Remember way way back in February, when I showed off my horrendous gift-wrapping skills (handy-dandy link)? Well…I managed to go several months without another present giving occasion where I had to wrap the present (I either had things shipped/wrapped and once I [and the recipient] got lucky and mr. strivingcynic did the wrapping). But last week…the time had come. It was mr. sc’s birthday…and there were two boxes and a book that needed wrapping.

I’m happy to say, this round of wrapping went a lot better than the last one (little to no puffiness/paper bunches, no hair under the tape…). So..thanks and on to the…okay, I guess you might want to see proof that my wrapping skills were better. Fine.

ready to be wrapped

So, something I learned from the last time that I put into play here. Most of the time, you will need to cut excess paper. Trying to accommodate the size of the box often means that more paper is going to be cut than is needed…but that excess paper makes things awkward when wrapping…so snip snip!

see, that’s me cutting away

And let me just say, extra points to me for photographing with one hand while cutting with the other!

and box one is done!

I’m willing to admit, the stripes on the wrapping paper helped when it came to cutting and lining up cut edges.

If you look at the upper right hand corner, you’ll see I had a [non]observer

he’s pretending to not pay attention, but we all know that cats love the sound of crinkly wrapping paper

box two, for your viewing pleasure

Okay…I can see this one wasn’t as nicely lined up as the first one, but it’s not bad.

The third one is where I got a little loopy. Since it was a book…and I had all the excess paper from before, I decided to challenge myself to wrapping the book using the excess paper. And of course, none of it totally covered the book…so this is what I (and mr. sc) got:

yep, I even made a “bow” with paper scraps

I knew I’d never get anything to line up, so I went for more of a pattern on this one.

The result? Mr. sc complimented my wrapping! Of course, he still tore it off….but it was nice to know my effort was noticed.

Interestingly, this was my first wrapping job on the new kitchen table, which is smaller than the previous one. It was manageable, but I will admit to missing the extra surface space from the previous table. Also, you’re getting some nice views of our new place mats! A total bonus!

Is there an “occasional” skill like wrapping presents that you’d like to improve on? Have you done any “creative” wrapping?