And It's a Wrap!

Before I am going out tonight to send off a former colleague of mine who is leaving Ireland and heading off to different shores, there is a quick post to show you something. I don't want to celebrate her leaving without giving her a little pressie to remind her of Dublin. A photograph was quickly picked from my archives and mounted. Then it came to wrapping it nicely. Would you like to be sent off with this:

Instead of using some red ribbon from my newly organised ribbon rail I felt like making something. Also, I haven't really got much "grown-up" wrapping paper (most of the gift-wrapping I do these days goes towards kids' birthday presents, and I have a roll of colourful kids' paper for that).  

Is it really bad form and cheap to re-use an old photocopy as wrapping paper? Well, I'll claim that I did it with recycling in mind. I turned a bit of blah scrap paper into a stylish gift wrap by simply printing an origami paper design onto the white back of the photocopied page.

Then I made a gift bow from strips of paper. I won't go through all the stages, because there is already a great tutorial out there. How about Orange posted this last year - and I bookmarked it for eventual use. Check the tutorial here. And while you are there, make sure you look through her other posts. She comes up with the greatest paper design finds EVER and is one of my regular craft reads! 
Basically, the gift bow is made from nine strips of paper which you arrange individually in an "8" shape. You then stick them on top of each other and finish up with a paper circle in the middle.  I slightly adapted my version. I used a bit of a red calendar page which was left-over after my filofax inserts. The light blue back of the page is also visible in the gift bow - I like the contrast of the colours. Here's the finished bow:

Whoops, a bit lopsided.


This is what I will be handing over tonight:

Well, even if it was a free gift and free gift-wrap - I took the time to make it. I hope that balances the cheapskate-ness out...


Ok, off to the pub now. 

Be good!