Gorgeous Gift Wrap - Fresh ideas for your festive wrapping.

Gorgeous gift wrap
I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas. The colour, the glitz, the food the decorating and simply the  ostentatiousness of it all. I never tire of it from year to year. For me the excitement begins late October I love the preparations and anticipation almost as much as the event itself. Each year I choose a theme for my wrap and decor deciding on new layouts for Christmas paraphernalia around the house and accessorising overload I just indulge in it all.  The gift wrap is also an integral component to this, I love to decorate my presents with a theme or idea so that when they are stacked up under the tree it creates a stunning visual display.  Here are some of the ideas I’ve explored to create truly gorgeous gift wrapping.

Scent -sational
Stimulate all the senses, use sweet smelling herbs or flowers to create decorative features along with ribbon and twine. Explore rosemary ( I grow this in the garden so it’s free too!) really you could use sprigs of any herbs, lavender dried roses/flowers, bay leaves, twisted twigs, dried oranges, cinnamon sticks (the year I did this it did cost a little more) Think organic, pine cones with wire can also work well too and the good news is you can collect most of it on an outdoor walk. This works best with white or brown papers keep it simple and let the ribbon accessories do the work.

Paper surfaces
Explore papers layering papers looks good and can create a co-ordinated look. Wrap the present in one paper and then select a co-ordinated paper to create thinner strips and bands of paper around the present explore different widths so that you can see the original wrap underneath. Explore which papers work best together you can mix patterns too, red and white stripes looks great with red and white spots for example- candy cane inspired.

Block printing
This is quite indulgent, but great for luxury gifts rather than stocking fillers. Create hand block printed paper by printing your own design. I used my wooden vintage Indian blocks for this but you could use sponges, rubber stamps or even potato printing techniques. Some ideas could include gold paints onto brown paper or white onto dark blue or black with glitter, it's lots of fun  -you could get your kids involved too if you can face the irregular prints and mess!

Plain and simple elegance
Keep it simple, brown paper and string, newspapers yes I did say newspaper, this looks fab if you use some really over the top ribbon. I’ve also used music papers as background wrap even better if it carol sheet. Map books work well tear up an old atlas (everyone uses sat nav now anyway) This looks fabulous with silver ribbon.

 Wallpaper wonders
Go for highly patterned beauties. The bigger and darker the print the better it looks.  Flocked or textured designs also look very dramatic this does call for a wider glitzy ribbon too for over the top glamour

Ribbons and trims
Linking your trim to the wrap and overall look is key. If you have gone more naturalistic by way of theme better choices would be for string, raffia or bakers twine ( this is available in so many colours choices. If you have gone for a more extravagant look go for wired ribbons braids cords and trims feathers also look fabulous.

Hope this has given you some ideas.
Happy wrapping
Sophie.  X
P.S. If this all sounds like far too much effort, why not leave it to me- remember you can give the surprise gift of painting or print via my website which will arrive beautifully gift wrapped ready all for you and it will solve the problem of what to buy that special person at the same time.
P.P.S. 
I’ll be doing special promotional offers on gift wrapping too in November keep your eyes peeled via Instagram
Chat soon
Sophie X 

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