Decorative Packaging

With wedding season only six months away, I decided to do a series on wedding planning, featuring tips on adding those finishing touches which are easily forgotten until the last minute. Shopping now for discount craft supplies will make creating your invitations, table scheme, favors, and all the other wedding essentials far less stressful. Modern brides have long engagements and spend months prepping, ordering and fluffing their way to their dream wedding, and most without the help of a professional. The next few blogs will just remind the busy brides of some of the small details that bring it all together.

Gift should be wrapped and packaged with care. Decorative packaging is a beautiful way of letting your loved one know you put a lot of thought into the gift. A decorative ribbon or beautiful box will bring a lasting impression of good taste and class.

Use sturdy boxes for heavy gifts. Boxes and other packaging materials can be re-used for other purposes to be green. Use ribbons appropriately with lots of pretty colors.  You will see a nice reaction just from the gift receiver looking at the package.

Gifts are definitely lovelier and more meaningful when the packaging is done with a personal touch. The sender need not be an expert in wrapping packages to make a gift beautiful.

All it takes is a little creativity plus the right materials such as a decorative ribbon and a wrapper befitting the occasion. A ribbon can go a long way to adding that oomph in a gift.

          Though you might be tempted to place a few pumpkins, real or ceramic, somewhere in your freshly decorated fall surroundings, use the utmost restraint! A pumpkin or two in your kitchen can be festive and pleasing, but putting them in every room of your house is overkill. Remember, the point is to make it feel like fall, not like a classroom teachers attempt to educate her students about ‘things that go with autumn’. Stick to basic craft supplies, ribbon, candles and toss pillows to make your living spaces warm and inviting. Leave the googly-eyed pumpkins to the kindergarten teachers.

      After you’ve removed the candles that don’t remind you of autumn, the next step is to make a list of all the sizes and shapes, pillars and container candles you need to replace them. Purchase candles that work with the color scheme of the space-golden yellow, rust red, deep plum, chocolate brown and pumpkin orange are some choices which give you a wide range of color families to work with. Choosing fragrances that relate to fall is a bonus, like pumkin pie or apple cider.

      If replacing all the candles in a room isn’t feasible, you may want to get creative by adding some wired ribbon in these fall colors to the base of the candles you already have. A tip-add a few extra candles on pretty plates or surrounded by fall-color stones because making your home feel like fall is all about making it warm and cozy!

     It may seem over-simplified to say you can add an atmosphere of autumn to your home by adding some well-placed candles and decorative ribbon in the right color palette and scents, but the effect can be quite impressive. First, take a walk through the areas of your home where you want to “change the season”. Remove any candles in colors that feel more spring or summer-like, shades of blue, pink, pastel green, lavender and white…

     When reading home decorator magazines or any periodicals geared toward women and their homes, you’ll find elaborate efforts to bring the changing of seasons in-doors and radically redecorate with every flip of the calendar month. Trying to keep up with that kind interior reinvention can be expensive and exhausting. However there are simple things you can do to bring little touches of the changing of seasons into your living space. With budget-friendly supplies and deliberate placement of the things you add, your home can reflect the beauty of fall in a matter of minutes. Gather some ribbon, scented candles, solid-color throw pillows and your willingness to get creative and meet me at my next blog…

Maybe I could call it ‘Delightful Flowers & Gifts’. I could be a shopping expert for all my clients,interviewing them about the special someone they are shopping for and helping them make just the right purchase. Then, I would wrap everything up with a perfectly delightful bow!

In my little flower shop, designed to look like an English cottage, I would have roses in full bloom, orchids, lilies, daisies, and all kinds of wild and exotic flora. I would stock ribbon in a rainbow of colors; yellow ribbon, purple, olive, cornflower and ruby red too. I would carry only the most sought after gifts, specialty jewelry and chocolates. What would I call it…?

I have dreams of owning my own floral and gift business one day. I have a love affair with all things delightfully useless, an appreciation for detailed packaging and the extra touches which make a special gift even more pleasing to the senses. I would love to be surrounded with flowers of all kinds, extravagant cards and paper, beautiful packaging supplies and expensive soaps, candies and other valuable trinkets…someday.