it's a wrap!

i loooooove wrapping gifts. i may have mentioned that, lol. here are my three favorite tricks for making extra fancy presents that don't "get wrecked" when you open them. because yeah... in the past, i've had people just flatly refuse to open their gifts, lol. 

trick number one is everyone's favorite, the trusty giftbag. the only drawback with giftbags is that the fancy ones cost a fortune, but the plain ones are... well... plain! so i've dressed this one up with some handcut paper ruffles from one of my favorite recent prima marketing lines, georgia blues. once the ruffles were attached (i made them 12" wide, so the ends could tuck neatly into the folds at the side of the bag) i added a couple of doily scraps, some ancient prima pearl flourishes and a gorgeous paper and vellum butterfly that is also from the georgia blues collection.

my second trick is to buy --or better yet re-purpose-- a little box with a lid, then cover the box and lid separately with giftwrap or with fancy patterned paper. in this case, it's some beloved and shimmery hambly paper. i use gluestick or nuvo deluxe adhesive to adhere the paper neatly, without bubbles or wrinkles. for this little box (which contains earrings for my cousin kerrie) i used a black damask pattern for the bottom of the box and a white doily print for the top, and the "appliqued" hearts on each side. i like to decorate the envelopes of my cards as well. this one has some oversized alphabet stickers, in the initials of my recipient.

my last trick might be the hardest to spot, because it kind of looks like i wrapped this pair of fancy candy bars in the traditional way, right?

but no... i've just made a sheath that wraps around the bars, leaving the ends open, so it can easily be slid off like this:

this one is made from a vintage map, which i've decorated with a fussy cut vintage car, and topped with a bow made from measuring tape twill. this time i did some handlettering on the envelope, using a vivid blue tombow dualbrush pen. i will tell you my two favorite tricks, that immediately make your lettering look very cool: #1. outline your handwriting! you can go all the way around every letter OR just choose a "plane" as i have done here, by outlining only the right side of every vertical line. trick #2: add a shadow to one side of your letters, it can be to the left or right, top or bottom, just be consistent. et voila! you've instantly got 3-D text!

and that concludes the spring birthday edition of the giftwrap chronicles. my only regret is that i didn't save one of those candy bars for myself... oh well...  ♥