I felt that I was really starting to do some interesting stuff with the gift-decorating thing—but then we moved, and my supplies were packed for nearly two years. Now, at last, my giftwrap area is back up and running, and in the process of tidying it up, I found two gifts for my mother-in-law–not to mention the Christmas present for her sister (I didn't finish making xmas gifts till at least February and these, as of Easter, still need to be distributed.)
I like to wrap a bunch of gifts in color scheme, because it takes awhile to pull the various bows and things—this way, I just distribute the pile amongst the various gifts, thereby spreading the prep time.
So here is a triad of gifts with co-ordinating wrapping papers. Goes nicely with rug in my studio not to mention the background of this page. However, the design of the wrapping is in an older style, without the vertical height I was reaching for at the apex of my development.
This is the gift I wrapped first. Since it encloses some crocheted lace from Vietnam, I put a lace heart doily on it. (Well, to be truthful, my rationale was that the wrapping paper was sort of lacy and so the white heart would look good. Or something.) The mint green bow was something of an afterthought, added to pull in the mint green of the paper. Still haven't decided whether I like it better with, or without. It does give the arrangement greater symmetry, which is unusual for me.
This gift shows several of my favorite tricks: a tiny fan of co-ordinating lavender paper (with a silver holographic patter); a wire object—in this case a big fuzzy pipe-cleaner—wrapped into a spiral; ultra-thin ‘ripped’ ribbon, and differentially curled ribbon. The ripped ribbon can be curled before or after ripping, or both.
Obviously I think curling ribbon is great stuff. Usually it's pleated, and the deeper the pleats the tighter it will curl (some types will curl tightly without pleats, however). Quite often I scavenge these from other gifts, and have uncurled ends that were wrapped around the box of the gift scavenged from. These I curl loosely, so they can trail artistically off the sides of the gift: note the gray ribbon doing this particularly.
This is the last gift I wrapped, and I decided to add the paper hydrangeas, even though they were a tad darker than the other colorways. But they tied the blue-violet bow (color faded?) and tanzanite ribbon, both very elderly garage sale finds and quite unusual colors, towards the lavender purple paper.
This closeup shows another favorite trick: the iridescent textured bow was pretty but squashed: so I just glued some curling ribbon on top of it, letting a portion peek thru. I frequently glue a smaller bow on top of a larger, damaged bow to cope with mashed bows.
Three gifts, largest 9-1/2” x 14-1/2”, paper, assorted ribbons and bows, silver cord, lace doily, pipe cleaner, paper flowers, hot glue. March 2005.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
