DIY tutorial – pompom wrapping paper

When I saw this paper at Anthropology, I knew I have to make my own! It turned out so cute that I thought I’d share it with you and maybe you will be inspired to make your own pompom wrapping paper as well!

So, let’s start!

You will need:

for pompoms:

* 100% wool yarn; with this project it is great that you can use just small amount of yarn in different colors. The only thing which is important is to use 100% wool, otherwise it will not felt;

* any crochet hook you feel comfortable to work with;

for felting:

* bowl with hot water

* washing up liquid

* a little bit of patience

If you are planning to make a lot of pompoms you should consider using your washing machine for felting. As I made something like 30 pompoms I did hand felting.  It took me less than 1 minute for each pompom.

for wrapping paper:

* any wrapping paper (even old newspapers work great);

* glue (I used universal glue)

Pompoms:

Work ch2, yarn over, insert hook in 2nd ch from hook and pull the yarn through,*yarn over again and pull the yarn trough the same st*, repeat from * two times more. Now you have 9 loops on your hook, yo and pull it through all loops you have on the hook and work ch1. Fasten off.

Make a double knot using both tails and cut them off. Be careful, don’t cut them too short.

Make as many pompoms as you like and continue with felting.

Felting:

STEP 1

Prepare a bowl of hot, soapy water – washing up liquid is perfect! Leave all pompoms to soak in the water for a few minutes.

STEP 2

Take one pompom at a time, hold it between your hands and rub hard to create friction. Dip it in the water time after time and continue rubbing. If you get tired leave it in the water and take a break. Then continue rubbing until the pompom gets thick and smooth. You can make as many breaks as you need, just add hot water and some more washing up liquid every time. Do it with each pompom. You will see at the end you will need less than a minute for each one.

STEP 3

When you are happy with the result, rinse the pompoms in the clean water and let them dry.

Wrapping paper:

And so here is the final part of the project.

Take the wrapping paper. Cut it as big as you need to wrap the present. I covered with pompoms only the top and a bit of sides, that’s why first I checked where I should start and where to finish. You can make small marks on the paper if that helps.

Now take each pompom, put a little bit glue on it and place it where you want it to be. You can make even some kind of design with the pompoms – like triangle, or square. It is up to you.

When it is done, let the paper dry.

And now you can wrap your present!

You can do the opposite way as well – first wrap the present, and only then add pompoms. But in this case you should be sure that your paper is quite thick and the glue will not damage the present. As I was wrapping the books and my paper was quite thin I was afraid to do it.

To complete the look of my presents I added some big real pompoms as well.

And here are some other present I made.

Instead of pompoms you can also make small bows and attach them to the paper putting just very, very small amount of the glue to the center of each bow.

Here I just played around with paper doilies and golden lace trim.

And here I made a crochet snowflake, then I put a little glue on the center of the snowflake and a little bit on each petal. Pressed it with something heavy and let it dry.

Well, as you can see, the options are endless.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and Merry Christmas! 🙂