One of the best things about Christmas is the look of happiness as our loved ones open their gifts, but who looks forward to wrapping the presents? Ripped paper hanging loosely off the squarest of boxes, miles of Sellotape wrapped around itself and then you have the odd shaped presents (ever tried wrapping a football?). It’s enough to drive anyone to drink. In this article we aim to give you some handy tips on how to wrap presents like a professional so that the gift looks as good on the outside as it does on the inside.
What you will need
One of the best tips we can give to make your wrapping task so much easier is to put any odd shaped presents into a square or rectangular box, these are readily available from Amazon. It is so much easier to wrap an evenly shaped gift rather than an odd shaped one.
The next most important thing, according to CountryLiving is the choice of wrapping paper. The thicker the paper the better as this is easier to cut and less likely to rip when you are wrapping. If you can, try to purchase paper with a grid pattern on the back as this will help you cut straight lines.
The next thing we recommend is a sharp pair of scissors. You’ll find that a decent pair of large, sharp scissors will simply glide through your good quality paper without the need to use a cutting action. This will save a lot of time and will also prevent snags and that annoying cutting cramp.
Last but not least you should use double sided sticky tape according to Life Hacker as this will allow you to have beautifully neat seams without the tape showing.
How to wrap a box
The key to wrapping a regular shaped box is to not use too much paper so measure around the length and width of the box and allow an extra 10cm as shown in this great guide.
Once you have measured your gift it is time to cut the paper. The key here is to cut the paper in a straight line. If you have paper with a grid pattern on the back, this is easy to do. If you don’t you can fold the paper and cut along that line to keep it straight.
Place the box on the paper and neatly fold the paper up over one side leaving about an inch or two on top of the present as shown here in this guide from wired.com. Then fold the paper over the other side of the box and join it to the paper you have just folded over. A neat trick is to fold the edge of the paper into a sharp seam and then using the double-sided tape join the two pieces together. Make sure you pull the paper nice and tight.
Finally cover the ends of the box by folding the paper towards the middle and make a nice sharp crease on both sides. Hold on to the box to stop is sliding in the paper. The triangle you have formed can now be folded into the centre. Turn the box over and repeat this for the top. If the folds are too long, then you can neatly fold the end so it is in line with the edge of the box. Tape this all down and you have wrapped the end. All you need to do is repeat this on the other side and you have a perfectly wrapped box.
Wrapping A Bottle
Bottles can be notoriously tricky to wrap neatly but we have found three wonderful ways of wrapping a bottle which will suit everyone’s abilities. We particularly loved the fan style! Simple and yet so effective!
Wrapping odd shaped presents
There are all sorts of odd shaped presents that we might want to wrap from balls to teddy bears to oddly shaped ornaments. This brilliant wrapping video shows you how to make a gift bag from wrapping paper which will fit pretty much any awkwardly shaped gift.
What about cylinders? These are more regular in shape and can be wrapped nice and snuggly. This video from Wrapology shows you how to wrap cylinders like a pro!
For all those other oddly shaped gifts we found this wonderfully informative video which covers 10 challenging gifts shapes and shows you step-by-step how to wrap them.
Wrapping presents can be a real challenge but we’re sure that these handy tips will take the stress out of wrapping and you’ll be creating true works of wrapped art in no time.
