Freshen Up Your Gift-Giving by Chopsticks NY

It’s holiday….the most popular gift giving season!

Chopsticks NY, only English magazine in the east coast to provide the best information on “all about Japanese culture”, asked me to join this month’s issue for an article, “Freshen Up Your Gift Giving.”  The article talks about gift choices, manners for gift giving, the ways to boost the value of the gift. I contributed the ideas to wrap your gift in simple, easy and fun way using recycled materials.

If you’re in NYC, Chopsticks NY magazine is distributed to 420 locations in the city, including many Japanese/Asian restaurants and grocery stores.

Chopsticks NY November 2010: Freshen Up Your Gift-Giving

Big Bow with Organza Ribbon

One of the most requests I get is…

“Can you make a big bow on my package?”

I agree that big bows often make packages festive…but what if you don’t want to cover the pretty paper you just wrapped your gift with or to overpower the design?

I love to use the organza sheer ribbons. They are transparent enough to show the designs of your package while being able to hold a beautiful shape of your bow.

One Day Gift Wrapping Class at The Nippon Club

I’m teaching one day gift wrapping class at the Nippon Club this holiday season again! It’s been almost 4 years since I started teaching the various craft classes and I enjoyed every single classes I taught there.

Here is the class information : the class is taught mainly in Japanese but I’ll be going around the tables to work with individual students…so English speaking students are welcome as well

Class Schedule: Dec. 6 (Monday) 10:30am ~ 12:00pm $30 (excluding material fee) *Please call 212-581-2223 (the Nippon Club) for more information

Nippon Club: 145 West 57th Street (between 6th and 7th Ave.) New York, NY 10019

The Plaza Hotel Champagne Bottle Gift Wrapping

close-up of the gift

One of my clients brought a custom-made champagne bottle from The Plaza Hotel to gift-wrap. It was a baby-shower gift for the parents.

She took an extra effort to find this custom-made champagne bottle from the hotel, but more surprisingly, she also hired an artist to hand paint the entire bottle with baby-shower theme. Then she brought the bottle to me to custom gift wrap.

Kudos for her thoughtful gift giving manner! It was pleasure to gift wrap such an attentive gift.

work in progress…

Green Gift Wrapping

Finished Packages

I like to explore the parks with my dog. Especially this season is fun doing so with all the trees changing colors…

Though I still didn’t see much yellow and orange, I saw a lot of fallen leaves on the ground. I took some back home for creating my packages…

What I found at the park…

Decided to do decoupage for one packaging with multiple leaves and mulberry paper

Finished decoupage box

2nd package: Single leaf with a found stick (together with eco-friendly kraft paper with gardening twine)

3rd package: Multiple pleats and leaves (together with eco-friendly kraft paper and cotton worsted)

Mother’s Day Gift Bag with Paper Flower

My new video, “Mother’s Day Gift Bag with Paper Flower” shows how to create your own paper bag from scratch, with a lovely accent of paper flower. You can use any themed paper that goes with your gift or simply choose the paper with your mother’s favorite color. Remember, the gift wrapping is a part of your gift!

This is also the first video that I collaborated with Kazuko Mausner, a talented pianist, composer and arranger. Her song, “I’ll Be Beside You” has a beautiful melody and the perfect beat for this video. If you’re in the city and would like to know info about her gigs, check out her website: Kazuko’s Website

Valentine’s Gift Wrapping Idea: “Parcel Gift Wrap”

Looking for a unique gift wrapping idea for Valentine’s Day?

In my new craft video, “Parcel Gift Wrap,” I repurposed household items, like a brown bag, natural twine (gardening twine), and a magazine page to create a post office parcel-style package, with a “handle with care” tag. The package has a front pocket where you can insert a little cut-out heart. I used a magazine page with a raspberry picture to create the heart, but you can use any scrap paper , or even photos (and also write any messages you like!) to make your own special package.

Here is my video, enjoy!

Coming Soon: Valentine’s Day Eco Craft Video

After eliminating 5 other candidates for Valentine’s craft design, I chose this one to create a how-to video. We shot the video over the weekend and hopefully will be able to release it soon! (I know it’s already too close to Valentine’s Day!!)

Using all recycled materials, this gift wrapping idea is very easy to follow. Come back to check it out

Handmade Envelope – using recycled materials

What better way to share your photos this holiday season than with a handmade envelope? In my latest video , I demonstrate how to make a customized gift envelope in four easy steps.

I chose a street map of Paris as my theme since I’m sending photos of my recent trip to Paris, which I copied to letter-size paper (cutting out the actual map would have worked just as well, but I kind of wanted to keep it as a souvenir). I used 4″ x 6″ photos, but the great thing about this technique is that you can use it for any size photo or card.

(A variation of this idea, using sheet music for a couple of concert tickets)

A little thought goes a long way towards making a great gift! I hope this inspires you guys to come up with your own variations (please send me photos).

Here is my video, enjoy!

Holiday Gift Wrapping Class at the Nippon Club

I recently gave a class at the Nippon Club on basic gift wrapping/bow-tying techniques and wanted to share some of the designs I came up with for my students:

To create the wraps with ornament windows, we used some holiday-themed templates that I created, and drew shapes at the center of the paper. We then cut out the shapes half way with exacto knives, and folded them out at the center (as shown above). Finally, we placed a small sheet of (inner) paper underneath to show through the window. I recommend using a fun holiday-themed pattern for the inner part, and a simple solid-colored paper for the outer part (or vice versa), so that it doesn’t get too busy.

Finally, we accessorized  the wrapping paper with ribbons and star stickers.

Thanks to the Nippon Club and all my students for making this possible! Though this class was in Japanese, I plan to teach more classes in English as well. Please come back to check my website for updated class info.