That's a Wrap!

Previously I mentioned my sister-in-law’s studly British boyfriend and how he took an interest in my Peaches McGee projects (at least he feigned interest, he could just be an incredible actor... Either way, he's cute and nice, so I don't care). 


Of course, I was the lucky gal who pulled his name in the family’s Secret Santa exchange, so I decided to call upon Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts book. 

She has a craft called "Punched Flower Card and Wrapping" and it looked pretty cool… basically a glorified way of wrapping a present along with a matching card. 

For the card, I needed two contrasting, but complementary colored cards.  I chose to use a brown folded card and a tan colored note card – but you could use two folded cards in different colors.  

I downloaded the template from Martha’s website (and you can too here).  I then used Adobe to copy the image and enlarged it a little bit in Publisher.  Finally, I printed it out on regular copy paper and got to work.

I took an X-Acto knife and placed the template over the note card and used a self-healing cutting mat (why don't they make those for humans?).  


Quick interruption -  it wouldn't be a Peaches McGee project without also admitting that I was stupid and used a somewhat dull blade, so actually ruined the freaking template AND the note card and had to start at square one.  

A dull blade makes Reid an unhappy girl

Tip… 

USE A SHARP BLADE.

With that said, once I had the template cut out, I gently lifted up the “leaves” so that it gave it a three-dimensional look.  

But it looked dull and boring, so I ventured outside of Martha's instructions and decided to use my new metal letter-press set (as seen in this project).  I selected his initials (E O S) and punched those onto the card and then took a black pen and retraced the letters in order to call some attention to it.  Finally, to assemble the card, I took some adhesive dots (or you can just use glue), and put it on four corners of the floral tan note card and fastened it to the brown folded one. 

Letter-press set

Finished card

For the coordinated wrapped present, I first wrapped the box with some simple Kraft-like paper with stars on it.  Then, to make the flower, I printed out the template again, but this time I enlarged it quite a bit so that it would make a statement on the box.  The next steps are the same as for the card…

1. Print template out
2.  Use SHARP knife to trace around template onto coordinated paper (I selected a striped Kraft-like paper I purchased from IKEA years ago)
3.  Gently lift up the petals to give it some dimension

I wanted it to look like one of those “bands” they place around a box at Nordstrom, so I folded up about 2” on either side of the flower and then taped it to the box.  My wrapping paper didn't make it fully around, so I taped it so that just the top and sides were covered.  

Coordinated wrapping paper

Wrapped box

Showing the "band" on which I created the flower

Finished product

I loved the finished project, but it was way more time-consuming than I think is necessary for something that is typically torn apart and thrown away.  However, studly British man did save the card, so that may just change my mind as to whether I do it again or not :)