Ocean-themed gift wrapping

For my friends' birthdays, we are going to the beach to have a bonfire. I decided it would be best to mimic the motif in their gift wrapping! The gifts turned out really well and I hope my girlfriends love their gifts!

Materials (for the most part):




(Scissors, single hole punch, beads, tissue paper in a variety of neutral beige/tan colors and copper/light brown, shell cutouts, natural "string" for the package)

 
The first gift:
The trick is to first wrap the gift as you would with regular wrapping paper (but be careful! tissue paper is harder to work with), but after crumple the extra tissue paper into a ball in your hand and unfold. Then, wrap it around the sides of the package and tape in back. Layering the tissue paper in several strips gives it a look of layers for the sand appeal.



(Tan paper on bottom package, coper paper on top box, tied with blue-green to simulate seaweed, cutout shell as nametag)



The second girft:

I used beads on this one to represent shells in the seaweed. Using mini shells probably would have been better, however. I used a bag that was light blue with a purple glare on it to illustrate a shimmering ocean/shells/etc. I tied that with the "seaweed" strng again and attached a name card.