Cute Animal Wrapping Paper Ideas!

I love baby showers, and I promise I’m not just saying that because mine is coming up soon (so excited!). You get to watch someone open presents, they feed you, everyone is excited–it’s great! I love seeing all the ways there are to wrap unique presents online, and making your gift look like an animal is one of my favorites for sure. It’s pretty easy to do, and in just a couple of minutes, you can have your very own adorable gift to give at the next shower or kid’s birthday party you get invited to. Since the boxes you’d be wrapping are probably different sizes than mine, I didn’t do a template, but I’ll show you the way I put each one together. Here are a few of my favorite animal options:

Supplies:
-large sheets of thin colored paper (Check your local craft store. You can use wrapping paper, but these are thicker than wrapping paper so they will keep the shape of what you are cutting out much better.)
-scissors
-tape
-hot glue gun or paper glue
–small hole punch (optional)

The Kitty: To make this present, wrap your box in a solid color of paper like you normally would. Cut out two triangle shapes with straight areas at the bottom that you can fold back and make into tabs to sit on the top of your present for the kitty ears (see the shapes to the left of the present above as a reference). Cut out smaller pink triangles to be the center of the ears, line up with the bottom crease on the bigger triangle and glue in place. Attach ears to the top of your box. Cut two long “U” shapes to be the paws and then cut one medium pink circle and three smaller ones for each paw for the paw pads. Glue the pink details in place and then tuck the paws under your present and glue those secure. Cut a thick wavy line for your tail and glue it sticking up at the back of your present. Cut a pink triangle for your nose and big black and white circles for your eyes and use a black marker to fill in your mouth and whiskers. You can also add some paper or drawn stripes on the tail or body for a tabby or calico cat. How sweet!

The Penguin (modified from this penguin wrapping): To make a penguin, wrap a box in white paper in the usual way. Cut a piece of grey paper that is as wide as the top of your box and comes down the front into a point to form his face and beak area. Glue in place. Cut and attach a yellow beak at the bottom of the triangle. Cut a long grey rectangle as deep as the top of your box so it will just sit across the top of your present and spill down the sides halfway. Round the ends with scissors to be your wing shapes, and then crease the shape to sit centered on the top of your box and angle the wings away from the body a bit down from the top creases (you can see my piece sitting to the right of the penguin above). Glue in place. Cut out some yellow webbed feet and attach under the present at the bottom. Cut small black and white circles for the eyes, and I also cut a white oval to put on his chest for a little belly dimension. Cute!

The Shark (modified from this whale wrapping): Wrap your present in a solid grey paper as usual. Make two identical side fins and fold the 1/2″ at the bottom to make a tab where you can attach the fins to the side of the shark body. Fold a piece of grey paper in half and cut out another fin for the top of the shark’s body, but this time fold your bottom 1/2″ tabs in the opposite directions so it will stand up straight on the shark’s back. Glue in place. Cut a tail piece that has a tab as wide as the shark’s body so you can connect it to the top of the back side of the shark. Gently curl the tail upwards before gluing in place. Cut or punch out your black shark eyes and two rows of sharp teeth for the front edge, and your shark is ready to go!

Awww, adorable!! I would certainly love to receive one of these as either a Mama at a shower or as a kid for my birthday, so I bet you know some people that would love it too! You can adapt the general wrapping scheme to whatever size present you need to wrap, and if you are looking for a good baby present, I love the rainbow ball, rainbow rattle, and turtle tub toy pictured above (they are all organic or nontoxic too!). Have fun putting your own spin of cute on these little faces! xo. Laura

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with the NEW A Beautiful Mess actions.