Every year, I try and pick out unique gifts for friends and family whenever possible. But sometimes, those gifts don't come already packaged in a perfectly crisp, white box ready for wrapping. So rather then having to default to sticking those odd-shaped gifts into a not-so-cute gift bag, we wanted to come up with some other ways to give those beautiful objects this holiday.

1. A Piñata Present—for jewelry, craft supplies, wooden blocks, or decorative arrows—you can use a mailer tube as the base container for a gift that has multiple parts or pieces. You can give this gift sealed with a lid or kept open (as shown above) to show off a bit of the prize inside.

Here’s what you’ll need:
– crepe paper, streamers, or tissue paper
– a mailer tube
– faux gold leather ribbon
– Scotch® Double-Sided Tape
– Scotch®  Scissors

Here’s how:
1. Wrap the crepe paper or streamer around 3 of your fingers a few times.

2. Use scissors to cut slits halfway in on one side making sure to leave at least ½” uncut up top.

3. Use double sided tape to secure the top of the streamers (the part without the slits) to the bottom of the tube and wrap around a few times to add layers.

4. Repeat step three with a different color or pattern above the first layer so that you can see a bit of the previous layer below. Repeat until you leave 1 inch from the top of the mailer tube free.

5. To finish off the tube, use the piece of gold faux leather ribbon to wrap around the top of the tube and secure with double-sided tape.

2. A Jolly Pineapple—For a vase, mug, or other oblong object, we were inspired by Japanese Furoshiki to wrap the object with fabric—in this case, into a festive pineapple!

You’ll need:
-fabric
-felt
-fabric glue
-ribbon
-pom poms
– Scotch® Scissors

Here’s how:
1. Cut your fabric of choice into a square. The size of the square depends on how large or small your item is and should be at least 3 times the height of your object. For example, our vase was 5 inches tall, so we cut a fabric square 18 x 18” in size.

2. Use felt (we used 2 different color greens) to make the leaves on 3 sides by cutting the felt into 6" squares cut it in half diagonally.

3. Use fabric glue to glue the triangle pieces to 3 corners of the inside of the fabric square. 

To wrap your object: 

4. Place the item with the front facing the corner with no felt leaves.

5. Pull up the 3 felted sides up to a point that meets in the middle. 

6. Take the front piece and wrap it around the 3 corners and then secure the end by tucking it under and making a knot. 

7. Finally, to create the holly ribbon, glue 3 red pom-poms on ribbon (our ribbon was 16 inches long) and tie the ribbon around the base of the pineapple.

3. A Happy Box—When you just need a box to hold anything of your choosing, make one inspired by a childhood favorite. 

You’ll need:
– wrapping paper
– large sheet of cardstock or Bristol board
– our template (download here)
– spray adhesive
– Scotch® Double-Sided Tape
– Scotch® Scissors
– Optional: faux leather to make tassels, googly eyes to make a pattern, or metallic gold Scotch® tape to make stripes.

Here’s how:

1. Print out our template and blow up in scale to whatever size you need. If you need a size larger than what you can print at home, you can take it to a copy shop for larger printing, or print it in parts and tile the template together. (You only need it for tracing, so the print-out doesn’t have to be perfect.)

2. Mount wrapping paper of your choice to thicker paper stock using spray adhesive.

3. Trace the template on the back of the paper, then cut and fold according to the template.

4. Use double-sided tape to secure the tabs that hold the box together.

5. For additional decoration, use tape to make fun stripes, googly eyes to make a whimsical pattern, or faux gold leather to create a simple tassel.

We hope this will inspire you to think outside the (gift) box and create a fun package that’s as cool as the gift inside! What’s your favorite way to wrap odd-shaped gifts?

P.S. If you've got a great idea, you could win $5,000 by entering Scotch® Brand's Most Gifted Wrapper Contest by 12/10/14. Remember it is void where prohibited and restrictions apply. Click here for details and official rules. And make sure you click through below for all our creative gift wrap ideas!

This post is brought to you in collaboration with Scotch®. All content, ideas, and words are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that allow me to create new and special content like this for Oh Joy.

{Creative direction by Joy Cho, photos by Casey Brodley, and crafts/styling by Julia Wester for Oh Joy}