Supplies:

1. Wood cubes. I use some from my scrap wood pile, but Dollar Tree and Amazon has wood cubes you can buy.
   • wood blocks
2. Paint or spray paint and paint brushes. Sponge brushes or stiff bristle brushes work best for the stencils. A soft bristle brush works well for painting the wood cube.
3. Stencils. I made some of the stencils I used on these presents. To learn how to make your own stencils click here.
4.  Decorative napkins or tissue paper.
5. Mod podge. I used the glossy finish, but a matt would also be nice. They even have mod podge with different types of glitter, which would be fun.
6. Ribbons
7. Hot glue and glue gun
8. Optional: extra decorations like bells and greenery

Steps:

1. Paint wood blocks
2. Apply stencils to painted blocks
3. Optional: dry brush brown paint around the edges
4. Add bows and extra finishes like greenery

For the napkin and or tissue paper package

1. Apply mod podge to wood cube
2. Place tissue paper or napkin on top of wet mod podge
3. Cut off extra tissue paper or napkin
4. Apply another layer of mod podge directly over the napkin or tissue paper and press down any edges that might be sticking up.
5. Optional: dry brush brown paint around the edges 
6. Make and add bow or any other decorative piece to finish off your present

I started out by deciding what colors I wanted each present to be. I did not go with a coordinating color scheme, but instead with patterns I liked and would go well with the ribbons options I had. I then picked which stencils I thought would look good with each combination. You do not have to use a stencil. You could leave your present one solid color or hand paint your own design like polka dots. The fist time I made wood presents I painted a stamp and stamped on snowflakes. It worked okay, and with more practice I was starting to get better at knowing how much paint to apply and things like that. A stamp with ink would probably work better. Once I had my game plan, I started painting my wood blocks. You could also spray paint them.  Click here to check out the presents I made without stencils.

Once my first color was dry it was time to apply the stencils. Some of these stencil I made myself, and I show you how to make your own stencils in Cricut Design Space, just click here to learn more about that. I placed my stencil on one side of my block, then got a small amount of paint on my brush and did a dabbing up and down motion (not the normal back and forth painting motion) to my stencil. I find a stiff bristle paint brush, or a sponge brush tend to work best with stencils. The big trick is to not get to much paint on your brush. I got a little heavy with the paint in a few of my stencil designs. I like to dab off extra paint by dabbing my paint brush on the side of my pallet or paper towel. Be careful not to touch the wet paint as you move your block to work on different sides of your present. You could do one side of your present, then set it aside to dry as you worked on another present. Since you only need a thin amount of paint, it should dry pretty quickly.

I then decided to make my presents look a little more rustic. I took a stiff bristle paint brush and dabbed it into some dark brown paint. I then dabbed the paint brush on the side of my paint pallet to get most of the paint off. I then dapped the brown paint around all the edges of my presents. This is called dry brushing because the paint brush is almost dry and thus not a lot of paint comes off. I think this really added a nice touch to my presents. I do not typically do this style to my pieces, but I really liked it o the presents. Do not be afraid to try it, just make sur you dab off the extra paint before dabbing  it onto the edges of your presents.

Once everything was dry that last step was to make some bows. To make a simple bow make a figure eight with your ribbon in about the size you would like your bow to be. Then cut your ribbon and glue these ends together. Then take another piece of ribbon and wrap it around the center of your figure eight and either twist it or make a simple knot in the back of your bow. Then just fluff out your bow and trim the ends. I like to fold the ends in half and cut a small triangle going towards the folded line. For these presents I made two figure eights and glued them together before wrapping the center. I am not great at bow making so feel free to leave your tips and tricks in the comments below to help other out.

For my polka dot present I used fun tissue paper I had. I wanted to find a fun Christmas napkin, but all the designs I found at the stores would have been too large for my blocks. If you find a nice napkin design, then you do the same methods as I did with the tissue paper.

I first applied mod podge to one side of my block. While the mod podge was still wet, I placed my tissue paper on top. I then applied mod podge to the adjacent side and placed my tissue paper on top. I did this to all four sides of my block. I then took scissors and trimmed off the extra tissue paper.  I then applied another coat of mod podge directly on top of my tissue paper and also pressed down any rough edges while I applied the mod podge. I then cut a piece of tissue paper for the top and bottom of my block. I applied a layer of mod podge first, then placed my tissue paper, followed by another layer of mod podge as I pressed down any edges that were not laying down flat. Lastly, I made and attached my bow.

These gifts were a lot of fun to make. I had so much fun making them last year, that I had to make more this year. Please click here to check out the different styles I made last year and let me know which preset or presents are your favorite. I even made a beautiful sleigh that they fit perfectly inside and around. These are so fun to mix and match and add your own personality too. There are just so many ways you can decorate them. I also like having a few different size presents.

This sleigh can be found here. It is a digital download that I made on my Glowforge.

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