So what I think happened is that I wrapped a bunch of empty boxes to make a display for our local library one year...but I don't have a photo of this one. Perhaps it was the one that got screwed up, in which only the top tenth or so of the image showed; or perhaps it was made later in the series; but the fact there was nothing inside lends credence to this view (plus, it's been sitting around in the basement for at least a year...)^[1]

So I carefully opened it, stuffed a little gift inside & closed it back up. And photographed it.

Giftwrap with raffia, pipe cleaner, wallpaper, curling ribbon, wire edged ribbon.

Like the robot gift featured yesterday, I applied the ‘softlight’ mode to deepen the blacks and add some snap. I'm not certain it's as close to reality as the original (shown below) but I like the look.

And here's a similar image, cropped only, otherwise out of the box for comparison. The paper—old wallpaper IIRC, was clearly the basis for the sour greens, lemon yellow and pale blue, with a bit of old-gold ribbon providing a note of elegance.

That said, as a rule, I generally prefer minimal editing, and this image, while not as nicely composed (cuz I cropped out all those distracting reflections, instead of fixing them) is truer to life. Once I get over my phase of playing with gimp, I'll probably prefer it, as well.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.