For those who are on a tight budget or trying to save every extra dollar they can, a gift-giving occasion can almost be painful. Sure, you want to give your loved one a fantastic gift that they will enjoy, but you also don't want to spend a fortune. Today's tutorial can help! Have you been inside a boutique or shop and seen those beautiful paper-wrapped soaps that sell for $7 a bar or more? Today we're going to recreate those gorgeous soaps for a gift idea, but we won't spend a fortune to do it.
Here's What You'll Need:
- Scrapbook or Other Decorative Paper
- Scissors
- Twine, Lace, Ribbon or Yarn for Embellishment
- Glue
- Travel-Size Soaps
The beauty of this gift is that you can use very inexpensive materials. Pick up a few travel-size soap bars from anywhere (you can even use those little hotel soaps that always end up in everyone's bag before they leave the hotel room)! You can use tissue paper that you've recycled from gifts or your scrapbook paper stash, and even if all you have are some yarn scraps lying around from your last project, you can make this gift look incredible!
Here's How It's Done:
Step One: Cut and Position Your Paper
First, you're going to cut small rectangles of your paper so you can wrap them around your soap. Don't worry – you don't have to get the edges even because none of that is going to show once you fold the paper. My rectangles were approximately 4″ wide by 8″ long. Place your paper so that the decorative outside is face down…
…and place your bar of soap in the middle. For this project, I used some travel-size soaps from Bath & Body Works that I purchased super cheap specifically to make little gifts and guest soaps.
Step Two: Wrap the Bars
Now you're going to wrap the bars like a gift by pulling in the short sides and then the long ones, just like you would when wrapping a gift. You may need to use a little glue to secure the paper at this point. I found that it made it easier to move on to the next step when I used glue rather than just holding the paper down.
Now you have a perfectly wrapped soap! At this point, you can embellish it with whatever you'd like.
Step Three: Add Ribbon, Twine or Yarn
Now simply add some ribbon, twine, yarn or whatever else you'd like to the soap to make it look a little more decorative and polished. For some of mine, I used only twine and for others I used lace and twine to give it an extra little aspect of cute.
Step Four: Putting it All Together
Now that you have some beautifully-wrapped soaps, you can add a few other items to make a perfect gift! A dollar soap dish and a wash cloth can create the perfect spa-like gift when paired with your soaps. You can place them in a cheap basket as well. Add an inexpensive bath sponge and a small tube of lotion and you've got a great gift that anyone would love!
This is such a cute and inexpensive gift that is fun to create. Plus, it's perfect for anyone, whether it's your sister's birthday or you want to do something special for a couple who just moved into the neighborhood. Play around with it and experiment by adding different embellishments and pairing your soaps with different items. These also make fantastic guest soaps for when you have family or friends coming to visit!
The total cost of this gift is less than $5. I don't know about you, but an adorable gift that costs less than $5 is a winner in my book. I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial. If you liked it, be sure to check out our last tutorial and create a gorgeous Anthropologie-style trinket dish for less than $2!
