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10 Christmas Wrapping Tips
by S. Roberts
There's something very heart warming and festive
about seeing a pile of beautifully wrapped Christmas presents beneath
a Christmas tree. It makes each present look as special and expensive
as the next because someone has obviously taken the time and care
to make it look stunning. Wonderful if it's underneath your Christmas
tree, if it's under someone else's it really makes you feel secretly
envious. And do you find that beautifully wrapped Christmas presents
tend to be the gifts you want to open first on Christmas morning?
The enchantment and excite from the first moment you receive the
gift because beautifully wrapped Christmas presents make people
feel special.
All well and good but you have so many Christmas
presents to wrap and in the beginning you enjoy Christmas wrapping
but before long you hate every aspect of it. It bores you to tears
and you try to get it over and done with as soon as possible, cutting
corners if need be, and wrapping up items together in one untidy
mess, sticking a bow on the top to try to improve it's appearance.
We've all been there and we have all had to try to look grateful
and excited when presented with such an eyesore gift.
Remember, it's the thought that counts- so try
to put some thought into it! We have 10 Christmas gift-wrapping
tips to help you to produce stunningly wrapped Christmas presents
we ease and give you relatively no stress.
1) Get a box to keep all your Christmas present
wrapping gear in. Scissors, labels, selotape, pens, ribbons and
all your other bits and bobs need to be kept all together. This
saves time and energy, as you won't have to go looking for all the
tools that you need for the job.
2) Always use a selotape dispenser that can be
used with just one hand. Wrapping Christmas presents can be fiddly
and a selotape dispenser males Life easier. Also selotape loses
it's stickiness when it has been previously been stuck on the back
of your hand, and the table or on your arm.
3) Prepare your labels well in advance. Making
labels from last years old Christmas cards is environmentally friendly
and cost-effective. Cut the card into any shape or size. Use a hole-punch
to create a neat hole to thread ribbon on to attach to your gift.
4) Whenever possible, use boxes. Uniform box shapes
are easier to wrap than unusual shapes. Traditional box shape presents
are also more pleasing to the eye.
5) If you are wrapping an unusual shaped present,
don't try to wrap it with paper because it will be frustrating and
will end up looking like one of those ill wrapped disasters that
we mentioned earlier. Either buy one of those beautiful metallic
gift boxes as they come in assorted shapes and sizes and can be
as much appreciated as the gift inside. Alternatively, you can use
a gift bag. This is especially great for bottled gifts. Place your
gift into the gift bag but before taping the bag closed, cover the
top of the gift in streamers. Streamers make your gift fun.
6) Only use enough paper to wrap your Christmas
gift. This sounds obvious, however when you get to the end of the
roll and the paper is 2 inches too long and too wide don't cut corners
by not trimming off the surplus paper. When you come to folding
the ends, if your triangle flaps are so long that they cover the
sides and fold onto the base of the present they will give an unloved
finish to your present. It's crisp edges and flat sides will be
lost and rounded under a wad of paper, and you will have created
an eyesore.
7) Using ribbons can really trim up presents to
make them look special. Ribbons come in selections of colours and
widths. When wrapping ribbon around the present use a colour that
contrasts and compliments the paper colour and design. Don't use
up leftovers for the sake of it if it doesn't compliment the package.
The general rule when wrapping the ribbon around
the gift is - narrow ribbon can be tied into a knot on the underside
of a present, before returning the ribbon round to come back to
the top. Wider ribbon on the other hand needs to have a neat 45-degree
fold put into it to turn the direction of the ribbon that can be
held in place with a small piece of selotape. The fold to turn the
ribbon reduces the bulk of a knot would make and it enables you
to maintain the top side of ribbon showing, which is especially
useful when using metallic ribbon.
8) Ribbon bows, cheaply obtainable form any shop,
and as I'm sure you will agree, not very impressive or stylish.
Less out dated bows are now available and of course you can curl
the ends of the ribbon you wrapped across the blade of a pair of
scissors. However, for a more designer look, using twisted stick
cut to length from the dried flowers section or sprigs of golly
or pieces of ivy. Slip them under the ribbon in the top of the present.
For extra glamour, why not try spray painting
with festive metallic paint a couple of days before you need to
use them. Copper paint looks particularly festive. You could also
sprinkle on a little glitter whilst the paint is still wet to give
it a frosty look.
Another alternative to bows is to use pinecones,
which again can be painted. Either keep the cones attached to a
piece of branch and slip it under the ribbon as before, or else
tie a bit of thread around the cone and selotape it to your gift.
If you must use bows, use bows intended for Christmas
trees. They have more style than the old tired retro gift bow.
9) Don’t buy cheap poor quality paper. It’s
false economy because you have to use more of it. It is so thin
you can see the gifts through it, or it rips, not to mention the
poor quality designs. It’s much better to buy good quality
gift-wrap with a stylish print. You may think that it doesn’t
matter because it only ends up in the bin, but remember it sits
under someone’s Christmas tree for two weeks first. You don’t
want the embarrassment of blighting someone’s Christmas tree
with your eyesore!
10) The most important tip of all, Don’t
leave the Christmas wrapping until the last minute and don’t
try to do it all on the same day. Falling into these traps will
be stressful and will leave you with the Christmas wrapping blues.
Pace yourself. If you wrap three gifts each day starting on the
1st December, by the 20th of December you will have wrapped 60 Christmas
presents, and you will have only taken 45 minutes or so a day. You
could even fit it in whilst doing other jobs – running a bath
or cooking a meal.
I hope these ten Christmas wrapping tips help
you to achieve beautifully wrapped Christmas presents for your friends
and family whilst keeping your stress levels low.
Happy Wrapping!
S. Roberts writes for http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk
for more Christmas ideas check out http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk/christmas-articles.html
If you publish this article please link back to http://www.santaspostbag.co.uk
- Thanks
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