Gift Wrap Ideas # 1: Cake Ribbon

For a modern luxe look, try wrapping your parcels with brown paper and paper cake-decorating ribbon!

 

The full-on bling of foil ribbons makes for a gorgeous contrast with matte brown parcel paper (or kraft paper and its subtle stripes). The result is simultaneously simple and highly detailed, clean and crisp but also recalling the decorative lace and doilie look that's been popping up everywhere this year.

 

Start off with a simple brown paper parcel - the neater and crisper you can make your corners the better and square packages work best (put your present in a box if necessary). Use wider ribbon for larger parcels in a simple strip, securing the ends with double sided tape for extra neatness:

Two pieces of narrower ribbon works great as a twist on the traditional ribbon-tied parcel and would be great for parcels sent through the post as there's nothing to get squished in transit:

 

You can't tie a standard tag to the paper ribbon, but you could tuck one under it or maybe just write your recipient's name directly onto the brown paper?

Smaller sections - any pieces left over from your parcel wrapping, for example - can be used to make tags and cards... I stuck three small strips to a luggage tag (I'm loving large tags this Christmas!) using double sided tape:

 

The end result will be a great addition to any parcel tied up with gold ribbon - be sure to stick your ribbon strips slightly off-centre and to cut a little more than you need, trimming it once it's stuck down to make sure the whole width of the tag is covered and your edges are super-neat.

I also used pieces of the wide silver ribbon to decorate some blank white cards, again sticking the ribbon off-centre using double-sided tape:

 

They're quick and simple to make and would make fantastic Christmas party invites...

More gift wrap ideas coming soon! :)

Update: several people have asked where you can buy this sort of ribbon - it's traditionally made for cakes so cake decorating supply shops are your best bet - it may be called paper lace or cake bands / cake banding.

Please feel free to borrow one or two photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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