When it comes to food and gifts, they say it’s all in the presentation. A beautifully wrapped package is a symbol of how much you care. It shows you put time and energy into preparing the gift and it wasn’t just a last minute thought thrown together.

Like good food, pretty packaging starts with quality ingredients. The first step is determining what you need, i.e. bag, box, or wrapping paper. Nothing says I didn’t think about this until 15 minutes ago like a wine bottle rolled in wrapping paper.

If the gift you’re wrapping has curves or is soft, put it in a box, then wrap it in quality paper. You can tell quality paper by the weight of it. Generally, heavier is better. If it’s too thin and flimsy, you’ll never be able to get those crisp clean corners.

Wrapping paper is like fashion in many ways, there’s designer, modern, vintage, and the oh-too-common disasters.

These days there’s a plethora to choose from. I’m digging the more modern prints. Bright colors and organic shapes make them really stand out amongst the rest. Here are some of my favorites:

Double-sided Festive Forest Print, Festive Flockbirds, and Partridge in a Wreath at Whimsypress.com

Moss, Pool Diagonal Stripe and Polar Bear from papersource.com

Martha Stewart created some beautiful looks with hand painted wood-grain giftwrap.

If you’re interested in creating your own, she provides instructions on her site, marthastewart.com. I searched around for ready-to-wrap wood-grain paper and found these two prints at redstamp.com

For a more traditional look that still sparkles, I like these options from Kate’s Paperie:

Kate’s Celebrations in Red, Gold and Green, Gold & Silver Stars, and Kate’s rectangular gift boxes

Just because you’re not wrapping a gift doesn’t mean it can’t have style. Bringing your hostess a bottle of wine? Dress it up in a textured winebag.

Faux leather winebags available at PotteryBarn.com, Faux fur winebags, available in PB stores.

Don’t want to break out the paper and scissors for a small DVD box, try one of these cute DVD boxes at Broadwaypaper.com

For giftcards, Etsy.com has an endless supply of handmade giftcard holders that will help bring a personal touch to the gift.

All found on etsy.com, (left, middle, right)

That’s a wrap!

Until next time,

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