A Cute Gift Wrapping Idea for a Gift Card

My oldest son’s girlfriend has a birthday coming up and I found a super cute MCM vase at the thrift store for $1–that really goes with the vibe she has going on in her house. She has lots of house projects coming up, so what she really needs is a gift card to a home improvement store. So, I had a thought….let’s make a tissue paper sunflower and put the gift card in the center.

I learned how to make tissue paper flowers several years ago and have made them for parties, to top gifts, and to decorate for Easter. They are really pretty simple.

I am copying information from a post that I did a couple of years ago on how to make the flowers, where I used a tissue paper flower to decorate a gift for a bridal shower.

First of all, find a good quality tissue paper that is the right color for your project. If you use a thin one, you will become really frustrated as you work to separate the layers of paper in the final step of the process. One of my very favorite sources for all items associated with gift wrap is Nashville Wraps (www.nashvillewraps.com). They have a HUGE selection of tissue papers.

Next, you will want to cut your inside color a little narrower than the outside color. When you cut your petals, do not cut too deeply or you will tear the paper when you separate the layers–super frustrating. You can make a jagged edge like this, or one that is more rounded. Or you can do jagged on the inside and rounded on the outside. This is completely up to you. I used a total of eight pcs of tissue paper for this project–four yellow and four orange. This is what it looks like when you finish:

Next, you are going to start at one of the narrow ends and fold it up like the fans you used to make in grade school. Like this:

Then you need to get a floral wire and put it around the middle of the flower and twist it tightly to secure the folds and the flower. The wire end go on the bottom of the flower. Like this:

At this point, open up one side of the flower like a fan.

Carefully lift the top layer of tissue paper.

Continue lifting each successive layer of paper until you have all the inside layers lifted. Repeat the process on the other side of the flower.

Now it’s time to start on the outside layers. Start on one side and lift the layers carefully until both sides are complete.

Here are my wrapping components all assembled:

And here is the finished package.

This is especially cute for a bridal shower if the hosts collect the bows to create the bouquet for the bride to use at the rehearsal. They are also great for gifts for little girls who absolutely love them. You can use this same technique to create party decorations. Here are some that I have done in the past. These are from Easter several years ago:

And these are from a couple of birthday parties–the first for our teenage niece and the other for her brother–a big fan of German soccer:

Here is a link to a YouTube video that shows how to make these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXwHHDPg_I0&ab_channel=ArtsnCrafts4u.

So I had some solid yellow flowers that I did several years ago stuck in my china cabinet, and I took it and flattened out and added brown construction paper circles to make it look more like a sunflower. I am going to tape the gift card to the paper circle that is glued to the “petals” and then place another directly on top to hide the gift card.

Happy crafting!