Gift Wrap - Bright Applique´

A visit to friend called for a little offering, and gave me an excuse, as if I needed one, to have some fun with gift wrapping.  I was tempted by the pretty packaging of this fudge by lovely sweetie brand Burnt Sugar. I'm hoping I get to sample this sea salt caramel variety later as it sounds yummy!

Being the lame-o slightly colour obsessive stylist that I am, I can't resist matching the wrapping to the gift - I just think it makes it more pretty when you unwrap the gift, if everything is co-ordinated (and yes my wardrobe is colour co-ordinated and I have been known to organise my bookshelves by colour too!)

I picked out a few bright greens and pinks, loved the spots and the striped sweet shop bags, but also loving this zany floral print wrap I picked up from a trip to Henley recently.

I wrapped the box in a bright jade green, as a base colour, and then had a look at what worked best with it for decoration. I liked the idea of using both the spots and the stripes to create a band of contrasting colour - but it didn't quite work because of the shape of the box. I would have been left with a lot of green on the top half, which looked too strong. 

Plan B then. Inspired by the bright floral wrapping paper, I decided to cut out individual flowers and create an applique´ design on the front of the box. This is a little gift wrap idea I've used for years and makes an expensive wrapping paper go much further. After a little play, I glued them in place with a glue stick, which is great because you can move the pieces around a bit before the glue sets, without making a mess of the paper.

Then, all that was needed was some cheerful ribbons to tie around the middle of the box to finish it off. I doubled on satin ribbon in clashing hot pink and orange combination. Rather than a traditional bow, I tied knot upon knot and used the ends splayed out instead of loops. Sweet.