How-To: Last Minute Wrapping (with jazz hands)

Ahhh, it's that time of year again. Personally, the mad dash to wrap last-minute gifts is my favorite part of the holidays. The excitement. The mystery. The imposing danger of the plastic teeth on the tape dispenser. Can I get a witness? Well, this year we decided to share some of our little tricks to making your last minute gifts look not only like they were thoughtfully purchased months ago, but also wrapped with love and plenty of time to spare.

The Strip
Ever wonder how the department stores make gifts looks so professional? Here's a little trick that you can add to your own gifts that's really just a few extra folds away. Cut your wrapping paper leaving a little more length than usual to get it around the gift. Take one end of the paper and fold it in about 1". Then fold it over in same direction again, the time about 1-1/2". You should have a little extra room inside the fold, like this:

Then, take the entire piece of paper and flip it over, so the fold is on the bottom side. Taking that same end, fold it back about 1/2", bringing the folded strip back around to the top of the paper. It should look like this:

Wrap your gift as usual, bringing the folded strip over to the opposite edge of the wrapping paper and taping the unfolded edge under the folded edge.

Tape top and bottom ends of the gift as usual. You can add a bow to this or wrap some ribbon along the folded strip, and tah-dahhh! Department store look with DIY love.

The Petal Bow
Sure, anyone can throw a bow on a gift and call it wrapped. But that's just not how we roll here at Farewell. One of my favorite homemade bows is easy to do and adds a lot of dimension to your gifts. It just requires a thin strip of wrapping paper about an inch wide and anywhere from 15"-20" long. The longer the paper, more full your bow will be.

Starting at one end, carefully bring the end of the strip in about an inch and tape it down. Be sure not to create a crease at the fold, just let the end bow out from the taped end. It should look like this:
Then fold the long end of the strip back and crease. Repeat the first step, taping each little bow to the same end of the paper.

Keep doing this until your strip of paper ends and tape the ends together one last time. It looks like flower petals from the side.
Place it on your gift and admire from every angle.

The Paper Wheel
This little guy is a crowd pleaser, let me tell you. It looks great and it's a fun way to bring in different colors and patterns to your gift. Start out with a few strips of different patterned wrapping paper, varying the widths from 1"-2.5" and about 12".

To start off, fold one end of the paper. Then fold back the opposite way, leaving a little length on the end that's longer than the folds. Like this:
The whole thing is basically one long accordion fold. Keep folding back and forth until you have reach the other end of the strip, leaving another extra longer tab on that end. This will make it easier to tape the wheel together. Once you have all the folds, take the piece and pinch it in half, creating a fold that makes it look almost like a fan. Then fold it back the other way, creating a crease in the middle of the fan.
Turn the wheel over and, keeping it pinched, fold one half of the longer tab down over its other half and tape them together. Then do the same to the other side.

You'll notice if you lay them down, the fan expands like a caterpillar. In order to keep the wheel centered, pull both tabs toward each other in the middle, line them up and put one longer piece of tape on one edge and fold down.When you turn the whole thing over, you should have a beautiful paper wheel.

You can fold the tab flat to the bottom of the wheel and that gives you some surface area to attach a piece of tape to adhere the wheel to your gift. Repeat the wheel on the other strips of paper and cluster them on the gift.



Here are some other little ways you can jazz up your gifts with some odds and ends from around the house. I like this clever one for Dad gifts—it's as easy as cutting out the shape of a tie and shirt collar with other wrapping paper. I make this one for my stepdad, because usually there actually is a dress shirt or tie inside.

You can also do paper airplanes or birds for a child's gift, a guitar cut out for a teen, or an apron for a foodie friend's gift.

Ribbon? We don't need no stinkin' ribbon. If you run out of the side goods (or if a sneaky family member stole them to their room to wrap their secret gifts) you can always take some buttons and string them around a gift. Loved and lovely.

Okay, hope you found our little gift accessorizing tips helpful and not too hard to do. Even if it doesn't look perfect, people always seem happy to open a gift that's been wrapped with some handmade love.
Lisa and I are both headed to Seattle to visit our families for Christmas, we'll post from there if we get a chance between gifts and eggnog binges.

Peace and paper love this holiday to you and yours!

} jp-c