How to Gift Wrap According to Theme

Jennifer O’Neil: We love to add something surprising to the outside of the gift to turn it into a conversation piece. Kitty O’Neil: Like this where we turned three round boxes into a wedding cake. Jennifer O’Neil: Can you imagine walking in to a wedding with this and putting this on the gift table? Kitty O’Neil: They will not want to open it. Jennifer O’Neil: We’re going to make mini one right now. Kitty O’Neil: Or in the event it is a craft box that’s shaped like a miniature hat box. Jennifer O’Neil: Yes. So be sure to pack the inside with tissue. And we’re going to use white paper to make it look like frosty. Kitty O’Neil: Turn it on the flat side, measure the wrap so comes up about three corners of the way across the bottom and then I ball the other side, three quarters of the way. So you have an even around wrap on both sides and then you're just going to cut a long strip, do not worry about how long. Jennifer O’Neil: You won’t do this normally on other gifts but because it’s round and wants to keep rolling, it’s a good idea to put a piece of tape right at the end. Kitty O’Neil: And just roll the wrap around the box, and when the two sides meet up kind of give yourself a little extra room there so the wraps overlap and then cut the paper. I’m going to fold the edge to give it a little hem. That’s one of those professional touches to make the gift look like it was wrapped by the pros. Jennifer O’Neil: And we’re going to use just one tiny piece of tape to secure it on the side and that will be the back of our cake. And now to flip the bottom, we’ll start by trimming the end so that’s a little more even. Kitty O’Neil: And then test to see if you’ve got the right amount of paper. You want the paper to be able to fold in without touching the other side of the paper. That’s perfect. We’re going to actually create pleats that are going to look like a shutter. Jennifer O’Neil: We’re going to start right here with this part that’s underneath and start pleating, just like this and create little creases as you go toward the center. Kitty O’Neil: And once you get going these pleats just almost make themselves. It’s better to take off excess paper rather than try to tape it down, fold it down and then all you need is one little piece of tape there to hold those pleats in place. Now to finish off the top so it looks a little bit more professional, we’re going to use a doily and this darling doily looks just like wedding lace. Jennifer O’Neil: We’re going to put it on using tiny dabs of hot glue. And it’s such a pretty quick way so you want to work kind of fast with hot glue. Kitty O’Neil: Maybe a dab in the center. Jennifer O’Neil: That’s a good idea and now we’re going to put that down, and then right on the center. Kitty O’Neil: But you do not want to use your fingers to press down on hot glue, use a craft Popsicle stick or something so that you don’t burn your fingers. That looks great. These little flowers that we found look like frosting so we thought this would be darling on our cake. And we’re just going to take them and dab it hot a little on the back and place them around the cake and kind of a disordered pattern. Jennifer O’Neil: So I’m going to put one over there. It can be put it up a little higher over here. I’m just going to go all the way around so that this is cute from every side. Kitty O’Neil: You can buy little tiny flowers like this and sew other fabrics but we choose the paper because it had a look that was a little bit more like frosting. They are cute. Jennifer O’Neil: Very cute. Kitty O’Neil: And next we’re going to put on the pearls. These are half pearl stickers. They come on a sheet and they’re already adhesive on the back which makes it really easy work to embellish the outside of our cake with these little pearl details. The last thing we need is our topper. This bride and groom cake topper is perfect size with this little tiny hat box and now for the finishing touch. Jennifer O’Neil: We’re going to add little dabs of hot glue to secure it all the way around like this. Kitty O’Neil: And for the last step, we put the bride and groom right on top of this little gift that looks like a cake. We have the perfect wedding cake gift. Jennifer O’Neil: It so cute, I do not want to give it away. You can also theme gift based on the party you’re going to. If you’re going to a house warming, you could simply tie some paper just to the outside. Jennifer O’Neil: This gift is themed for a new bride for a bridal shower so we put measuring spoons, wooden spoons and a cookie cutter on it in the shape of the heart. It would also be a cute way to do a present for Christmas and change the cookie cutter to maybe a Christmas tree shape. Another way to theme you gift is to give a little hint about what’s inside your package. For this coffee grinder, we placed a little coffee on the outside and a decorated coffee spoon. Kitty O’Neil: You could make your recipient feel special by reflecting her interest in a way you wrapped the gift. For someone who loves sewing, you can put little sewing scissors and a pin cushion on the outside, and use a tape measure as a bow.