Package deal: How to wrap presents like a pro 

Your guide to sustainable and creative gift-wrapping for the festive season and all year round 

Untreated, wax-free brown paper can be recycled and can be sourced from any good craft shop. Most commercial paper is one use only and will reach the incinerator or landfill. Pictures: iStock

A few weeks back I bought a beautifully crafted bowl and accepted the enthusiastic offer of a free in-house gift wrap. It was slid back to me depressed into a crumpled paper bag and strangled in masking tape. Wrapping is something of a lost art, and instore wrapping services can be stunning or sorely lacking.

Here are some ideas, to wrap your affection with some decorative delectation. Keep in mind, a Christmas present will sit around in view for several days so its styling can make all the difference. Take a Sunday afternoon, bring in the kids, and have a go at a layered-up, highly textural take on vintage wrapping with a perfect finish.

Let’s start with the wrap itself — you don’t have to go straight to paper, and certainly not rolls of commercial paper for every present. Fabric, from lovely remnants to sliced-up cotton from a shredded summer frock or a fresh, hessian, delicate tea-towels or napkins (character pieces make sweet bonus gifts) can all work beautifully.

As long as we can cut the material to a neat edge, and fold and secure those edges to seal the package, book pages, old maps, distressed newspaper, printed images from free clip-art on the internet are all winners. Wallpaper samples with rich patternation, again great for scavenging small details or using as complete wraps.

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Sheet music, clip art or real (you can often find yellowed sheets second-hand), is a wonderful flourish for making origami fans to form together for a music lover’s present.

Pinking shears are useful for a neat edge on light cotton or paper but don’t fret too much with salvaged textiles, just snip off any fraying. Techniques for wrapping crisply are all over YouTube and Instagram. They all depend on that double fold.

Put away that cut edge with a slender fold and firmly skim along it with a fingernail. For heavier fabrics like linen napkins — secure the ends of the package with safety pins, disguised under wide silk-style ribbon. For no folds and no tape — explore tied, fabric bundles in Japanese Furoshiki style.

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With a good foundation, we want to ornament the parcel, and an additional two layers will add unique character. Plain brown paper (€25 for a massive 120m from rocabapack.ie) is a favourite because it’s ideal for stick-ons, to wind up or stencil decoration — all three if you want to go jingle-bells barmy. If the piece is an awkward shape or is articulated; put it inside a box or cardboard tube before wrapping. Trawl magazines and other paper ephemera about to hit the green bin. Old greeting cards with decoupage imagery can be picked apart.

Cut out pretty, nostalgic or seasonal motifs with nail scissors as closely to the edge of the image as possible. Wallpaper samples with rich patternation — again great for scavenging small details or using as complete wraps. PVA glue is perfect for smothering a parcel in crazy illustrative paper pieces, and drying clear; it will hide your sloppy errors. 

If you’re looking for a naturally inclined or vintage finish, stick to sepia, rain, grey and white for the anchor material with the addition of slightly faded, watercolour accents. Bling like artificial colours can upset this romantic, yesterday feel — go easy on the lametta or spray glitter with tarnished, muted metals.

Natural found materials or even pressed botanics are lovely — just ensure they won’t shred, poke or turn to dust under handling. Fresh fir or eucalyptus sprays, and a minute stick of cinnamon are classic and deliciously scented. If you’re really handy, dry some citrus rounds into tiny stained-glass features or tuck a small cane into the ribbon or twine. 

Solid black matt paper looks fantastic wound in white or Scandinavian inclined red and white striped string with a card luggage label and a few natural leaves sprayed in gold or silver springing from the centre.

A single photograph, printed at home onto paper with a white border (as it would be in a classic 4”x6” Kodak) can identify the recipient. If you have a childhood picture of an adult, they will really appreciate this touch. Just gum it straight down at the centre of the gift like a biography frontispiece.

That junk-journal/decoupage style — layering paper and small crafting pieces up on the foundation of the wrap before securing it with a nod to traditional string or ribbon? There are thousands of possibilities. 

This hobby wrapping dates back to the Victorians, and if you have kids, they will often have brilliant notions and a hail of materials from under their beds and recovered from toy boxes. Press-out dollies and superheroes (often left-over in dedicated art books) — useful. What about the rich illustrations in those comics? 

If someone loves dachshunds — find all the clip art you can online, print them out to different scales on A4 and cut out and stick them over the present, wrapping right over the edges in places like it’s standard gift wrap.

Tiny bells and baubles snipped from old Christmas garlands or your cat-collar can be threaded onto ribbon. Paper chains (you can make these up easily in a variety of shades) can be snipped up into rounds and set over the corner of the gift and stirred into other stick-on decorations.

Tiny decorative figurines and fun intended for the tree in bags from the Euro shop — cheap and cheerful. Just don’t put them on a present for a small child who might choke on these elements. Stencils are safe and fast for multiple large presents using brown or plain matt papers that will hold paint. Check crafting stores online, Eason and Homesense for stencils, stamps and wheels used with tinned ink.

The securing ribbon or string doesn’t have to hold the parcel closed. For paper (that you don’t think might be saved) secure the parcel with tape first. Dig through your crafting supplies and set aside some bright wool and any attractive twine or thick thread in a dramatic colour. 

Try brown paper wraps overlain with white cut out motif additions, and finished with a sgraffito line of bright wool. White fabric with asymmetric winding around the parcel in various directions allows you to tuck other little objects from paper holly (yeow -- not the real thing!) to dried flowers. Curtain trim with tiny pom-poms or fringing — check your local haberdasher or charity shop bins. 

Utter simplicity? A brown sandwich bag folded very neatly at the top several times and held fast with a wooden clothes peg. For a little kitsch, several plastic pegs in primary colours would also wow.

For more ideas on stylish gift wrapping for your festive goodies, check out the Chasing Daisies blog.