1. Use good quality wrapping paper.  Cheap stuff tears too easily, does not give a crisp finish and is a false economy.
2. Measure how much paper you need before you start.  Most people use too much paper, which makes the gift look bulky.
3. Ordinary sticky tape always shows, so using double-sided tape gives a professional finish.
4. Where possible, turn in the edges of the paper. This gives a very neat edge and looks so much better.
5. For special gifts, don’t use curling ‘ribbon’.  Your gift will look much more lavish and luxurious if you use real satin, gauze or velvet ribbon.
6. Keep a sharp pair of scissors for gift-wrapping, especially for cutting fabric ribbon.
7. When you want to wrap a gift for a man but don’t want it to look too girly, tie a bow using grosgrain ribbon. It always looks very smart and chic.
8. Use your imagination to finish off your gift.  Stick a few sparkly beads to the bow or pin on a brooch.  Even old-clip on earrings can add a gorgeous touch.
9. Natural items can make a plainly wrapped gift look interesting.  Play with leaves, twigs and berries. Feathers can look fabulous.

10. Always think about the person you are giving to, or the gift you are wrapping. How can your wrapping reflect their personality or interests, or hint at the gift inside?

So happy wrapping!  I wish you a very Merry Christmas, wherever you are, and I hope you enjoy your giving as well as your receiving.

Here’s the same idea but using a very pretty ribbon and a gorgeous flower spray.  This is so easy but just looks fabulous!

I’ve always thought as long as you use a gorgeous ribbon, you can’t go wrong.  As in your gifting, generosity shows!  Here are shoe boxes covered with plain silver paper but wrapped with luxurious ribbon; a nice idea from Martha Stewart.

As the boxes are holding home-made biscuits, it’s a perfect example of making the ordinary and humble look extraordinary and amazing.

You don’t have to use expensive paper, or yards of ribbon. Just using a little length of satin ribbon, but matching it to the paper just does the trick sometimes.  I reckon this is supermarket paper  (make sure it is not too thin though, or it will tear) but looks  appealing in its own simple way.

A little style, a little imagination, and real ribbon is all you need. I’ve been hunting down the perfect silver wrapping paper, and here it is, click here.  I’d love to hear of your ideas for special Christmas gift wrapping.

Happy Wrapping!

PS My Mistletoe Gift Wrap set is now sold out but there are still some sets of the lovely Winter Berries left. Grab yours quick now, here.

Perhaps not very Christmassy, but I always love a bird and feather theme.  How about this cute little fellow perched on top of a froth of organza ribbon?

This is a neat way of making gifts look really pretty in a frothy, over the top sort of way, but is really easy.  You can adapt it for all sorts of occasions.  I start with my wrapped box and tie the ribbon around in  standard way.

On top, next to the first bow, tie a second.

You don’t have to worry about making perfect bows!  Then, on each of the ribbons wrapping around the box (4 ribbons on 4 sides) tie in another bow. Like this -

It will all look a bit messy at first, but keep going! You can actually tie as many bows as you like, aiming for a full luxuriant or frothy effect.

This when you get your scissors out and start to trim all the ends. Pull the bows together and fluff it all up. Now you can add whatever topping you want. I’ve put on a bunch of berries to match those on the paper. You might prefer a little bird like the cheeky chap on the blue wrapped gift.  A bunch of tiny glass baubles would look really festive.

If you like this unusual designer paper, you can buy it as part of a Gift Wrap Set.  The set gives you all you need for your Christmas wrapping. No more trekking round the shops and all your gifts will look beautiful. Full details here.

Wrapping for men is often seen as tricky. After all wrapping means bows and men don’t do bows do they?  Would your Dad be fazed by a satin bow?  Well I think that as long as you steer clear of flowery paper, and probably pink, then anything goes. I’ve done classic and smart before but as I like to theme the gift-wrapping to the gift itself, here’s how I’m tackling my gift this year.  This gift is a smart bottle of rather expensive, lovely amber coloured shower gel. I chose a luxurious printed paper of baroque images in white, black and bronze.

Fortunately it came boxed (I love boxes, it makes everything so easy!). In fact I would say wherever possible, put it in a box!  When wrapping I always turn under the edges for a neat finish, take the edge to the edge of the box for a really smart look, and always use double sided tape.

Rather than tying a bow round that, I wanted to make it all look a bit smarter, so chose a plain tobacco brown paper and wrapped a band of that around first.  This banding always takes your wrapping up a step.  You can use plain over pattern or vica versa but as long as you choose complimentary colours, it works.  Then a wide satin ribbon was tied round making a big full-on bow.  I know this big satin bow is going to be appreciated!

I hope all Father’s enjoy their special day and hopefully the lucky ones will get a great gift-wrapped present too!

If you were giving your Mum her gift, you’d want her to beam with pleasure, exclaim at the lovely packaging and then enjoy undoing the bow, unwrapping the beautiful paper, anticipating the gift that you’ve spent so much love and care choosing for her.  To your dismay you come across several sites that although they describe themselves as “Gift Shops” don’t actually offer a gift-wrapping service. This has got to be special. You don’t want your gift arriving in bubble wrap and a brown box so you keep on searching.  Some sites do offer gift wrapping but would you choose one that charged you extra for this?

I wouldn’t be very happy if I’d paid a company for gift-wrapping and this is what they sent out. It consists of cheap looking paper (the colour was actually a rather nasty rust), a bit of ribbon, no bow and a gift card that didn’t match and was obviously left over from Christmas. What does this say about the company? That they don’t care about their customers’ experience of shopping with them?  That they have no interest in building a good reputation for customer service or their product? That they’re ripping off their customers? That they’re not interested in nurturing customer loyalty?  I’ll tell you who the company is and I think you’ll be surprised but I’ll leave that until the end of this article.

I guess you’d move swiftly on to another company if you thought your Mum would get her birthday gift wrapped like that. Now who can really make your Mum really delighted?  Oh yes you remember now, there was that site that your friend raved about since she read about them in a magazine. Apparently their customer service has really built their business, they offer a gift-wrapping service that is awesome and your friend now says she wouldn’t shop for gifts anywhere else.

This is what your Mum is more likely to receive.

This example is from A Gift-Wrapped Life in Canada, that sells exquisite gifts and wraps them like this.  Not all companies can give the time and effort to provide this standard, but surely a serious online gift retailer could charge for and provide something of quality and beauty?  Wouldn’t it be worth creating such a good experience for your customers that they’d tell their friends about it?  Perhaps something like this?

I’ve been working with some retailers on their gift-wrap service and it’s now my mission to show gift shops (online or on the High Street) that good gift-wrapping should be an integral part of their customer service and their marketing.  So many don’t realise that if they can give their customers a really good experience, it puts them ahead of their competitors, reinforces their own branding, gets their customers talking about them which is the very best PR, and creates loyal customers who will recommend them and return again and again.  If you’re a retailer and would like some help, please email me.  If you’re not, do start asking for better gift-wrapping from those you deal with. Oh and if you’ve used the Gift Wrap Service from Amazon and have received something like the first photo, please let me – and them – know!

I don’t think I would ever think of putting bright pink and yellow together, (though the two pastels would look really pretty), until I came across a piece of wrapping paper I’d squirrelled away. Wow, that’s garish I thought first. Then looking again I thought, well it’s very cheerful.  My last thought was, well this really could work, and so I hunted for some bright pink ribbon.  A bunch of ‘silk’ daffodils took it right over the top and here’s a gift to make anyone smile.  What do you think?

Happy Easter to everyone, I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please let me know what you think of this gift. Is it garish or gorgeous?

At the very least you could find a ribbon to match the colour of the flowers.  Choose something wide and lavish looking and then simply wrap it around.  This simple gesture will earn extra smiles and appreciation!

Even if you are just picking a bunch of daffodils, don’t you think this wrapping elevates them to pure couture?  This image is from Martha Stewart, but if I had made it, I would have wrapped a piece of stiff paper around first, then wrapped fabric on top of that.  I’d choose a matching ribbon (this looks like grosgrain) and tie it at the top and bottom, making this neat little handle.

Perhaps your mother is laying on Sunday Lunch and you’re going to turn up with a bunch of flowers to show your appreciation.  She’s going to love the flowers, but what with the cooking, preparation, laying the table and all, wouldn’t she love it even more if she then didn’t have to find a vase and arrange them just as the potatoes needed draining?  So idea number 3 is to remove all the paper, wrap complementing ribbon, raffia or material around the stalks and put them in a vase all ready. Perfect, a bunch of flowers becomes a real gift and shows you’ve really thought of her.

Whether you’re giving or receiving on Sunday, I hope you have a wonderful day.

Sometimes however, simple is best. I saw this black and white paper in our local book shop. If you look closely it is of many books so completely appropriate. I hadn’t much time, but black white and red – especially red satin is a classic combination. So here we are; a couple of paperbacks sylishly wrapped, and it took just a couple of minutes. Ta da!

So to kick off, I had a book to send as a thank you gift to a friend last week and wanted to spend some time and attention on it.  I wanted it to be smart, chic and glamourous – just like her – and I had a special little touch I’ve been dying to use. So here goes.

First you can see that I like to cover up the price.  I cut a small piece from a printed paper that would blend in with the cover.  I once saw a tip about using a pretty postage stamp to do the same.  Then I wrapped it in tissue paper. You can see that I double wrap it, first in one direction and then the other.  This makes for a really protected package without a lot of bulk.

I’d chosen a really pretty patterned paper with an almost thirties feel so picked up one of the colours.  As I also wanted it to look chic rather than girlie, I chose black.  I wrapped a band of the pattern around, off-centre, turning in the edges to give a professional finish.

A bow in a pretty black and cream polka dot satin picked up both papers.

On my last trip to the haberdashery shop, I bought a length of very reasonable but utterly appealing black feathered trim.  I’ve been waiting to try it out and here was the opportunity.  My friend will love this touch and I think it’s both fun and frivolous.  I just cut a strip about 10 inches long and double wrapped it arounf the polka-dot ribbon to give a powder-puff effect.

After that all that was needed was a finishing touch.  A smart little gros-grain ribbon in cream set it all off beautifully.  I hope you might take some of these elements and have some fun with your gift-wrapping for Valentines Day.  A little bit of feather trim would tickle anyones fancy surely?

2012 is going to be a further path of discovery. I have come across so many talented people and they inspire me to explore different techniques, styles and creations. I have recently come across the ribbon King, Nicholas Kniel and as you can see here, he makes fabulous gifts. I am going to have so much fun and I hope you’ll enjoy the journey too.

Happy New Year to all and my warmest wishes for a wonderful 2012!