Christmas 2015 Wrapping Hints (Day Four)

I will be the first one to admit that beautifully wrapped gifts aren't meant for everyone. I normally don't pull out all of the stops unless I know that the recipient will appreciate the work and style presented with an amazingly wrapped gift.

Yet, this doesn't excuse the gift giver from the responsibility of a nicely presented and wrapped package. Similarly, if you have a coordinated look under your holiday tree, you can still wrap a gift so that it blends with the other ornately wrapped gifts.

In other words, you can still wrap a gift for an age-appropriate recipient that looks good under your tree.

For the next two days, I will share how to turn an ordinary gift into a thoughtful gift that still matches your other gifts.

Step One:
Wrap gift in base wrapping. In this case, I use craft paper once again.

Step Two:
Use a coordinating paper that you are using under your tree. Here, I chose to use the holiday themed paper as a belly band. Feel free to stop here or add a commercially manufactured bow. For little children, this can be sufficient.

Step Three:
Add some fun as appropriate. Here, I used baker's twine instead of ribbon. This is a great option for kids as you aren't using expensive ribbon that might not be appreciated. If you use twine, be sure to wrap around the gift several times in each direction so it doesn't seem to be an afterthought. You can stop here if you want. Even on this level be sure to make it look professionally wrapped by making sure that the loops are the same size. Similarly, make sure the tails are the same length.

Add additional embellishments as desired. Here a pair of jingle bells add a touch of shine that kids might enjoy.

Step Four:
Choose to add a personal touch/gift within the gift. In Japan, the gift wrapping is considered an added gift in addition to the item that is wrapped. Here is a handmade ornament that can be added to the tree if the recipient so desires. This ornament was made with sprinkles. The  topping is modeling paste that has been adorned with sprinkles as well.

Front view

Side view

Wrapping Tip #1

If you were sloppy when folding/measuring the flaps, cover them up with the belly band. There is nothing in gift wrapping protocol that says the belly band has to run parallel to the flaps--even though most people wrap this way. Break the rules some times.

 

Christmas 2015 Wrapping Hints (Day Three)

Today's entry is a continuation of how coordinated wrapping papers can be used to decorated your gift collection. I have a ton of these lidded boxes in my apartment. They are usually part of a gift of the month club or some other gift. I hate to throw them away since they are sturdy boxes.

During the holidays, I tend to use these boxes as part of my wrapping services. Unfortunately, they aren't always holiday inspired (like the box above).

Using coordinated papers, I will wrap the bottom tray in the non-holiday paper (in box making lingo, boxes are made of two trays--a top tray, the lid, and the bottom tray). The lid is usually shallower in order to have a reveal. I will then wrap the lid with the coordinated holiday paper.

The finished product

This is visually connected to the other gifts under the tree when you see all of the patterns combined. This is a great way to get rid of those boxes and paper scraps. Be sure to use thinner paper for this type of wrapping to ensure that the trays still fit together. Thicker paper will tear at the corners as you try and fit the lid to the bottom tray.

Wrapping Tip #1
Yesterday, I mentioned the grid on the back of the paper. Here is an example. I also mentioned about cutting only the piece of paper that you need and to leave the other paper attached to the roll. In the picture below, I demonstrate what I mean. As you can see, there is still a lot of paper in the sheet if I had cut the entire height measurement. Only using the size of paper that you need wastes less paper and prevents the unused paper from wrinkling or getting damaged.

Taking my own advice

Wrapping Tip #2
One of the difficulties of using commercially produced wrapping paper is the thickness of the product. Many papers are very thin and tear and mar very easily. Be care when securing your paper on the roll. Using rubber bands will wrinkle the the paper and can affect several layers below. If you can, use a ribbon or twine wrapped loosely around the roll.

More importantly, if you use a rubber band, only secure the top inch or two rather than travel the rubber band to the middle of the roll. If you secure at the top of the roll, you damage a smaller section of the paper and can use the rest of the roll for wrapping.

Use the rubber band at the top of the roll

Christmas 2015 Wrapping Hints (Day Two)

Continuing the coordinated paper theme, today's hint is layered gift wrapping. Like yesterday, this wrapping idea uses a belly band; this time it is used twice. This is the same craft paper wrapped box from yesterday. For the first belly band, I used the coordinating non-holiday wrap as the first layer. This is the same size as the original belly band used (8 inches with a 3 inch reveal).

I then used a second belly band (usually half the size of the original) and centered it on the first belly band. This layer is 4 inches with a 2 inch reveal. Belly bands are a great way to use up all of that extra paper you might have left over.

Wrapping Tip #1
The grid on the back of your paper should be your friend. Most papers that are gridded use a one inch square. Use a cloth measuring tape to find the size you need and proceed.

Wrapping Tip #2
For gifts that aren't going to the same place, standardize your boxes when you can. Since this box is the same size as yesterday, I already had the paper cut to size along the width dimension. All I had to do was adjust the height of the top layer and the measuring was already done for me.

Wrapping Tip #3
Keep the paper on the roll. Because I cut from the back side of the paper, I know exactly how much paper I need. Many times, there is a lot of excess paper since the rolls are so tall. Rather than cut the full sheet, I simply cut the piece that I need and roll up the excess while it is still attached to the roll.

Christmas 2015 Wrapping Hints (Day One)

The latest wrapping trend is coordinated wrapping paper. This week, I will be highlighting how to use coordinated papers for your gift giving this year. Usually coordinated papers will feature one or two non-holiday papers and one holiday themed paper. The rationale is that you can use some of the papers throughout the year and then highlight the holiday themed paper for the appropriate holiday.

This week, I will be featuring the above papers to illustrate this point. These papers are available at Target, Duane Reade and Walgreens (although, I have only been able to find it at Target). The papers are printed and distributed by American Greetings.

The first design is to not use the paper as it was designed to be used. In other words, you don't have to cover the entire package with the paper that you have purchased. Instead, use the paper as an accent.

In this case, I wrapped the gift with plain craft paper rather than the purchased holiday wrap. I then used the holiday paper as a belly band around the center of the package. The package can then be embellished with ribbon or twine in a complementary color. To get the best effect, be sure to center the belly band on the package. In this case, there are three inches of reveal above and below the belly band.

Wrapping Tip
If you have a lot of gifts to wrap, go ahead and prepare the gifts to this point as time allows. Place them under the tree until you are ready to embellish them or take them with you to give. This is an easy way to decorate with gifts and wrap as time allows so you aren't overwhelmed with the idea of wrapping. I would go ahead and attach the gift tag so you don't forget which gift is for which recipient.

I always wrap until this point until I am ready to deliver the gifts to my clients. I will add the final embellishments (especially if it is fresh or silk flowers) at the very last moment. In doing so, you can guarantee that your wrapping doesn't get damaged.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #23--Paper Holiday Decorations

Playbill Tree Topper

For Challenge #23 we were asked to use materials that we already have--to take something old and make it new. I have a collection of Playbills from most of the shows that come to our theater. The Playbill is the free program that is given out to all of the audience members. Many times, the Playbills get updated and become obsolete so I usually will snag a bundle or two to recycle. I am always looking for ways to repurpose these materials.

So for the current show, I decided to make a tree topper made from the cover of the Playbill. As you can see above, the show is prominently displaced in the center of the star.

Never to be satisfied with only one project, I decided to try and use the Playbills for other purposes. I made two paper bows with can feature any of the small pictures featured in the Playbill. Once uses the cover artwork and the other uses the black and white pages of the book's interior.

Playbill Bow (Cover)

Playbill Bow (Pages)

Finally, since I had so much material left over, I decided to try and miniaturize the tree topper star and make an ornament. The ornament below is made from two 2 inch squares of paper.

Playbill Star Ornament

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #22--Fall Flowers

Inspiration

This is going to be a bit of a strange post. For this challenge, we were tasked to create something dedicated to Fall colors. Orange has always been one of my favorite colors so I knew which direction I was headed. I love color and color theory and people are always asking me what inspires me and affects my color sense. After reading the posted challenge, I was walking by one of the Manhattan bodegas. In Manhattan, we always have flowers and foliage available for last minute gifts. As I was walking past, I noticed the above flower arrangement and decided to immediately do a floral arrangement for this challenge.

What many of you might not know is that I have always loved flowers. One of my only regrets about living in NYC is not being able to garden. I would love to have a plot of land to grow flowers for arrangements. If I had the chance to redo my life, I would have been a gardener and/or florist.

There were so many beautiful blooms available. I found these yellow and yellow/brown Calla Lilies.

Yellow Calla Lilies

There were also Dahlias in yellows, golds and oranges.

Dahlia

I fell in love with these Pumpkin Trees which I had never seen before. I found out that they were actually ornamental eggplants. Unfortunately, they were out-of-stock when I went back to the store.

Pumpkin Tree/Pumpkin on a stick

These Lantern Flowers have always intrigued me. They apparently intrigued everyone else because they were gone when I went back to buy them.

Chinese Lantern Flowers

And you can't have a Fall arrangement without berries and buds. I don't know this specific variety but they definitely fit the theme.

Berries & Buds

As I was deciding what to use for my arrangement, I decided on the Dahlias and Calla Lilies as my main flowers. For height, I added curly willow and cattails. I used lemon leaves, berries and some buds to fill out the arrangement.

Raw Materials

Below is the result. I am very happy with the result and gave it to a friend who needed some cheering up.

The Final Arrangement

I am always amazed at the overhead in flower arrangements. I really don't think that a simple arrangement like this is very difficult to do. If I had purchased this arrangement from a florist it would have been between $80 to $100. I already had the vase and the flowers totaled $25.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #21--Butterfly Mask--Part 2

A couple of people asked me to provide a pic of the Butterfly Mask in action. This is me at work guarding the Stage Door during broad daylight. To say that I caused a stir would be an understatement.  Since our show deals with Shakespeare we were asked to dressed as a character from a Shakespearean show or to dress as one of the characters from a musical referenced during the show.

I knew that most people would take the easy way out and dress as musical character. Oh no, not me. I chose to dress up as Oberon, King of the Faeries, from A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Victorian times, faeries where always represented by butterflies. Also, Oberon is a larger than life kind of character is usually tall and statuesque.

The costume is made from several pieces some of which were handmade, some purchased, and some from my stash. The leather corset and boots were from previous years' costumes. The skirt is made from an extra piece of tie dyed fabric from my stash. It is simply tied at the waist. I made the mesh tank top from material that I had around the apartment. It is a double layer of material with holes torn into both layers for effect. The butterflies were purchased and placed through the mesh tank top and through the laces of the corset.

By the end of the night, the only butterflies remaining were the ones in the mask. I gave the rest of them away before returning back stage.

I will have to say that many people stopped and took pictures and asked if they could pose with me. I worked this door for two hours before moving backstage.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #21--Butterfly Mask

For Challenge Number 21 were tasked with another color challenge--The Color black. I struggled with this challenge because I always work with the color black due of my cutouts. I also wanted to do something for Halloween. So, I decided to do a Masquerade Mask with cutouts.

For Halloween at the theater, we arecasked to dress up as a Shakespearean character (our current show features a Shakespeare references) so I decided to go as Oberon, King of the Fairies, from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I started off with a white masquerade mask that can be purchased at any craft store during this time of year. I chose the mask that simply covers your nose and eyes (as opposed to the full face mask) and is affixed with an elastic band.

The first step was to pain the mask black with gesso. I applied two coats and then treated it with a blue mica powder to give it a sheen.

The second step was to apply the butterflies. I had these store bought butterflies that I was planning on using but the scale was too small. So I decided to make three butterfly cutouts. I would crease the butterfly down the center of the cutout to give dimension and then mount the store bought butterfly to the cutout. For the center of the mask, I took the third cutout and mounted rhinestones to give it some sparkle.

One side of the butterfly mask.

I will probably make another one of the these and put red and yellow rhinestones on the center butterfly. I will also cut the bottom part of the butterfly abdomen so that the wings have more motion and lie flat against the bridge of the nose.

The second side of the butterfly mask.

I am very happy with the way that it turned out (although the picture below doesn't seem like it).

Me modeling the mask*

* this is my "it's 2 AM and the Mets lost and I need to take a picture and go to bed" face.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #20--Scary Lampshade

For this challenge, we were asked to create something for Halloween. One of the actors at the theater is a big fan of Halloween so I decided to make something for his dressing room. Since another actor received the moose lampshade, I decided to decorate another lampshade.

This lampshade has two faces--an evil skill and a Keith Ledger Joker face. The faces are facing opposite directions so that both of the actors sharing the dressing room can each be facing an image. Or, the lampshade can be turned forward towards the door as people enter.

Evil Skull

Joker Face

The project turned out really well and everyone at the theater seems to enjoy it.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #19--Wee Pandas

For this challenge, we were allowed a do-over or a Mulligan. I had several projects in mind but I decided to combine several projects into one. Last challenge, I did Pandas. So I did Pandas again. Since these are cutouts, this also qualifies for the Paper Challenge. To add some interest and challenge to the challenge, I decided to re-visit the "Wee Challenge" or miniatures.

Each of the above images is 2" by 3". Although, you really can't tell, each one is attached to the back of my business card. I purposely didn't crop the image because all eight of the cutouts are attached to a single sheet of 8.5" by 11" piece of paper.

All of the images are from a Chinese Cutout Book by Dover. Some of them are more successful than others but I am very pleased with the results. I will say--working within these parameters was more difficult than I anticipated. This took me the full two weeks and there were many discarded attempts.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #18--Pandas

For Challenge #18, we were asked to be inspired by animals. With things getting busy with the upcoming holiday season, I needed to (1) either do a quick and easy project or (2) do something that I could combine with one of my other commitments. I chose the latter.

My dentist has been asking me for some artwork for this office. He just finished repainting and re-designing his work space and wanted some artwork. The walls are an tan/beige color and he needed something that was visually approachable to all of his clients.

When this challenge came along, I decided to do something to meet both needs. I had done a postcard based on pandas (the middle image) so I decided to revisit this artwork. The images are traditional Chinese Cutout Designs. I decided to do a triptych of pandas that will be mounted and framed in a single frame. I haven't quite decided how to mount them on paper and the matting color. I was thinking about putting the cutouts on green bamboo paper and then mounting them with fern green mat. The other thought would be to mount them on white paper and wrap the mat in the green bamboo paper. The frame will be a thin metallic dark green.

Yet Even More Wrapping Paper

It's a Boy

This time it was a baby shower for a friend from the theater. She is obviously having a boy and it is her first child. Guys weren't invited to the baby shower so I made my presence felt in other ways. Two of my friends were invited so I guaranteed that they presents would be remembered by everyone there.

Poodle Large

My friend has a toy poodle that has been her love and joy and we don't know how Dex (the poodle) is going to react to not being the center of attention. So we decided to make fun of the situation with this gift wrap. I did this in two formats--one for larger gifts and one for medium to smaller gifts.

Poodle Small

The paper was definitely the hit of the party.

Even More Wrapping Paper

Here is another in a series of wrapping paper that I made. This was made for one of the actors in the show at my theater. I found two Star Wars Commemorative mugs and decided to wrap them in handmade wrapping paper. The first design is a leaf and berry design. It is a basic stencil that is repeated three times across the sheet. 

When I work on these projects, I work on the stenciled image first and then work on the backgrounds. I usually like to offset negative and positive space. In the above paper, in the first and third group, I decided to concentrate on the positive space. To add a little interest, I colored the berries in different colors.  In the center group, I decided to highlight the negative space. The background is a red, white and blue plaid.

The second pattern uses a vine and leaf design. The stencil is the same for both sides. On the left side, I decided to highlight the positive space and doodled the leaves and colored the vines. The background is done in a Columbia blue in a pattern that I call lazy diamonds. It is accomplished by drawing horizontal lines and then diagonal lines. The right side of the paper highlights the negative space by filling in the background with horizontal lines. in complimentary green color.

Left side detail

Right side detail

More Wrapping Paper

I wanted to share with you some of the projects that I have been working on between the Iron Craft Challenges. I have been making a lot of handmade wrapping paper since August is always a busy month for birthdays and celebrations.

I am also developing a line of wrapping papers to sell through Spoonflower and I will share those designs a little bit later once the proof copies arrive and we settle some issues with the paper sources they are using.

These papers were simply designed on brown craft paper. For these, I used a stencil and then I doodled and detailed the background. These are all done by hand and are usually very appreciated by the recipients.

Pattern One

Pattern One is a collection of circles and onion dome shapes. Originally, I made an error when I repeated the pattern. Notice in the above picture, one of the circles has a line through it. It DROVE ME CRAZY. Someone told me that you learn more when correcting mistakes than when you originally design something. In the final wrap below, you can see that the solution was to bisect both the domes and the circles (in opposite directions)--an easy fix. I always forget to take pictures of the wrapped gift when I do these projects so I was pleased that I remembered to do so. Since this was for a teenage boy, I decided to use raffia instead of ribbon. This is a new type of raffia that is made from recycled plastic bags.

Final gift.

I called Pattern Two--Shoe Prints because that is what it looked like to me. I decided to use a pattern on pattern effect in that the shoes were vertical and horizontal lines and the background was a diagonal plaid.

Pattern Two

Pattern Three

Pattern Three was called Asteroids because I had a bunch of rough drawn circles emanating from a single source. The curved lines in the background were made with my new collection of large French curves. I have never seen plastic curves this size before and just happened across them at a new art supply store called DaVinci Artist Supply. I was visiting the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan and ran across this store.

Wrapped Gifts

For these books, I decided to combine them and tie a burlap ribbon (although, I hate working with burlap--I am still itching from working with it). These books went to the twin brother of the Pattern One gift.

Many people ask me how I can concentrate and detail the backgrounds for these papers. It really is a Zen exercise for me. I usually plug into music, gather my guides, stencils, rulers and markers and just start. Before I know it, I am either (1) late for an appointment, (2) finished, or (3) have to stop to eat. And that ain't a bad way to spend some time alone.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #17--Felt Tip Markers

For this challenge, we where given the letter "F" as a guideline. I thought about a felting project. The catalyst for my project was my newly acquired Copic Markers sets. So I decided to play with them and decided that my F would be "felt tip markers."

I have been busily designing some new gift wrap options for my upcoming store on Spoonflower. I hope to release the designs within the next week. These are hand designed papers that you will be able to order directly from them. We hit a snag in that the matte paper they were using is being discontinued. There are some designs that I will be able to release in the interim but others will have to be placed on hold until the replacement paper is chosen.

Here is the basic Happy Birthday Wrapping Paper. The basic paper comes with the letters "pre-doodled" so all that you have to do is color in the letters and/or the background if you choose. This was done with Sharpie Markers.

Basic Happy Birthday Paper

Here is the paper colored in with Copic Markers. These markers are alcohol based markers so they blend easily together. I have chosen to leave the background blank on this sample.

Happy Birthday Reds

The second sample is a Thank You wrapping paper that has designed with a background and then reproduced. The background was done with Sharpie Markers. This is definitely fine on its own OR

Basic Thank You Paper

you can color in the words yourself. I used the Copic Markers for the words on this sample.

Thank you in Blues

I am still tweeking the designs and they will be available in my Spoonflower shop under nystarcards.