If you’re out of time to get to the store for more wrapping paper, here’s a fun tip. All you need is AI and a printer.
Amanda Smith is a freelance journalist and writer. She reports on culture, society, human interest and technology. Her stories hold a mirror to society, reflecting both its malaise and its beauty. Amanda’s work has been published in National Geographic, The Guardian, Business Insider, Vice, News Corp, Singapore Airlines, Travel + Leisure, and Food & Wine. Amanda is an Australian living in the cultural center of gravity that is New York City.
Just when you thought presents couldn’t get any better, now you can make your own adorable gift wrap and save a few bucks on rolls that you’ll never use up.
Imagine being able to take a cute moment or memory from the year with that person, then turn it into gift wrap for their present. The gift wrap becomes part of the present. There’s less unnecessary waste, and you won’t end up with piles of single-use paper.
You can use artificial intelligence tools to create Christmas cards, personalized coloring pages for the kids, turn leftovers into recipes and now to design your own wrapping paper.
I decided to use Adobe Firefly for this task because of its AI creative tools. Firefly launched in March 2023 and is available under Adobe’s membership tiers, starting at $10 per month. However, you can use Firefly for free with limited access.
Adobe Firefly uses multiple image models, including Firefly’s own models and partners including Google’s Nano Banana Pro, which is the best for this task.
If you’re planning to turn a photo into personalized gift wrap, check how the model uses your images. Always look at your settings before uploading anything into an AI model to check on privacy and whether your info is used to train AI models.
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Getting set up with Firefly
- If you don’t have an Adobe account, go through the setup process.
- Once you’re in, click on Generate, then Generate Image.
- In the model dropdown, select Gemini 3 (w/ Nano Banana Pro).
- Next, upload your reference image on the left-hand side. The image will depend on who you’re giving the gift to. If it’s a child, niece/nephew or grandchild, you might like to upload a photo of one of their recent drawings, rather than putting a photo of a minor into an AI tool.
- If it’s for a friend, family member or partner, you could use a recent photo of you together. If it’s for a white elephant gift-giving game, maybe you could use a silly meme or shared joke.
Create your holiday wrapping paper
With a white elephant book swap brunch coming up, I wanted to create a gift wrap that had “Book Club” on it. So, for my prompt, I explained who it was for, the text I wanted and the vibe of the design: “Create gift wrap for my book club. This is a white elephant gift with a book inside. ‘Book Club’ should be on the paper. Use festive colors, but not too busy.”
It got a bit literal and created an actual book, so I had to correct it in my follow-up prompt.
I asked for cute festive illustrations, with the text “Book Club” somewhere. But the cartoons were a bit too corny for my liking.
I generated another prompt with these instructions: “Create a repeating pattern of something festive. Minimal with a white background. ‘Book Club’ should be displayed. No cartoons.”
Third time’s the charm. Love it.
Just be aware that any time you ask an image generator to include text, there’s bound to be at least one instance where the words look like an alien language (see the bottom middle).
For a little extra color, I clicked on Edit in the left-hand corner, then Edit Image. This opened up a new window, where I described my edits. I asked Firely to fill in the mistletoe for pops of color, but it only did a couple of them.
This was the prompt: “Color in the mistletoe for pops of color. Do this for every mistletoe. The leaves should be green. The berries should be red.”
It did the green, but not the red berries. I asked once more, but it didn’t do it.
I asked Firefly to make sure all “Book Club” text is up the right way — not backwards or flipped — but it created more errors. It had trouble following this prompt, so I added a screenshot of the section I liked as the reference image, along with an updated prompt.
That seemed to do the job. This was the result, with all the text now looking right:
Then I replaced that image (above) as the reference image, with a final prompt to color in the berries — and it did it right this time.
The trick was adding a new reference image at each step to help Firefly.
Once you have your image, you can use your own printer to print it out. Or if you’ve got the time, you can upload an image for FedEx’s wrapping paper offering with the dimensions you prefer based on the size of your present, with same-day turnaround.
If you’ve got the time (and patience with prompting), creating your own customized gift wrap for family and friends can make your gift giving even more special this year. Your gifts will stand out underneath the tree.
Play some Christmas music while you create, and have fun with it.
I certainly did.
