Wrap Your Mother's Day Gifts With Love!

Look 1: Wild Flowers

With Mother's Day fast approaching (it's on 30th March!) I thought I'd take some time to share some gift wrapping techniques with you. Hopefully, armed with my tips, you'll all be able to present your mums with beautifully wrapped gifts on Mother's Day, that express just how much you love them!


Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to guide you through how to create two different, but equally beautiful, looks. First up, is my Wild Flowers look (I'll be posting my Big, Bright Bows look next week!)

First Things First: Materials

No scrimping! Make sure you choose some good quality wrapping paper, that reflects your mum's taste. I chose to use my dill flower paper, which is from my own range, as my mum loves wild flowers and walking in the countryside. 

Next - choose some coordinating tags. I'm using gift tags from the same range as the paper, stamped with a delicate dill flower watermark. 

Finally, there is no sadder sight, in my book, than a present without a ribbon and bow! To go with the natural feel of the gift wrap I've chosen for my Wild Flowers look, I've used some rustic, fine hemp chord, rather than going for fancy ribbon. 

You will also need: scissors, and sticky tape (double-sided, or normal sellotape)

(All the materials I've used are available to purchase via my online store. The materials for this first look are available as a complete gift wrap set for just £2.25!

Let's Get Wrapping!

The most important thing to remember is we're after crisp edges and neat corners. If you've chosen a gift for your mum that is an irregular shape, you might want to consider placing it in a box with some shredded tissue, before attempting to wrap it!

Step 1. Measure your Paper

2. Cut your paper

3. Start Wrapping!

4. Finish Wrapping!

5. Measure your ribbon

6. Tie your ribbon

7. Create a Bow

8. Add the tag

Good luck with your wrapping; any questions please just leave a comment, and I'll try to help! Happy wrapping folks!

Sneak Peek of Next Week's Look: Big, Bright Bows!

I'll be posting my second wrapping tutorial next week, so watch this space!

Imagining Alice

Getting Wrapped up in 'Alice'

Ever since I first had the idea to start up my own handmade venture I've always had a notion of 'Alice' being at the centre of it. The business name ‘All Wrapped Up By Alice’ was fixed in my mind from the start; creating Alice herself has, however, been a longer process. Creating Alice has been a labour of love between me and my best (and very talented) friend Michael. Together, we’ve spent hours researching, debating, sketching and designing; all in order to bring Alice to life. So, as I finally debut her first incarnation, I thought I would share with you the creative process that has brought Alice to this point.

So, who is Alice?

Not an easy question to answer. Technically Alice is not me; my real name is Zoe; but Alice is my middle name, as well as being a family name, so has always been dear to my heart. I like to think of it as this: in the real-world I’m Zoe, but in the handmade-world I’m Alice. I guess you could say Alice is a version of me - a version fit to take her place in the handmade-world (and let’s face it, the handmade world is a much nicer place to be!)

So, with all this in mind, creating Alice was going to be a personal project, and one I wanted to share with my closest friend (who just happens to also be a talented illustrator, and graphic designer - lucky me!)

Alice as an Icon:

We quickly decided several attributes which we felt would be key in making Alice into an iconic image for the brand.

The hair:

We decided that the hair would be the key to Alice’s look; the inspiration for the styling would be Hocus Pocus (a nod to 90’s kids cinema there!) My hair is probably my most defining physical feature (I have masses of it) and I am a big fan of the top knot; a style Michael affectionately refers to as my ‘Hocus Pocus Hair’ – check out Kathy Najimy’s character and you will understand! 

Kathy Najimy as Mary in Hocus Pocus 

The Dress: 

We knew we definitely wanted Alice to be wearing a dress, at least for her first incarnation anyway; we felt this would give her the right look for the handmade world, whilst also reflecting my own style.

The Bow: 

We definitely wanted to incorporate a large bow to reflect the business name 'All Wrapped Up', and what we do.

Coordination: 

Alice had to blend beautifully alongside the 'All Wrapped Up By Alice' logo, which we had already designed:

Creating Alice

So with these starting points in mind we both began sketching. Here are a couple of pics of our very first sketches:

My first sketch of Alice

Michael's first sketch of Alice

As you can see our two styles of illustration are quite different, but all the key features we had discussed were present in both drawings. Michael added the idea of Alice holding a wrapped present, with the ribbons of the bow coming out to meet you - a great addition, and a definite focal point for the image.


We continued sketching in our spare time, emailing each other our work, discussing Alice over the phone and in person. We were experimenting with styles trying to find the Alice that we would both fall in love with, and that we felt represented 'All Wrapped Up' as a brand.


Experimenting with faces:

Michael's glamorous Alice

My simple floating heads

Experimenting with clothes and shoes:

Trying different shoes

Experimenting with outfits

Putting body and head together, and seeing what we had come up with:

My Alice (not with a top knot!)

Michael's Alice

Alice as a Logo

Oddly enough, drawing these more detailed versions of Alice helped enormously in crystalising in our minds the vision of Alice as a logo; it was easy to see how we could distill her key features - the top knot, the peter pan collar on the dress, and of course the present and bow - into one iconic image. We drew up a quick draft and then began perfecting the Alice logo:

Initial sketch of Alice logo

Initial design of Alice logo

As you can see, the Alice logo has changed very little from the initial sketch above to the finished design below, as the saying goes, 'when it's right, you just know'!

The Final Design

It is fair to say that me and Michael have both fallen in love with Alice through the creative process; and, like all the best loves, it grows every time we see her! We decided that with Valentine's Day fast approaching it was only appropriate to dress Alice in a peachy pink for her debut, we hope you like her as much as we do!

What's Next for Alice?

Well, we have lots of plans for Alice - none of those initial sketches will be going to waste! We see Alice not just as a logo but as a full character, and amidst all the sketches we think we've hit upon a style for her that we both love, and are very excited about:

Meet our chosen Alice (still a work in progress!) 

We plan to feature this Alice in many of our upcoming products, including wrapping paper, cards, and more! We also have plans for an Alice side-kick, and are working on ideas for that at the moment; here is a sneeky peek:

Rough sketch of a Valentine's Alice