Creative Holiday Gift Wrapping Ideas

Here is what you'll need to wrap beautiful gifts.

Quality wrapping paper, wire edged ribbon to match your paper (make sure there is wire along both sides of the ribbon), double-sided adhesive tape, a stapler, and scissors.

First, your gift needs to be in a box, preferably a square or rectangle. This is going to help the finished product look neat and clean. Trying to wrap an odd shaped package will result in a sloppy outcome.

Read through these instructions completely before beginning.

Now you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how much paper you need, just lay your paper on the table (or where ever you are doing this) and unroll a length of it. Place your box on the paper. Take the end of the paper and pull it up and over the box until you have the bottom, top, and two sides covered with paper. Leaving about 3 inches of extra paper, you may now cut your paper in a straight line.

Note: This first step should be done using the longest sides of your box, because wrapping paper sometimes tends not to be very wide, you'll want to ensure that the width will be enough to completely cover the sides. So, for example, if you were wrapping a shirt box that was about 14 inches long, 10 inches wide across the top, and 2 inches deep, you'd want to lay the box longways for the initial cut.

Ok, now that you've got your length cut, you need to start taping it together. Lay your paper color-side down, and place your box upside-down about in the center of the paper. Remember to lie it lengthwise. Now we need to get just a bit technical, not for wrapping purposes, but for explanatory purposes. Fix your paper so that it is spread out in front of you, lengthwise, from left to right. Ok, the left end is going to be called LEFT, the right end will be called RIGHT, the long side farthest from you will be called TOP, and the long side closest to you will be called BOTTOM.

Put a piece of doube-sided tape on the LEFT edge (and remember we are working with the top surface here). Now take the LEFT end of the paper and place it on the tape so that about 1/2 inch is on the surface of your box. Remember to have your box centered on the paper from TOP to BOTTOM.

Now take the RIGHT end of your paper, and pull it snugly up and over the surface of your box so that it is covering where you just taped. Once you have it pulled snug, make a crease in your paper using the LEFT edge of the box. You will then fold the paper under at this crease. This is what is going to make it look seamless. Now place two pieces of double-sided tape on the LEFT edge of your box again, this time on top of the paper you've already got taped down. You should space them according to the size of your box, but they should be near (not at) the corners. Now place your folded edge on the tape so that the edge of the paper is DIRECTLY at the edge of the surface of your box. Voila. You've finished one side.

You now have to finish the TOP and BOTTOM sides. This will be a little trickier, but you can do it. The main thing to remember is that we want to end up with the edges of the paper at the edges of the box. We do not want to fold the paper so that it has triangular shapes anywhere. This will explain how to achieve this on one side, and then you should just do the same for the other side.

Ok, take a deep breath. It's not as hard as it seems, and, with practice, you'll be zipping right through the process. You will want to trim the paper on the TOP and BOTTOM, if needed. "But how much is needed?", you ask. Well, let's say your side is 2 inches high. You would want to have about 3 to 3 1/2 inches of paper to work with. So trim your paper, leaving a couple inches more than the height of your box. Got it? Great.

Now if you're looking at the side you're working with, you will notice that the paper goes all the way around. So you have a top, bottom, left, and right again. You will be working with the TOP first. Pull it down snug against your box, and tape it using the double-sided tape. Anywhere is fine, as this piece will be underneath. After you have it taped down, you will notice that you still have the sides and bottom to deal with. You will work with the sides next, but, as you do, you'll need to pay attention to what's happening with the bottom side. Fold the sides in, but don't tape them yet, because you may need to adjust them.

The bottom side is the trickiest part here. You need to pull it up, of course, but as you are folding the left and right edges in, you'll need to make sure that the crease is directly at the edges again. You want all the edge folds to be straight along the edge, never have your paper folded at an angle when it will be showing. In theory, you should be able to crease the left/right edge and follow the crease in a straight line down through the bottom piece of paper. Then when you pull the bottom up, it should fall into place at the edges.

The last thing you need to do is fold the paper under at the TOP, and tape it down in the same manner you've done before. Place the double-sided tape along the edge (this time on the side we're working with, not the top surface), and press the folded edge into place.

There. You've got one side finished. Now just follow the same instructions for the other side and the paper part is done. As stated before, this may take some practice to perfect, but it's really not difficult once you do it.

Now you need to attach your ribbon. Cut a piece that will go all the way around your long side (or just one of the sides if you have a square box), leaving about an inch or so of excess. Now you need to make sure that your box is right-side up. Wrap the ribbon around so that it meets in the center on the top of your box. Pull it snug and staple the two ends together. Repeat the process for the other side, so that you have ribbon on all four sides. Ok, I know it looks messy right now, but trust me.

You will now be making the actual bow. You will need to play around with how much ribbon you need according to your box size. Form a loop with your ribbon by placing the end in your palm. Form the loop in your palm, using the ribbon edge as the center. You need to make sure you make the loop on top of your palm, not going around your whole hand. Hold the end down with your thumb, make a loop away from you and when you come back towards yourself, place the ribbon under your thumb again. Then continue with a loop near you, folding up and over to come back under your thumb again. As you can see, you're forming what will be the the big puffy bow. You will need to continue this process until you have two or more layers of loops. You can have as many as you like, but too many may look sloppy. When you have all your layers, you will then staple the center. Make sure that the ribbon ends are at the center. And make sure that the loops are one on top of the other, not going around and around each other.

Now, take the loops and staple the whole thing to the ribbon you already have attached to the box. Make sure you staple in the same area you stapled before. After you have that finished, you will need to cut lengths of ribbon to be your cascading pieces. They are going to be folded in half, so make them twice as long as you want them to be. And remember that they are going to have a rippling effect, so leave a little excess for that also. Put one end of your ribbon under all the stapled stuff on your box, and pull it through until it's halfway (put your ends together to decide when that is). Now you're just going to do a simple knot to hold it (just like you do before you tie the bow on your shoelaces). The important part is to put the knot on the underneath side of all your stapling. You will also want to cut the ends of these to form an upside-down "V". This just makes it look much more "finished".

All you have left to do is puff up your loops to form the bow, and you might find it looks nice if you also pull them away from each other a bit so they're not all under each other. To make the ribbon cascade down over the sides, press the ribbon over and under your fingers at alternating intervals. Give it a squeeze at each one to make the wire stick to that shape. You can also bend it a bit to make it go in the direction you like. Play with it and have fun.

You have now completed your package.