I’ve been obsessed with curling ribbon since I was a kid. I tried and tried to curl fabric ribbon and paper strips by rolling them up around my pen or pencil. (That doesn’t work so well, by the way.) And then I learned there was specific ribbon for curling purposes.

The key to making it all fluffy: don’t curl your ribbon after you tie it to the box – do it before you tie.

Tie one (or two, as shown) pass of ribbon around your gift as you typically would, leaving a few inches of ribbon to tie your gift tags, etc.

Cut several lengths of curling ribbon, anything over 18 inches. Be generous. I like to use about four or five pieces. Curl each ribbon piece just as you would, with the edge of your scissors. You should have a curlicue mess right now.

After you curl the ribbons, take one piece, hold one end in your left hand, hold the other in your right. Bring the ends together, hold them in one hand. Find the center (like folding sheets) with your free hand. Fold the ribbon again by bringing the center to the ends.

Now… you tie the center of that mess of curled ribbons to your gift. Repeat with the other pieces of ribbon.

If you can hold all your ribbons while folding the other pieces, you could fold up all your pieces first and then tie at the end.