreativeproject.blogspot.com/It will be posted tomorrow!!!

xo
P

Unknown said...

I am writing a post about using natural and recycled materials for gift wrapping.Will add this idea to the post.Will be posting soon.

I will link back to your blog.

Kamila said...

Great posts! I love all your ideas and I'm sure I'll use them soon :) I've been looking for some interesting ways of wrapping gifts and after seeing few other websites I can honestly say that you're one is the best one!

Anonymous said...

brilliant idea luv it!

Anonymous said...

great idea..since I have a cat who loves the shiny ribbon..and we cant use it...but yarn would be a nice substitution!

Daily Craft said...

Great project! I just wanted to let you know that we featured this project on our Facebook page with almost 12,000 fans. We’d love it if you’d use our Featured Blogger button, available at: http://www.dailycraft.com/thank-you-for-crafting/. Our audience loved the project and we look forward to sharing more from you. Please let us know if you have any questions or projects you’d love us to feature! Thanks!

Dita Maulani said...

Hello!
I put the image here with the link back. thank you for the inspiration!
http://handmadenest.blogspot.com/2011/07/wrap-it-up-sunday.html

dita

JennyLyn said...

Cute ideas!

Anonymous said...

Great idea but where is the tutorial for Pom poms?

Bugs and Fishes said...

Anon - thanks for letting me know about the broken link! This post is a few years old now and I guess that website has vanished. I've updated the post so it links to another pompom-making tutorial :)