Bottle Wrapping

Today, we are going to concentrate on wrapping a bottle (or round surface, if you prefer). The difficulty with wrapping bottles is that everyone already knows what it is so you really aren't surprising anyone. What is important to me, is to show that some thought went into wrapping the gift--as opposed to simply buying a bottle bag at the liquor store. I have the same problem with people buying those decorated gift bags and a piece of tissue paper and then just throwing everything in and gifting it away. Beautiful, or thoughtful, wrapping shows that thought and planning went into getting a gift--and it really doesn't take much time or money to wrap something with thought.

To illustrate this point, I decided to forgo wrapping paper and decided to simply use brown craft paper that I have lying around. I am at the office wrapping this gift so I wanted to show you that with a few staple items, you can wrap a gift anywhere.

Step One: Measure out the paper. Here is a hint that I use at the office: Use a T-square to cut your paper (especially if it is thin). Here I simply tear the paper against the ruler.

The width of the paper should go around the bottle and overlap by an inch or two.  The height of the paper should be the height of the bottle plus 1 to 2 inches added to the bottom of the bottle and 4 to 6 inches added to the top of the bottle.

Step Two: Wrapping the bottom of the bottle. Tape the left edge of the paper to the bottle. Be sure to use transparent tape and tape to the glass rather than the label (see above). Securing the bottle in place (I use the actual tape dispenser to do this), use one long continuous piece of double sided tape and run along the bottom edge of the paper (see below)

Cut slits into the paper about 1 inch in width and up to the bottom of the bottle (see below). Do this for the entire length of the paper.

Rotate the paper and bottle 90 degree and run a piece of tape along the open edge (opposite the taped edge to the bottle). The length of tape should not exceed the top of the bottle. 

Roll the bottle along the bottom edge trying to align the bottom edges. It is important to work on this edge because many bottles have sloped sides and you can't use the dimensions of the bottle to guarantee a snug fit. When you are finished, you should have something that looks like the picture below.

Starting with the bottom most layer, start folding the tabs onto the bottom of the bottle. Because they already have double sided tape on them, they will stick to the bottle. Take your time with this step. Pull the tab towards and snug against the bottle. Do not pull too hard or you will rip the paper.

When you reach the second layer, simply continue until all tabs are taped down. Because you are covering a rounded surface, you will get little dimples but this is OK. If they bother you, you can rub them down with a bone folder; many of them will disappear when you stand the bottle right side up. If you have been careful with your folding and measuring, the dimples should be negligible.

Step Three: Folding the top of the bottle. Stand the bottle right side up. You should now have a tube with an opening on top. The difficulty is that you have to turn a round surface into a flat surface. Trying to keep the dimensions constant along the sides of the bottle, add a dart/reverse pleat/valley fold to both sides of the paper. The idea is to fold inward the excess paper so that the wrapping seems to be one constant width. This can be a little fussy depending on (1) the paper you are using, (2) your patience and/or (3) how OCD you are. Here is the side view of the valley fold (my craft term of choice).

Here is the front view of the wrapping with both sides with the valley fold.

To finish the top, you simply fold the top down like a lunch bag (I actually call this the lunch bag fold). Be sure to measure the first fold so that you get two complete folds and that the final fold finishes somewhere close to the top of the bottle. For personal reasons, I don't like a lot of extra material on top of the bottle.

Also be sure to fold away from the front of the bottle (or fold towards the seam). First fold below,

And the second fold.

Turning the fold away from you. Punch two holes using a standard hole punch. I should have measured the location here but I have a way of covering up the error. Be sure to hole punch through the flap while it is still folded. The holes need to go through all of the layers.

Thread ribbon through one hole, around the back, and through the second hole. Adjust the ribbon so that it is even on both sides.

I am attaching a card to the outside of my wrapping so I thread the ribbon through the card and then continue to thread the ribbon through both holes again. When the ends end up on the front of the bottle, tie a shoe lace bow. The final product, with the handmade card, is below.