St Tropez...................gone gift wrapping

This makes me want to head where the sun shines bright and hot.....somewhere where you wear scarf turbans and cool cotton caftans. St. Tropez perhaps. When I received my Jo Malone refill order a few weeks ago there was a nice supply of gray and white stripe tissue that made me want to explore a more summery gift wrap presentation. Pinstripes always make me think of summer Once the tissue wrinkles were ironed out so easy I got going and by chance came across this fashionable Leggiadro illustration from a 2009 copy of Town & Country. Bonus.

If I have said it once, I have said it at least a hundred times..............there is gift wrapping ideas in those old magazines. I am always on the hunt for fun and fashionable images that will give gifts a more unique and personable appearance. I will match this one up to a friend who loves the sun and wearing designer shades. 

My gift wrapping dose of Vitamin D. 

Thank you to readers who commented this past week and a sunny and

warm welcome to new followers. 

Photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

tulle, tissue, and itune movies

A quick explanation for my blogging absence. A major spring-cleaning and house purge that went longer than you can imagine, a unexpected dart-in-the-neck type of allergy response triggered by a late but pollen-laden spring that practically put me into a coma I swear, a bit of outdoor nesting as you will read about below. Sometimes that happens and once started I was determined to get overdue tasks out of the way before Daisy and I head up to Haliburton in Northern Ontario for July to spend time with my best friend at her most relaxing cottage. Plenty of girl time, hiking, rowing, swimming, campfires, and s'mores and absolutely no schedule, quite possibly no makeup either. I hope to blog but that will be based on their internet provider in this secluded setting. In the meantime, I still have several weeks to pass along some gift wrapping ideas of a more summery look. As I have claimed many times, I am not a crafty gal but even I can make these tulle and tissue pom poms. I think the combination of the soft and stiff materials gives the pom pom a bit more layered personality. I will try a few, some really big ones and show you how to use them for a soft and summery gift presentation. You can get started with this easy tutorial here.

Last winter I was watching the movie Sisters, kind of a depressing movie (based on the Anton Chekhov play) about a dysfunctional trio of sisters. When the movie opens, they are preparing a birthday party and as they are trading verbal barbs, one of them is hanging a most colourful garland of glowing birthday lights across a balcony staircase. I know it was the satin ribbon and brightly coloured bags that caught my eye and and I made a mental note to find the festive party enhancer, truthfully it was the only thing that made that movie rental worthwhile. To make a long story shorter, I finally ran across it this morning and the Martha Stewart tutorial can be seen here. Imagine the colour possibilities! I love them used outdoors (if the evening stays dry) but loved them equally as used in the movie, indoors to brighten up a wintry birthday celebration. 

Our screened veranda is finally finished and it has become one of those "why didn't we do this sooner" type of home projects, we do feel like we suddenly have a small cottage outside our living room. I believe in spending every minute of our relatively short summer season outdoors and to enjoy meals without swatting flies away has become an indulgent pleasure each and every evening. I have always loved screened porches and mostly because they strike me as quite cosy in the evening so the first thing I did was go buy lamps. To turn on an outdoor lamp in our area without attracting mosquitoes is quite the summer luxury, of course they still come but they can't get to us now. I have quickly progressed from nighttime reading to watching itune movies on my laptop which as led to the final decision in finishing our new living quarters which I knew would answer itself pretty quickly. I am so going to need a daybed..............function always follows form. 

Speaking of itunes movies...............and speaking of steamy! Leaving is a tortured and passionate love story, the kind that Kristin Scott Thomas does so well. There are sub-titles, a beautiful locale, no happy ending, plenty of steamy behavior, and a big question............how far would you go for love? Note: I do watch all kinds of movies, fun ones too. 
















Image 1 via Greedy For Colour/Image 2 via Martha Stewart/Image 3 and 4 via Google/ Links above.

Yes, I really do iron tissue and ribbon......

It might not be the most interesting part of gift wrapping but it is the most practical and ecological. I have tons of better things to do these days of which I will get to in a minute, but that didn't stop me from ironing, yes ironing, a lovely pile of ribbon and tissue paper that I keep in a "to iron" box. I really like the gold stripe tissue that comes in Kate Spade boxes and there is no way I wouldn't feel bad throwing away perfectly good and stylish tissue paper without at least trying to see if it could be successfully "de-wrinkled" and used again. I will show you why and what I did with this golden mass in a upcoming post...........just not today. Explanation up ahead.

Then I thought I might as well iron a generous handful of green and gold ribbon that my friend used for my birthday gift last winter. Add a few colours to my collection. Yes, I already of a ton of new ribbon but I  can't not use these lovely satin lengths and so should you. A reminder of sorts for the holiday ahead. 

The left is the wrinkled state, the right where I ironed. Smooth and easy as can be. What is not going to be easy is the next few weeks. I am opening up what is lately referred to as a Pop- Up shop here in my local area to tidy up my excess gift inventory. You rent a temporary shop for a limited time period and have a big sale, when everything is gone.......so am I. I am going to be a real retail girl for the next month, the kind that has to dress up every day, open up the doors each day at regular hours, orders take-out for lunch (sushi next door-bonus), and have a few fun events like a Gift Wrap workshop. Sounds kind of fun doesn't it? It may mean less blog posts, it may actually mean more as a way to pass gaps in customer traffic. Hard to say, right about now I am doing crazy really well.

Is it kind of weird to iron your tissue and ribbon? And then re-use it? Let's put it this way, these days it seems even weirder to have piles of it this holiday season and just throw it away into the garbage doesn't it? If anybody gives you a gift with any kind of ribbon, store it in a box and when you have the need for gift wrap materials or the desire to do mindless ironing, then go for it. I found it to be quite relaxing. The same applies to store tissue and gift wrap paper, you have nothing to lose by trying. There is a few ribbon exceptions. If it is, you know, the really, really cheap kind of ribbon that many of us use for mass gifting, it may melt right into your iron so watch the temperature, do a test spot and take it from there. I store my ironed ribbons on those velvet hangers you can buy by at Target. Gift wrapping in your closet. See you soon..............off to work I go.

All photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Burberry Goes Glam

A girl has to do what she has to do and in this case it was re-gift a Burberry box to fit an array of gift items that wouldn't fit into my normal size boxes. My friend Stephanie brought this larger Burberry box over for me to blog re-gift, little did she know I would use it for that and then to wrap up the birthday gift she ordered for a 19 yr.old girl. She kind of enjoys this whole re-gifting phase I am in and won't mind this re-gift solution. She has been thinking through an upcoming guest post on re-gifting store bags. When she does join us you are in for a treat, this friend has taught me more than a thing or two about gift wrapping.




I was lucky (again) that the Burberry logo wasn't too big, out came the Paris stickers and the melon colour put me into a whole colourway that I thought would be fun, but sophisticated for a 19 yr.old girl.



My very stylish friend told me I was a bit of a snob about gift bags and she is right. I love a boxed gift, I think it is the most gracious way to present a gift. There I said it. If I use a bag for your gift, it means one of two things, actually it means all of the following. I am in a hurry or/and I am not crazy about the person I am gifting, the recipient is under 10 yrs. old, or the recipient won't appreciate the difference. I just happen to think a boxed gift is so much more elegant and civilized. But.........I know gift bags are a choice for many who don't gift wrap for a living so I told my friend she is more than welcome to tell you how to re-gift a store bag in all kinds of clever ways and she is very, very clever. She may even convert me! I do have to admit that I love folding and pleating tissue and the effect of opening a gift under folded layers of tissue. So maybe it isn't that I am a bag snob, I just love tissue really neat and crisp as shown above. And in all fairness, I do give you lots of ways to re-gift store boxes so it isn't as if I am not helping you be economical in your gift wrap endeavors. Perhaps I just need to figure out a new way to use bags with pleated tissue.......another little challenge.

I did a flat wrap on the larger box so it would fit into the limited box depth. The only way this was going to work was if I kept the bows to a minimum. I used another larger Paris label to jazz up the flat wrap on the Anna Griffin Social Stationery Set and I used grosgrain ribbon on the matching Mousepad, pencil case, and tube pencils as it is the least likely to crush and crease, good to know when shipping a tightly-packed gift by the way.

Everything neat and tidy and layered just perfectly.

The new A Gift Wrapped Life gift labels that go over my folded and pleated tissue. Now tell me that doesn't look better than crumpled tissue.

I have a new wired black & white striped ribbon that I just love using. I have never been much for wired ribbon but I sure seem to be changing my tune with this one (that happens alot around here). The gift could go out the door this simple, in fact I love the understatement........but this is me who's wrapping so let's keep going.

I added in a gorgeous melon coloured silk double face satin to go with the coral tissue and orange ribbon and then topped it off with another layer of the dramatic black & white stripe. I love this combination with the soft Burberry tan box. I had no idea where I was going with this when I started, but really wish I had a good supply of Burberry boxes, they are gorgeous and a wonderfully neutral tone. I do have some of their bags so maybe there's another bag re-gift challenge for my friend.

I could have used my white paper flowers but I kind of liked the twist that came from adding the unexpected celadon green. In fact, I liked this effect so much, I'm going to order a tan giftwrap right now.

Happy July 4th Holiday to all my American readers ~ Hope you are having a lovely day with family and friends and lots of fireworks......hundreds of them.

All photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Have a Grand Weekend

Put on a pretty dress, some fancy shoes, and dance around the living room.

A round shape always presents a wrapping challenge. The paper doesn't fold as well and my policy is "if it's not working, then change direction". Tissue isn't just for filing up a bag, when creased into tuxedo-pleated style it can be quite elegant as a gift wrap. The two ribbons are held in place with the fabulous gift label, no tape required. In order to fit multiple gifts into our gift boxes, I have been experimenting with simpler presentations. It's a great way to use up smaller lengths of ribbon and leftover tissue, something we all seem to have. Do you do know you can iron both tissue and ribbon? Re-use and re-gift your gift wrap supplies, when all neatly pressed, no one will know.

Top Photo-source not known, Bottom Photo by Sande Chase-OoohlalaCadeau