The Art of Gift Wrapping

Being on the receiving end of a visually gorgeous gift is exciting.  I have always appreciated someone taking the extra time to make the outside of the gift as thoughtful as the inside.

When we were restoring Bella Terra, I designed a gift wrapping space in our mud room ~~a place to hold all the paper, tissue, bags, and ribbons.

The deep drawer pulls out and there are wooden dowels for hanging the rolls.  There is also another pull out section that provides a flat work surface.

On either side, there are small individual drawers for tape, scissors, ribbons, glue gun, and miscellaneous items.

Unfortunately, I left the big drawer open recently and our rescue cat, Donovan, decided it was a fun place to hide and explore.  Here’s what he did to several rolls of wrapping paper. The good news is that it forced me to clean out the mess. In doing so, I happened to find a diamond earring in the bottom of the drawer that I had lost nearly 2 years ago!!

Timing is everything. It just so happened that one of my favorite bloggers, Tina from The Enchanted Home,  recently released her own line of wrapping paper.  Tina LOVES blue and white porcelain and I have previously blogged about the gorgeous artificial flowers I purchased from her online store.

What I love about this paper is that it is two-sided~~so with 4 rolls I actually have 8 different styles and colors. The perfect replacement for my many shredded rolls.

After selecting the paper, it’s important to choose the right ribbon.  If you have a Costco in your area, they have a wide selection, especially around the holidays~~large rolls for a reasonable price.

You can make a gift extra special by adding a trinket to the box.  Typically I search my stash of craft supplies, artificial or real flowers, old costume jewelry or buttons or even something from the yard.

By adding a small do-dad, you can make the gift more elegant, playful, casual or themed.

This clip-on artificial flower gives a big punch of color.

What I appreciate about Tina’s paper is that is a very good quality.  Some papers are so thin they tear when you fold the corners.  Here are examples using both sides of one roll of paper~~creating two totally different looks.

The simple blue grosgrain ribbon adds contrast to the green sheer one and the brooch bumps up the elegance. I chose the topiary garden charm from Pottery Barn since it matches the topiary theme on the paper.

The Enchanted Home has just released their holiday wrapping paper and you can see their selection here.

The holidays are coming…..will you do something extra special with your gift wrapping?