12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Cupcake liners and doilies

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: If you don't have ribbon

Something useful for those mismatched cupcake liners and extra doilies you might have hanging around in your kitchen drawers. Just wrap your gift with plain, solid paper (I used brown craft paper), wrap some ribbon, layer a doily and cupcake liner, then secure with coordinating bakers twine.

This is super cute used with brown paper bags, too.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Yarn or twine

Totally Pinterest-inspired wrapping.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Yarn instead of Ribbon

So, in case you don’t have or run out of ribbon, scrounge around your house… maybe you have twine or yarn! Cut ten to twenty lengths of yarn, enough to go around your gift and enough for you to tie tight knots. Tie the yarn one piece at a time around your gift with a double knot. Once you’re done, line up all the knots and then trim the ends to the length you desire. Kind of like a hair cut.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: If you don't have ribbon

How about a skein of multi-colored yarn? Just take your yarn and apply the same way as above, or tape one end of your yarn and wind around your gift until you get the width you like. Cut and tape the end, tucking it in behind the rest of the yarn. It’s just as much  fun unwrapping it as it is winding the yarn around the box.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: If you don't have ribbon

12 Days of Gift Wrapping: Basic supplies, tools and how to pack a gift box

12 Days of Gift Wrapping, Julie Tiu, Basic supplies

How much fun is it to hang out with people who love to wrap gifts as much as you do? Last week I headed up a gift wrapping workshop, craft class… gathering. Lots. Of. Fun! I prepared way more than the two hours would allow, but that’s okay for my first time teaching gift wrapping (HA, a teacher. Me.)! I definitely have learned some lessons now that I have taught two “craft” classes on my own.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping, Julie Tiu, Basic supplies

So, here we are beyond “Beyond the Bow”. Sort of like Oprah’s “After the Show”. We could call this “Beyond the Bow: After Class”, and I am going to share what we talked about in class, and more.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping, Julie Tiu, Basic supplies

Let’s start with the basic supplies and tools of the trade. Gather your paper, ribbons and trim. (I’ll share some gift tag ideas around Day 11 or 12.) Maybe sooner.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping, Julie Tiu, Basic supplies

I wore a craft apron during the workshop – SO handy. And, no I did not sew it myself (just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to) but I’ll probably put that on the projects-to-do list.

Think of all the things you might use when you’re wrapping gifts: Sharp scissor for paper only, scissors for fabric only, tape measure, fancy-edge scissors, craft blade, hole punch.

12 Days of Gift Wrapping, Julie Tiu, Basic supplies

Other things you should have on hand: tape (Scotch brand, double-sided and regular), glue gun (for embellishments, later in the week). Note: Do not put the glue gun in your apron.

And here is my pair of multi-blade scissors (I made these crepe paper flowers with them last year.).

12 Days of Gift Wrapping, Julie Tiu, Basic supplies

One of the things that I didn’t think of for the class is – how do you pack a gift box with fragile items? Here’s how I do it. Prepare your gifts and your gift box with plenty of tissue paper (see the following pictures). Continue reading, there’s more!

Post-Valentine’s Day gift inspirations

Why should we limit giving cards and greetings to our loved ones to Valentine’s Day? We shouldn’t, right? Here are some inspired projects that you might enjoy and I plan on sharing with some of my friends this year in my quest to stay in touch better and bring a little happiness to other lives.

picture from Merriment Design

Vintage Silhouette Embellishment from Merriment Design

Antique Style Valentine at Martha Stewart

Rough and Ready Recycled Notebooks from The Lucky Ladybird Craft blog

With Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year behind us…

  • We’re looking forward to celebrating Mardi Gras at our church tomorrow night at a fundraiser dinner for the children’s religious education program,
  • We’re also getting ready to celebrate my daughter’s birthday this coming weekend. Get ready for birthday crafts and stories.
  • Update on my exercising! Spinning 1st week – 4x, last week – 2x (shoveled 3 days out of the week and was exhausted!). Also went to yoga class and added pilates to the mix. Feeling good, a day at a time.

Happy Monday, my friends!

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