11 Levels of Holiday Gift Wrapping: Easy to Complex

I'm Sophie Liard,

and today I've been challenged

to break down gift wrapping into 11 levels of complexity.

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As we go through these levels,

just remember this is gonna take some practice,

so don't give up.

As a disclaimer, this is my interpretation of the challenge.

Level one, box and bow.

We're gonna have three versions of this level.

We're starting with the box and bow

because it's the easiest one to master.

It's also probably the one that people would use the most.

So a box is the same measurement every time.

The paper should go just over halfway up the side

and then cover the top of the gift,

and that's how you would measure.

And this applies to all sizes.

I don't worry about whether my scissors

are cutting a straight line or not.

I will just tidy it up

by folding the edge of the paper over

before I start wrapping.

Just straightens everything out.

You're just going to cover the box from left to right.

Over the top, just a little bit of overlap.

Add a piece of tape here.

Fold the sides in

until you get to your last side of the box.

For a box, I'm just happy to use standard tape.

So when you're doing a ribbon,

you have one long side and one short side

so make sure you measure it correctly...

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without cutting the roll first.

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So here's another method.

It'll measure exactly the same,

but it will be a different technique on the side.

Tidy up by folding the edge of the paper over.

Left fold, right fold, tape.

And then when you get to the side,

you're going to fold a diagonal line

and then crease your sides

and that would make your box look super, super sharp.

Let's just make sure your paper really hits the side.

And the same when you're going in now.

You're gonna take the paper right into the box

before you crease.

Fold up, tape.

You can decorate it with a nice bow.

It feels natural for me to hold it top corner,

short side holding with my thumb.

You're gonna go over one corner, then under the next,

then over the next corner, then under the next.

And that should bring you back to the middle.

Another thing that helps with bows

is if you keep your loops really small,

then you can always make them bigger afterwards.

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This is like when you found that one present,

you haven't wrapped and you've got one tiny bit

of paper left and it doesn't fit.

And it's not the neatest of wraps,

but it's that or go to the shop, so we will do this.

You're just gonna turn it on an angle.

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And then it should fit.

It's just a great way

if you've just got a little bit of paper left

and you've still got a gift left,

it's quite likely that a box will fit

if you turn it at a diagonal.

Next up, level two, sweater.

The difference with dealing with a box versus a sweater

is that your box has nice, flat, hard sides

that we don't have on clothing.

So to fold the sweater, you're gonna fold in the sides,

and fold down the arms, and then fold the bottom up,

and then fold the top.

Folding with tissue is my absolute fav.

If the tissue paper's too small, it doesn't matter,

you just layer it across on the table,

overlap your second piece,

and it will still wrap in exactly the same way.

What you're gonna do first

is just fold the paper over the sweater

and then tuck in each of the ends into the sweater.

Level three, the book.

So the books are a higher level

because you can do quite complex wraps with them

just purely because of the shape.

They're kind of a box, but they're very flat.

We're gonna have three versions of this level.

The paper should go just over halfway up the sides.

I just measure it by lining it up with the side of the book.

It's gonna come right over the book like this.

So after we've measured out the paper,

the first fold is to make your card slot.

It's essentially just quite a big pleat,

and really from there on, you can just wrap your book

as we've taught you in level one.

Right fold, left fold, add a piece of tape,

fold down, fold up, card slot,

and you can decorate it with a nice bow.

[scissors snipping]

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With the second book wrap,

we've changed the shape of the card slot.

Same kind of measurement as before.

You're going to fold a diagonal line

and then fold up.

The best paper to use,

especially if you're starting,

get some wrapping paper that has a real abstract pattern on

and that way you are not gonna have to

worry about whether the lines are straight.

This is the front of the gift,

so you wanna put the bottom down first

because then from the top, this bit will sit that way.

And if you do it the other way,

you'll be able to see it from the top.

The detail. My boss always you say, Retail is detail.

And then use a corner bow,

which will sit flush against the shape of your card slot

and just all ties in really nicely.

Pleating can go many places.

You can make your pleats any width you like.

It's not quite the right size,

and you can open your paper back up and replete.

I mean I do that all the time.

If you are just starting with pleating,

I would recommend starting with vertical pleats

and practicing with those.

And then you can change to diagonal pleats,

which are really fun.

It's nice to keep your pleats nice and tight.

I'll just turn it over.

We don't wanna see the tapes,

we don't want tape on our beautiful pleats,

so we use double sided, so it's hidden underneath the wrap.

Tape back down, and then you wrap the sides.

Level four, stocking stuffers.

So things that work really good for the gift wrap method

is items like this, so they've got shape here,

and then a shape here.

I would definitely be wrapping little cuddly toys in there

just because look, they're just an awkward shape.

So you're gonna fold the paper into thirds.

And to measure it,

just make sure your paper covers the gift

that you're wanting to put in the bag.

We use double-sided tape.

Then you're gonna make the bottom of the bag

by folding the paper up

and then pushing in the sides.

Tape, then you're gonna move to the sides of the bag.

You are gonna fold those in

so they meet the corners of the bottom.

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Then you are gonna fold it all out.

And making sure you put the gift in the bag,

you can then start to close your bag up.

You're going to fold a diagonal right and then left,

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and you can decorate it with a nice bow.

Tape here. So multiple items, cuddly toys, awkward shapes.

Also tiny things like cosmetics,

they're also really, really difficult to wrap.

You can make a little gift bag

and put all three in the gift bag as well.

Level five, cubes.

So a cube, all the sides are the same area.

With the boxes that we did at level one,

there was always one side shorter than the other,

so it was a slightly different type of wrap.

If you were going to wrap your cube with a standard wrap,

then you would absolutely use

the same measurements as a box,

which we showed you in level one.

But for the top of the box, we will need some extra paper.

So we've just cut a little bit extra for the top of the box.

Create your shapes by folding the paper in to the middle.

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Start with one side, you're gonna fold up.

You'll do this for all four sides.

You just go round your cube and folding into the middle,

fold into the middle,

and it just gives you this beautiful, kind of,

like a fire swirling shape on top of the cube

that's perfectly symmetrical.

Level six, box with no tape.

To start with the no tape method,

you do need to get the right measurements,

and this time you are gonna measure on a diagonal

and make sure the corners go over

the top of the box on both sides.

It's definitely easier to use a thinner paper,

so shop bow paper.

You need a lot of flexibility in it.

What can go wrong is so many things.

For me personally, it's usually the measurements.

If you've got the measurement just too wrong,

not just slightly wrong, that's absolutely fine,

but if you've got a massively wrong measurement of paper,

it will make the wrap so much harder.

You're gonna start with one corner

and just make sure it comes over the box

and it just hits those top two corners.

And then to start the sides,

you're going to run your nail from the box all the way out.

And this is just to give the paper some creasing

and that will make it a lot easier

for you to then do your next fold.

And the next fold, you're then going to fold the sides in

and fold your next corner over the box.

And you're gonna repeat this on the following corner

until you get to your last side of the box.

Level seven, cookie tin.

This will work for all cylinders, this level.

Think about pillar candles maybe,

anything that's that type of shape.

You've got a cylinder and then a flat top and a flat bottom.

So you're gonna measure.

The paper should go just over halfway up the sides.

Tape. My tip to make sure

all your pleats are the same size

is just to use your finger in between each pleat

when you are pulling the paper towards the center.

Just remember you are repeating the action.

Turn your shape, repeat,

but use your finger to get the pleat the right size.

If you want a bigger pleat,

then you're gonna put two fingers down.

If you want even bigger, you can put three.

It'll just help you get really even sized pleats

all the way round.

Once you've done your first one,

just repeat it on the next one, repeat on the next one,

and you'll get it beautifully the same

until you get to the end.

Level eight, the candle.

This is just fun, yeah?

And quite often candles have got funny lids

or they're kind of going out in a funnel type shape.

So this is just a great way to wrap it up

and make it look really fun.

We've got the shape that we need.

Start with one side and then fold the bottom up.

The tricky part is definitely cutting the corners

so you get the right shape

to be able to tie the ends with your ribbon.

I quite like to class myself as a home gift wrapper,

so kind of like a home baker.

Everything with gift wrapping can be trial and error,

can be practice, and you can start again.

Level nine, the wine bottle.

I feel like with the wine bottle,

I mean we give wine as a gift so often,

there's no way to wrap this

without knowing we're taking wine.

So, I tend to encourage people just to wrap it

as the wine bottle.

Tissue paper is the easiest to use

when doing the wine bottle,

and I would highly recommend using it.

I held onto it.

I mean you could, at some point, tape it, I guess,

but it's nice to keep your pleats nice and tight,

and even if it does fall, it's easy to put back together.

That's the beauty of tissue paper.

We're using a bow, we're using pleat,

so there is some technique involved

and it, let's face it, it's a very odd shape,

but it's a gift that's given often.

So, it deserves a little wrap.

Level 10, soccer ball.

I just realized how I'd never say that word.

Level 10, football.

Yeah, this was super unusual

and I appreciated the challenge on this one.

You've not only got a sphere,

but you've got it in a triangle box.

Whoever designed this

obviously didn't want it to be gift wrapped.

So it's a slight variation on the gift bag, this level.

It just has a little bit different finish.

So, you're gonna fold the paper into thirds.

Then, you're gonna make the bottom of the bag

by folding the paper up,

making sure you put the gift in the bag.

The way we turned it on its side,

it's just a completely different shape,

but the premise is the same.

Level 11, tennis racket.

I love a challenge.

And I thought, Okay, so what shapes have we got?

So what we do is we break down the tennis racket

into different shapes.

And what we've got is

the top of the tennis racket with the strings,

which is a round shape.

And then we've got the bottom,

which is kind of like a pole I would say.

What I would think about is wrapping the top half first

and then moving on to the bottom half using the same paper,

but two separate sheets,

and then bringing it together.

We actually pleated the top half of the racket,

which I thought looked very lovely.

And then we brought the paper down to the bottom.

And then we used part of the gift bag method

to be able to wrap the handle of the tennis racket

because actually the handle

isn't quite a straightforward shape,

neither round or has sides.

So the gift bag method was a really good one,

and then we just were able to connect them together.

I think it just turned out really nice.

I hope that anyone who gets all the way to level 11,

I really hope that you take away the repetitive techniques

that you can use for the different shapes,

and that you can see when you pick up your next gift,

what technique you can match to wrap that gift.

And if you don't get it first time

or you don't get it second, third, or fourth time,

know that that's happened to me too

and practice makes perfect.

Thank you so much for watching.