Last weekend was a special weekend for me.  It was the first time that I attended a hands on  Gift wrapping Workshop.

I was privilege to attend the workshop conductor conducted by famed  Author, Presenter and Designer Jane Means from UK.

She has been wrapping for many big brands for the past 15 years and has her own line of gift wrapping accessories and stationary which she sells online.

The basic tools that was needed- Scissors and tape

The first thing we learned  in the workshop was how to make a simple bow out of a wired ribbon.

We started off by making a 3 pleat bow and later added a rose to it.

As you can see by adding the rose to the bow it gives it a lot more “volume”.

Bows are very versatile and can be used to dress up any item. You can see it here being use to decorate a bottle which had been wrapped up.

Mine isn’t half as pretty as the one made by Jane and certainly needs  lots to work on to get to her standard. I definitely need more practice!!

Besides learning how to make bows out of wired ribbons we also made bows out of ribbons of different materials.

I learned how to make a tailored ribbon bow which could be used for boxes or any odd shaped presents.  In the collage above you could use the bow to decorate the tissue which was used to wrap up the present.

If just having a simple bow on a tissue wrapped present isn’t desirable there are other ways which you can do you gift wrapping.

For the same packet of sweets we can add another layer of wrapping using  cellophane to give “bulk” to the gift . ( seen above)

Another items which Jane showed me how to make are these  envelopes from wrapping paper.

They are quite simple to make and are great for small items or even samples which can be use as door gifts at an event.

This pinwheel certainly makes a great prop for decorating a  gift table or buffet table.   I didn’t make a pinwheel during the workshop but a blue pompom instead.

Using a pompom as a decoration really makes the present look so much more eye catching. Using  the pompom as the center piece on the wrapped up tin makes it more outstanding and it’s certainly not that difficult to make. If you are not sure how to make it you can refer to the tutorial on tissue pompom on Jane’s blog.

This has to be one of my favourite decorations that afternoon. Making a ric rag flower is quite easy and it really looks very pretty.

All you need is some ric rac ribbon  and twirl it into a flower before attaching some stitches at the bottom to hold it in place. What  would like to try is a dual color rose made from ric rac ribbon as I’m sure it will look even more outstanding.

It was a really lovely afternoon for me and I had lots of fun learning new wrapping techniques while attending the workshop with fellow SMB bloggers.

I certainly recommend that you sign up  for a gift wrapping class if you are interested in jazzing up your gifts.

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend this  gift wrapping  workshop. All opinions are 100% mine