Back in the day (meaning: before children) I used to make the gift packaging for our nieces and nephews birthdays. I really enjoyed it, but over the years it became “easier” to purchase the wrapping paper that will ultimately be ripped apart in seconds and thrown away moments later. Let’s be honest, I was doing it more for me than for them because I really enjoyed doing it. I like being crafty.
That said, I think the unicorns have inspired me because I really felt like making a unicorn gift bag to go along with our present for our nieces birthday this weekend (remember how I mentioned last week that I went way overboard on the whole unicorn theme?) So that’s what I set out to do.
Fast forward to present day. I had this vision in my head of a white gift bag for the unicorn but I needed one large enough to fit the gift — in other words the small favor bags wouldn’t work. Do you know how difficult it is to find one single large-size white gift bag? Not a pack of 5, not one with polka dots or stripes. Just a single, plain, LARGE, white gift bag. Heck I would have settled for medium. I went to 5 stores and could not find a single one.
Had to switch up my game plan.
I rummaged through my craft desk and closets and found a roll of this pretty Tiffany blue wrapping paper, which I was iffy about because I really had my vision of this white unicorn. I think it turned out pretty spectacular if I do say so myself, what do you think?
It was actually really simple to make. The most time consuming part is making the flowers but I love that they pop off the package as opposed to using flat cut-outs. If you’d like to make you’re own unicorn gift wrap here’s what you need and how I did it…
- wrapping paper in a color of your liking
- small sheet of pink and white card-stock (I bought 8 1/2 x 11 sheets from Hobby Lobby – 2 for 1 pricing)
- small sheet of gold glitter yardstick (I bought the 12×12 sheet for 99¢ from Hobby Lobby but only used about a 1/4 of the page)
- glue gun and glue sticks
- double-sided tape (not pictured!)
- scissors
- gift box (or gift bag would work too)
- tissue paper flowers
- unicorn ears, eyes & horn template (or you can freehand it)
- black sharpie shown but not used — I had initially thought about using the black sharpie to draw on the unicorn eyes/lashes but ultimately went in a different direction and used the gold glitter paper, you could use either though!
Directions:
** I also eye-balled the length for my initial cut, I knew that I didn’t need the large 14-inch flowers so I cut my tissue into thirds to get the smaller sizes.
2 – Draw your ears, eye lashes and unicorn horn on your gold, pink and white card-stock. You can freehand this or use a template, whichever you’re more comfortable with. I was short on time so I decided to use a template for the horn and ears that I found (here) but instead of printing the template and coloring it in as shown in the template instructions, I just cut out the pieces on my colored card-stock. I did freehand the eye lashes though I’m sure you could find a template for those on Pinterest as well.
TIP: Flip over the card-stock and trace your template onto the side that you won’t be using/showing, this way if there’s still a trace of the outline it won’t be visible from the front of your pretty package.
3 – Once you have all the pieces outlined, cut them all out.
4 – Wrap your gift box as you would normally.
5 – Now it’s time to assemble your ears and horn. I used double-sided tape to stick the pink inner ear to the white outer ear card-stock. Then I positioned my unicorn horn behind the ears and glued the two together using my hot glue gun.
TIP: double-sided tape does not work on the glitter side of the card-stock so I used the glue gun to stick the horn to the ears and gift box.
6 – Once you have your ears in place, arrange the flowers at the base of the ears for the unicorn crown. Use as many (or as few) flowers as you like. As I mentioned, I made about 10 flowers but once I arranged them on the package I decided that less was more and only used 3 flowers for my unicorn crown. Using your hot glue gun add a medium-to-large dollop of glue to the bottom of the flower, then press and hold to the package for a few moments to ensure it adheres.
7 – Finally, glue the eye lashes to the package. You might be able to use double-sided tape, but since I already had the glue gun heated up and ready I just used my hot glue gun to stick the lashes on.
Viola! Beautiful unicorn gift wrap sure to wow your gift recipient!
