We’ve all done it. We’ve bought the perfect present for our loved one and we immediately think of the look on their face when they open it, and get excited by how much they are going to love it. But we forget an important step in the middle; how are we going to wrap it? It’s pretty common to not give one single thought to wrapping a present right until the last minute, and only then do we consider that the perfect present is actually the most awkward-shaped gift anyone could imagine.
But wrapping odd-shaped presents needn’t be an anxiety-ridden exercise and can actually be pretty stress-free, and you don’t even need to be an expert in origami either. Make sure you have plentiful supplies – wrapping paper, sticky tape, scissors, string, bows or streamers – and you can pretty much disguise anything to retain that vital element of surprise and ensure the golden moment at the big reveal is captured exactly how you imagined it.
The easiest ways to wrap awkward-shaped presents
Well size is the biggest factor here, because if you have bought someone a new car, it’s pretty hard to disguise. And even a new bicycle might just need a blanket or table cloth throwing over it and an attractive bow attaching. You can also just put something in a gift bag, but if you are determined to make your recipient rip some paper open, the easiest way is to make an irregular shape more regular.
By this we mean, put it in a box. This way you can disguise the shape of a mug, or a vase or even a porcelain duck, and if you fill the box with packaging you can keep the gift safe too. By putting the present in a box, you then just need to wrap the box, as if it was the easiest and most regular-shaped present ever.
How to wrap a ball
Anything round can be a challenge to wrap, because there is no obvious place to start, and also no ideal way to make it look attractive. However, an ingenious idea is to get a sheet of wrapping paper and ensure it totally covers the present. Then you can fashion one end of the paper into a base, by making inward folds in a diamond shape and taping them securely. This flat base can then form the bottom of a bag to carry the ball. The top can then be attractively folded and taped or tied with ribbons.
How to wrap a bottle
Cylinder-shaped presents are not too difficult to wrap, but in the case of a wine bottle, for example, the neck of the bottle causes all manner of problems, in terms of making the wrapping neat and attractive.
A handy trick for wrapping bottles, however, is to wrap the body of the bottle as normal and then twist the paper around the neck like a sweet wrapper, and secure it with some attractive ribbon. This has the dual purpose of securing an awkward shape and also disguising the messy tape and paper folds that are necessary.
How to wrap something flat
Here we are talking about something like a guitar or a tennis racket, and the trick is not to try and wrap the gift with one sheet of paper. It sounds really simple, but you can make life easier by simply cutting the paper in half, fixing one side and then turning the gift over and attaching the other. If you attempted to use one continuous piece you can’t avoid one side looking a mess, even if the other looks great. Using two pieces creates less folds and allows you to secure each piece much more neatly.
An alternative for something relatively small, is to wrap the gift head-to-toe in a streamer, like applying bandages, and using tape at regular intervals to secure it. Using attractive streamers and ribbons, this is really easy and effective, and a great alternative to struggling with wrapping paper.