diy projects, holidays

DIY: Customizable Holiday Gift Wrap

When I partnered with Avery for a handful of posts this year, I knew that for the holidays I wanted to make a customizable gift wrap using their full sheet labels, because that was something I had done to wrap my own gifts for years, way before the partnership even existed. With a full sheet of adhesive paper you can print any design you want and then simply just apply the paper directly to the box to wrap, no tape needed! Since there are so many free printables for gift wrap out there, I wanted to create a design that could be completely customized for each person who downloads it. Since many of us have family pets that we love so very much – and the idea of wrapping my family gifts in wrapping paper of my dogs sounded pretty spectacular, I decided that pets would be a great idea. While the pictures you see below depict my dog, by downloading the file I’ve included and using the design tool on Avery.com you can easily customize the design to be that of your own furry family member.

Using the Design & Print tool on Avery.com, you can easily add your pet’s image, as well as holiday greetings, imagery, and so much more. You can also edit the design (change the colors, size, layout, etc.). The possibilities truly are endless. Find out what you’ll need below to make your own customizable holiday gift wrap adhesive paper.

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Materials Needed:

  • An image of your pet (preferably saved as a .PNG file)
  • Avery White Shipping Labels (#5165)
  • Gift box or bag
  • Scissors
  • Optional: Colored paper, ribbon

Directions:

Step #1: First, download the .avery file I created found HERE for the pet hats. If you want to use the wallpaper file I made with my pup, you can download that HERE.

Step #2: Next, either find or take a photo of your dog against a white or solid color backdrop. If you are savvy with these things, it’d be easiest to have an image of just your pet’s head with a transparent (.PNG) background. If you have no idea what that means, you can use a photo editing program on your computer to crop the image and erase the background. Once you have your image, save the file to your computer. I happened to have a pic of my dog against a red backdrop. Using Photoshop I erased the red background and the party hat he was wearing, and then saved the image as a PNG file. editing-dog-photo

You can also use the Avery tools to erase the background. To edit in the Avery program, load the design tool for the full sheet labels HERE, click on “Image” on the left sidebar to upload the image of your pet. You can erase the background of the photo by utilizing the “Set Transparent Color” option in the tools. Just click on the background to make it transparent!

Step #2: To customize my design and add in your own pet photo from your computer, go to avery.com/print, go to “Open a Saved Project from My Computer” and then select the .avery file you saved in Step #1. The file will look like the below once opened.

holiday-hats

Step #3: Once the file has loaded, click on the “Image” button on the left sidebar and add the image of your dog that you saved to your computer in Step #2. Delete the image of my pup once you’ve added your own pet image. I’ve also included a few options for hats in the document, so just pick your favorite and delete whichever ones you do not want to use. You can change the order of the photos so that the hat image is loaded on top of the image of your pet by using the arrows next to each item in the Object List to arrange the order.

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You can also add additional images from the Avery gallery by selecting “Add Image”, choosing the “Avery Gallery” from the top, and then selecting “Christmas” from their large list of themes.

Step #4: You can also change the colors of any of the solid-colored holiday images. To change the color of the hat, click on the image of the hat to select, click on “Change Color”, select a new color, and click back to the colored portion of the hat. It doesn’t get easier, guys!

change-color

Step #5: To repeat the pattern, click on the image and hit CTRL + C (to copy) and then CTRL + V (to paste). Once pasted, just drag into position. You can copy and paste as many times as you like! You can also add in text by using the Text option in the left sidebar.

Step #6: Once you’ve customized the sheet to your liking, select “Preview & Print” to print. Make sure to save the file once given the option to do so, so that you can easily open or edit the document at a later time. You can save your project as a .avery file on your computers or in an online MyAvery account.

Step #7: For a little variety, I chose to cover my gifts in a wallpaper style of the image and I also printed the image of my Pug Santa individually, so that I could place atop boxes I had wrapped in colored paper. Again, there’s no tape needed, you can just peel off the backing and completely wrap your boxes with the adhesive or just use scissors to cut out accents to add to previously wrapped boxes or bags.

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