Gift Wrapping

Good morning. I hope you're having a nice weekend. I'm hoping that today will be better than yesterday - It was one of those days when nothing went right. I spent most of it on one card and I'm still not happy with it. Hopefully today will be more productive.

For today's post I have something different to share with you..................

...............my birthday present. Well the gift wrapping anyway.

Many years ago I used to work in a rather nice china and glass shop. One of the fun parts of the job was gift wrapping items bought as presents. I got quite into it and always used to make an effort with my own gifts but over time I've slipped out of the habit. Anyway, I was watching Create and Craft recently and saw the Jane Means show. It really got  me inspired. Her parcels looked fab and I had to buy her book "Giftwrapped".

Like most crafters I have loads of stuff I no longer use and this is a great way to use them up. One of these is 12" x 12" paper. I also love the look of brown paper parcels and thought the two would look great together. Brown paper is cheap, suitable for everyone and you can embellish it with some lovely patterned paper.

The first thing I did was wrap the box in brown paper using red liner tape to adhere it (that was another occasion where my crafty stash came in handy).  I left the edge unstuck so that I could slot the patterned paper band into it later.

Then came the fun part! Decorating it!

I chose some beautiful K & Co paper from my neglected stash of 12" x 12" to add some pattern and decorated it with punched brown paper and a large bow cut on my Cameo.

The 3D Layered Package Bow is a Jamie Cripps design and was bought from the Silhouette Store and cut on my Cameo. I cut it out of the patterned paper and the brown paper then stuck them together. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the brown paper cut on the Cameo - I did wonder if it would just rip.

I then inked the edges, curled them with a bone folder..........

............. and stuck them together with hot glue.

The brown paper part of the strip was created with a Martha Stewart punch (another item I don't seem to use anymore). This was a bit of a nightmare and I won't be doing it again! The punch didn't like the brown paper and didn't cut that brilliantly. I got there in the end though. I inked the edge of it to make it stand out against the layer below.

The tag was from a Stix2 adhesive bundle and had also been in my craft room for a while. I stamped "Happy" onto the patterned paper and cut it out. "Birthday" went straight onto it (I had to get some Clarity stamps in somewhere). They're both stamped with Archival Ink.

Finally I poked the strip into the end and stuck it all down.

I spent a silly amount of time doing it, for something that will end up in the bin, but I did enjoy it and I did use some things that were going to waste.

Stamps Used

Remountable Letterbox Sentiments

Word Chain 3

We didn't have our pancakes in the week so I'm off to the kitchen now to make some for breakfast. Lemon curd is my favourite filling. What's yours? Ooh, I'm hungry. hopefully they will set me up for a successful and productive day. I'll just forget about yesterday!

Lynne

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