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Welcome to our easy gift wrapping guide
From basics through to the ultimate in luxury, here's a few ideas to get creative with this season, and you can be sure that your gifts will look totally unique and classy.
Wrapping a Basic Box
Always a great place to start, a basic box shape is a delight to wrap. Firstly select some tissue and some cello, we're using 'Trees' wrap in Silver and Purple over some deep Violet tissue for a modern Christmassy feel.
Lay out a couple of sheets of tissue.
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| Place the box upside down in the centre and decide if you need to trim the tissue down. The key to good wrapping is to have just enough paper - too much and it's impossible to make tidy joins. Aim for a nice (1-2") overlap on the body of the parcel, and a scant overlap (enough to cover plus no more than 1" of overlap) on the ends. Fold the raw edge of the paper over to give a neat finish, then fold the tissue over the main body of the box having the seam on the bottom face. Use a minimal amount of sticky tape to seal |
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At each end, push the excess paper inwards towards the centres and 'find' the corners of the box. Using the corners as a guide, crease the paper at top and bottom. |
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Push the top flap downwards and crease at the fold |
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Then bring the bottom flap upwards and stick with a small piece of tape. All seams should be nicely tucked away on the bottom of the parcel |
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Do exactly the same with the cello wrap, making a seam at the bottom of the parcel and folding in the ends as before |
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Tip - for a clever finish and effortless unwrapping, try the 'no tape' method. Use very small pieces of tape to hold the cello wrap, and place them off centre. We'll go back and remove them later when the wrap is secured. |
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Now take some ribbon and add to the box in a parcel style. We're using two colours of curling ribbon, you need at least twice the width and length of your parcel to make a nice trim. Still with the box upside down, lay the ribbon out, bring to the underside of the parcel (where you've made all the seams). Treating the two ribbons as one, twist them around each other and take them back up to the front face of the parcel.
Flip the parcel over so it's right way up and tie the ribbons off in the centre. Avoid double knotting, you want the recipient to be able to open the parcel easily, so if you can manage it do a single knot and then make the ribbon ends into a bow. |
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Take the long ends of the curling ribbon and gently run over the back of your scissors to curl them into ringlets. |
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Once the ribbon is curled, you should be able to remove the pieces of tape securing the cello wrap and it will stay in place beautifully (hence why we put the tapes off centre, the ribbon won't be obscuring it and you can remove it easily!)
One beautifully wrapped parcel |
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Wrapping a bottle
If you fancy a spectacular alternative to the bottle bag, read on!
Place the bottle on a sheet of tissue |
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| Roll the bottle up in the tissue at an angle, leaving a good margin top and bottom. |
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| About halfway across the sheet, fold the remaining tissue at the bottle's base inwards so that you won't have any excess at the bottom. |
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| Finish rolling the sheet and secure with a small piece of tape near the bottom |
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| Cut a large sheet of cello (our wraps are 80cm wide, so make a square 80 x 80cm and that will be just perfect). Stand the bottle in the centre of the sheet and pick up all 4 corners and pinch together at the top. |
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| Holding the cello loosely round the neck of the bottle, start to pick up and pleat all the loose cello into your hand. Keep working around the bottle until you have it all pleated up nicely. Use a small piece of tape or ribbon to tie it off |
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| Now take a pull bow, open out the ends and find the 'strings'. Pull up to form a perfect bow |
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Tie the bow onto your bottle neck and curl the strings up with your scissors. Fold over the loose top of the tissue, pull gently on all the cello pleats to get them standing nicely and voila! |
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Make a Covered Box
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Got a luxury gift to wrap? This is the ultimate in top notch presentation, if you have the time and patience it really is a delight to receive and would put any top store wrapping in the shade! Especially suitable for lingerie or fine clothing, start by wrapping the gift in some good quality tissue. We're using our acid free Metallic Gold for this gift. |
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Tip: it looks extra swish if you form the tissue paper into an envelope style front and secure with a small sticker to seal, as shown. Put the gift aside while you work on the box. |
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For this project, you will need a two part box, base and lid. If they are flatpacked, that's ideal, but if not deconstruct them so that you can cover all sides. This box is one of our basic slot together A4 size that we use for posting orders. |
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Take the base and lay it out on a sheet of tissue. Cut roughly to shape, leaving a 1-2" margin all round. Use a small piece of double sided tape at either end to hold the tissue and box together while you make the more precise cuts. |
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Find where the box corners will be, and cut the tissue right into the corner at a 45 degree angle. Don't be scared to cut right into the corner - the tissue needs to be able to move with the box to stop it ripping when you make the box up, so be bold and make a nice clean cut. |
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Now fold all the edges of the tissue over the box, securing with sticky tape. None of this will be seen later, so you don't need to be over tidy, just try to get the tissue reasonably taut |
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Do exactly the same with a piece of cello wrap. We're using delicious 'Stars' in Gold over Deep Violet tissue for a dramatic look |
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Make up the box. Now put a small strip of double sided tape on each side, inside the box near the rim to hold the lining. |
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You can line your box in tissue, satin fabric etc, even a thin Christmas print would be nice. We're using matching tissue. Take a sheet and fold in half. Fold in the edges all round, about 1cm is fine. Lay the folded sheet over the box (it will be oversize, but that's fine), and carefully stick one side to the first piece of tape. |
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Carefully offer up the remaining sides of the liner to the tapes, pressing gently and scrumpling in the excess tissue. Repeat the covering process for the box lid. |
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Lay your wrapped gift in the box, add the lid, stand back and admire. Truly lovely! |
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A luxury gift deserves a nice bow. We made one very simply in a wired edge gold lame ribbon tied in a single bow. The lucky recipient just needs to undo the bow, lift off the lid and be delighted |
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Gift Baskets and Hampers
Filled baskets are a fantastic way to create something special, whether you're giving a gift, fund raising or presenting your own products. We show two basic ways of making them here
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The first kind we've made is the covered basket. This is good to use when you want the items clearly visible, and ideal for anything that needs to be posted or transported as the contents won't move about.
We're using a small seagrass trough and 6 luxury chocolate candles to make a small gift |
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Start with some crumpled cello wrap as the base. This stuff is perfect for a base material because it has a natural springiness that fills spaces well but also pushes the gifts up against the top wrap.
The tinted cellos are lovely, with a glossy jewel-like appearance. Cut around half a metre, scrunch it into the basic shape you want and place in the basket. Have it at least 2" higher that the basket rim and tuck the cut edges inwards |
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Place the contents as you want them. You could add a gift card, contents list or some extra decorative touches into the display, we're using a few simple silk flowers to set our candles in. |
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Cut a sheet of wrap for the cover. Plain or lightly patterned designs look good, here we're using simple 'Seasons Greeetings' text in gold on plain wrap for a classy finish.
Loosely tape the wrap to the base on one side to hold it in place. Stretch the wrap fairly taut over the basket to pin the contents in place. You should find that the scrumpled cello base gives a lovely springy bounce that will bring the contents up perfectly to meet the covering wrap. Don't worry if there are a few things not quite in the perfect position, we can make small adjustments in a minute |
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Still holding the wrap tight, flip the basket over. Trim to size and use sticky tape to secure the wrap, but leave the ends open for access |
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Before final fixing, carefully slip the scissor blades (closed!) under the top wrap and very gently adjust any contents or decoration that are not quite in place. |
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When you're happy, turn the basket over, pleat in the ends of the wrap and use a couple of pieces of tape to secure. This basket is so stable you can literally shake it and the contents won't move or settle |
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The second type of basket is the more showy wrapped presentation. To start, we're using an eared basket filled with metallic gold coarse shredded tissue. Use plenty of shred, it will compress as you add the contents and it's really difficult to add more later if you need it but easy to take some away.
To your overfilled basket add the contents, nestling them about 1/3 down into the shred. Tuck in any trailing edges and adjust the amount of shred if you need to. |
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If you want the basket to look even more decorative, sprinkle in some pretty things between the contents. Here we're giving toiletries and perfume so our additions are fragrant dried rosebuds, glitter cones and tiny gold berries - when the basket is used up these could all be piled into a little dish and used as a pot pourri.
Other nice 'sprinkles' include foil wrapped chocs, confetti, tissue hearts, pot pourri, etc, just choose something that complements the gift and you can't go wrong. |
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Cut a large sheet of cello wrap (you will need about a metre for a 12" basket) and stand the basket in the centre of it. Pull up all 4 corners and pinch together with one hand to get the basket absolutely centred.
Choose a tying point above the middle of the basket, loosely scrunch all the cello together in one hand. Work all the way around the wrap, picking up and pleating the folds into your 'tying hand' until you have a nice tight hold on all of it and the fullness is evenly distributed. Tie off with a small piece of ribbon or stick some tape around to hold in place |
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Take a pull bow, pull up the strings and tie firmly onto the tying point. Curl up the strings with the scissor blades and arrange them to trail down the front of the basket. |
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Finishing touches
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If you don't want to go for basic ready made bows, there are loads of other ways to dress up your gifts. Here's how to make a triple bow.
Start with a metre and a half of 2" wide florists ribbon (you can also use this technique with wide fabric ribbons). Tear the florists ribbon in half, then tear one half again so you have a half and two quarters. |
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Take the half width and make a tail about 6-8". Pinching tightly between thumb and forefinger, give the ribbon a half twist. This is the 'pinch point' where the 'knot' of the bow will be.
Now loop the ribbon to make a first loop about 3" and bring it back to the pinch point. Give another half twist and add it to the pinch you're already holding. Make an equal sized loop for the other side, bring back to the pinch point and give another half twist.
Add another two loops each side, making all the loops as even as possible until you have 3 pairs, plus a final 6-8" of tail, all pinched together in your fingers |
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Take one of the quarter strips and tie tightly around the pinch point. Fan out the loops and trim the tails to a nice shape. To attach the bow, you can use the remains of the quarter strip to tie around your package and curl the excess if you want to
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Unique shaped ribbons
Try this idea for something different. Using florists 2" ribbon, fold in half lengthways.
Get creative with the scissors. Try cutting out small heart shapes, then lay over a contrast colour (top)
Choose a strong shape like Ivy Leaves or Holly. Cut away from the open edge, leaving a small linking piece between each leaf along the folded edge to create a garland effect (middle)
Pick a simple geometric shape like these large and small diamonds (bottom) |
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Picks
Make these holly picks simply and for next to nothing. Take some florists ribbon and cut a pair of leaves out. Leave a short stem on each leaf.
Use a double ended red berry, twist together and add a short length of stem tape.
Wrap in the leaf 'stems' and cover to the end of the wire with stem tape. |
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Add a tiny bow in thin gold ribbon (left). Here's a similar idea in ivy leaves with gold berries (right) |
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