Silver and Gold Paint Pens for Simplified Gift Wrappings

a little silver ink dresses up plain brown paper

The first Christmas we had our cat, she seemed to enjoy the ribbons and bows on our wrapped presents a little more than she should. Not only did she chew on the bows, but she swallowed a fair amount of the plasticky ribbons. This just wasn't good for her. 

From then on, instead of adding ribbons or bows to our wrapped gifts, I simply drew designs (simplified versions of snowflakes, trees, hearts, teddy bears and snowmen) and name tags right onto the wrapping paper. I used markers mostly. The side benefit was I saved money by not buying disposable wrapping extras. As the years progressed, my budget improved, and I've been able to buy special silver and gold paint pens. The pens last for years and have been used on several different holiday projects. 

the pens can be used on many types of surfaces

Here, I've used the gold pen to personalize a couple of ornaments for our Christmas tree.

This year, I'm using the pens on the brown packing paper that I asked you for suggestions on how to reuse back in September. I'm also reusing some white tissue paper that was wrapped around an item that I ordered from a vendor online. The silver and gold seem to show up best when I make my lettering large, as I've done on the "Julia" package. (As you can see, I'm not that artistic, nor is my penmanship stellar. But that doesn't seem to matter terribly much.) 

Anyway, I have fun with it. And it's more economical than buying single use bows, ribbons, and gift tags.

Paint pens are available at art and craft supply stores, such as Michael's, Blick Art Materials (dickblick.com) and Etsy, or all-purpose retailers such as Amazon and Walmart.