Tips + Techniques
Make your own gift hampers with this basket weaving DIY tutorial
I love to give gift hampers and whilst on a recent trip to the Yasawa Islands, I was lucky enough to see an inspiring basket weaving demonstration which really grabbed my attention. I am a huge fan of botanical prints and anything natural and luckily I had a camera to hand to cover this amazing…
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How to tie the perfect bow in gift wrapping
One of the most asked questions I get asked on our gift wrapping workshops is “How do you tie the perfect bow?”. We all have our own way of tying a shoelace or a bow and through my experience of teaching gift wrapping, I’ve found it’s very hard to change your technique after tying the…
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Grab a signed copy of my new gift wrapping book ‘Giftwrapped’
We’re delighted to have taken delivery of the new book Giftwrapped, and now have our first orders coming in. We had queues pre-ordering the gift wrapping book at the Handmade Fair last week, and have had people calling from as far away as Sweden wishing to secure a signed copy before it’s launched to the…
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A peek inside the new Jane Means gift wrapping book ‘giftwrapped’
For years this has been a dream. To put all of my creative ideas in to my very own Gift Wrapping Book. I’ve been approached by others, but wanted to write my signature book, with a specific look and feel, oozing with beautiful photography and simple steps. I approached one publisher only, one whos books…
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Gift Wrapping Project – Lining gift boxes with Tissue and Ribbon
You’ve bought the gift and have found a nice little box to pop it in but have no idea how to do the tissue bit. This is something I am always asked to cover on my gift wrapping workshops and when I trained the staff in Harrods recently, they were desperate to find a quicker…
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Gift wrapping awkward shapes with a tailored ribbon bow
If we’re not going with traditional birthday gift baskets – we are often faced with gift wrapping awkward shapes, and something that has always been a challenge is tying a bow around something fragile or flexible If you tried to tie a bow around a silk scarf wrapped in tissue, or a pile…
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Gift wrapping awkward shapes with tissue
One of the main questions I am asked on my gift wrapping courses, is how to tackle the gift wrapping of awkward shapes. To many it fills them with horror yet I believe wrapping awkward shapes is easier than a square box, which is more strict with measurements. You may have bought a shirt or…
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Craft Ideas for the Fortnum and Mason Stationery Event
I’m really looking forward to being involved in the new stationery room launch at Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly next week. Our ribbons are stocked in the store and I will be gift wrapping live in their revamped stationery room on Friday 4th and Saturday 5th April. As a ribbon stockist of the store i’ve already…
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Creative Ribbon DIY Project: Covering a Stool
I’ve always had a love for upcycling and there’s nothing more I enjoy than doing up an old piece of furniture. Many years ago I did a furniture restoration course but sadly due to work commitments I have very little time nowadays to do these hobbies. We have an old stool that we use for…
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Our wedding in Lake Como
Over the years I have been to plenty of weddings, and have pretty much covered everything from being a bridesmaid 5 times, to a best man, florist, gift list person, hen weekend rep and of course the ribbon person…called in to do cars and pews. This time I was going to be a bride. Normally…
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