Photo Craft Tutorial: How to Gift Wrap an Unframed Photograph

With Christmas coming up, and the lasting effects of the recent global recession most of us have experienced, you can still have a relatively cheap Christmas filled with all the joy of giving gifts. How? By giving your family and friends signed unframed photographic prints. As we all know, prints are flimsy and easily damaged, so here’s how you can create beautiful, protective gift-wrapping for your works of art.

You will need:

Cardboard tube from the inside of a Roller Towel, Tin Foil, Cling wrap etc

Old photos, that you are prepared to cut up

Glue

Scissors

Contact adhesive paper

Clear cellophane wrapping paper

Pretty ribbon

Step 1:

Cut the old photos to size, long enough to wrap around the diameter of the tube.

If you don’t want to use old photos to cover the tube, you could also use pictures from magazines, gift-wrap, or decorative tape as shown here

Step 2:

Glue the photos onto the tube.

Step 3:

Cut a rectangle of contact adhesive so it wraps around the tube, covering all the photos, and overlaps the edges by at least 1cm.

Peel back about 3cm of the protective paper, and stick down on the tube in a straight line.

Now slowly peel back the rest of the paper, sticking and smoothing out as you go.

Use the scissors to cut the contact adhesive, and fold the flaps inside the tube.

Step 4:

Select a print that matches your customized phototube.

Step 5:

Insert the photo into the tube, by rolling it with the image on the inside.

Step 6:

Cut a large rectangle of the clear cellophane, with the edges at least 10cm longer than the tube on all sides.

Twist the edges on both sides, so it now resembles a giant Christmas cracker.

Tie the ribbon around the twisted cellophane, and add a gift tag.

That’s it! The perfect gift for someone special!

Comment below to stand a chance of winning the photograph and photo gift tube pictured in this tutorial. Free shipping any where in the world. Winner announced on Thursday 15 December 2011. Facebook and Tweet this post to increase your chances!