How to Make Your Presents Look Professional | Christmas 2015

Hey Everyone,
So when it gets to Christmas time I obviously get excited for the food and presents and seeing family and friends but another one of my favourite things to do is give presents to others because I love picking something out for them and wrapping it up. And I always try to make my presents look really nice when I'm giving them to others especially at Christmas because it'll be sat under their tree and I don't want mine to stand out for the wrong reasons I want it too stand out for the good; therefore today I thought I would share with you some of my top tips, the best places to get your supplies from and my wrapping process. 

So first my top tips; number one is you need to have the right tools to do the job right and you are going to need plenty of them; you'll obviously need the bog standard things like scissors, wrapping paper and sellotape but then you'll also need things for decorating and organising the presents like gift tags, ribbon, gift bags, candy canes and Christmas tree ornaments. These are what are going to help your presents look more professional and fun as well as helping them to stay together and organised. My second tip is to think, you need to think about who will be receiving the present/s so you probably don't want to wrap your little sisters present in super elegant paper and wrap your Grandmas in Santa Claus paper! Pick the paper that suits there personality and age best and then continue with that theme with the gift tags, ribbons, decorations and gift bag you might choose to use. Also try not to leave it till the last possible moment, we're on Christmas week now so you want to get all of your presents wrapped so you aren't rishon around on Christmas Eve trying to do it, you also might discover that you don't have anything for someone so then you still have time to buy them something. My number one top tip though has to be if you're asked when buying the present if you'd like it gift wrapped free then say YES, this will save you both time and money. 

Now Christmas can be an expensive time of year so try to use your supplies efficiently and I don't mean scrimp on the paper and decorations you buy and get nearly anything g and just shove everything unwrapped in gift bags!! I mean make the most of them so when your cutting out the paper don't cut miles too much and if you have a small piece left at then end of the roll don't throw it away because that could come in later if you have a small present to wrap like a CD or something. Also what can save you money is buying your paper and decorations and cards in January now I know it's a bit late to do that now but that the perfect time because shops are trying to get rid of all their Christmas stock so you can get things that were really expensive for not as much. But seen as Christmas is in like 4 days!!!! (OMG!!!! I'm so excited) you can't do that but you don't need to go to really expensive stores you can get good quality stuff from places you probably wouldn't think to look in like Card Factory, Poundland, PRIMARK, B&M and other discount/cheap stores like that and you'll also be able to pick up decorations there pretty cheap as well because let's face it you've probably spent quite a bit of money on the presents you've got for someone so you don't want to have to pay nearly the same amount to wrap it as well!

So now we've got the supplies sorted we can start wrapping, and this is where it can all go wrong if your not sure how to wrap up a present then just look at some tutorials on YouTube but if you do then you still need to check basic things like before you cut the paper make sure you have enough to cover your presents and don't wrap it too loosely make sure your pulled the paper around the gift quite tightly. Also before you start wrapping asses the shape of the present because it might be quite hard for you to wrap and if it is a bit of an awkward shape then you have two options you can either find a box it will fit in and wrap up the box or you could wrap it in tissue paper because that will go around the shape better and then you can just tie some ribbon around it.
A good way to organise your presents and make them look more put together is too wrap all the presents for the same person (or people of the presents are shared) in the same wrapping paper this makes it really clear if the gift tag falls off one of the presents who it is for because it'll be in the same wrapping as all of their other presents; but obviously don't wrap a brother and sisters presents I'm the same paper because that'll end up defeating the object so you will need a selection of different patterned wrapping paper.

Once all of your presents are wrapped it's time to decorate them which is my favourite part so at this point you want to group presents together so for example if you've got 5 or six presents for your brother then gather them together and then you need decide how your going to present them if they are all soft presents(not very structured or in a box) then you might want to opt for a gift bag because it will keep them together without having the hassle of trying to tie them together with ribbon and then just getting squished! And then you can just scrunch some tissue paper up and put one gift tag on the bag or write in the one already on the bag. If though you have presents in boxes or with a bit more structure then you can arrange them on top of each other and tie them together with your ribbon and you don't have to tie every single present together just go with what looks best and of one present isn't fitting then leave it out and just tie some ribbon on it by itself, also you can use a little bit of double sided sticky tape to hold them in place to help you while you're tie them together. If you have only got one present to give to someone you can still use the ribbon to decorate it you just won't be tying presets together. Once you've tied the ribbon on your presents you can add on your gift tags and you can either stick it on the present with sellotape or Christmassy washi tape or you could thread it through one of the ends of the ribbon and tie that end to the other end to secure it on that way. To decorate your presents further you could also tie on things like candy canes and small decorations with the ribbon which I think add a really lovely touch to your presents.

Now all of your presents are beautifully wrapped all that's left to do is give them to their recipient.
I hope his has helped you out and I wish you all a very merry Christmas,
Charlotte x