Punched Paper Ribbon

I love the idea of beautifully wrapped gifts. The large satin bows, the raffia wrappings, the twine and jingle bells, the adorable handmade tags. They look gorgeous in photos. However, in my real life, beautifully wrapped gifts are rather pointless, at least for my young children. They end up being more of a hindrance since their little fingers can’t remove them. So ours are wrapped in the most basic way, incorporating used bows and ribbon and are not usually color coordinated because I combine used and new wrapping paper. I do tend to collect lots more red versions though. :)

Thankfully I get to wrap a few gifts intended for people I don’t share a home with and I get to have my gift-wrapping fun. Remember the punched paper balls? I sure do. They hang in my work space and I still adore them. While working on them, I remembered this pin and thought ahead to Christmas. Instead of a party background, I thought they would make beautiful gift wrap ribbon. They do!

I’ve had a roll of register paper laying around for months, gifted to me by a friend who knows my interest in making things. Using coupons, I added to my collection of paper punches. I am really drawn to the lacy ones. I like the intricacies. Aren’t they beautiful?!

This is another simple project. Here’s how you do it.

Supplies:

-paper punches
-long paper – I used a roll of register paper

Simply punch the edges of the paper in your chosen design. Decide the width of the ribbon yourself and punch the other side. Wrap around gifts and secure with tape!

Maybe your punch collection includes just shapes. That works too! Use what you have and experiment. The second box in the stack below was made using a circle punch on the edge.

The paper can be used again and again. If it is torn during the gift opening, just toss in the recycling and get to punching some more.