I often hear funny stories about about cheap and cheerful gift wrapping often using newspaper on our gift wrapping courses, , so I thought I’d show you some creative gift wrapping ideas with magazines and newspapers.

In an age where we are trying to reuse and recycle, using some glamorous pages of your favourite glossy magazine will add that touch of couture to your gift wrapping

Narrow Red Ribbon by Jane Means

Teamed with a red ribbon made in to a flower, the gifts will dazzle. I love to choose vibrant colours and trend led pages as a backdrop

Red Ribbon by Jane Means

Another great look is the classic monochrome, which is classic, timeless and perfect for any genre. Black and White pages can receive an instant eye catching lift with a vibrant ribbon such as fuchsia pink or red

Even Newspapers can look great teamed with accessories. I love to use coloured pages such as the Financial Times. In this project I have introduced lots of small pleats to add a feature (it also helps disguise the gift underneath as newspaper is often see through)

Sage Ribbon by Jane Means

You could impress even more by making a handmade gift bag. As newspaper is a very thin paper to use, I’ve also added a thin card to add stability and definition. Decorated with a doily and some green ribbon this gift bag looks too good to open (I cover this project in my book ‘Giftwrapped‘)

Image courtesy of Pinterest

You could even make your own paper flowers out of newspaper. All you need is scissors, glue and patience (a cup of tea on the side always helps)

Image by The Penny Hoarder

So next time you think about turfing out your magazines and newspapers, have a rifle through for your favourite pages first and upcycle them in to a wrapped creation or crafty masterpiece

Happy Wrapping! x

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for me as I headed back to run some gift wrapping courses and giftwrapped book signing events in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia

After a brief weekend enjoying the sights of Sydney, I headed to Melbourne to the upmarket district of Toorak.

I had a great time hosting a ladies lunch, book signing and gift wrapping course for 30 at the Manhattan restaurant. Dee and Isabelle, the two lovely organisers did a fantastic job putting it all together and I met some wonderful people.

Tables were beautifully decorated with Vibrant Green Pom Poms, Fresh Flowers, Party Boxes and Polka dot napkins complimenting rich white linens.

Straight after a yummy lunch we got stuck in to a gift wrapping masterclass and everyone had a great time. Georgia and Brad couldn’t do enough for us (thank you chaps)

Several days later I hosted my very own giftwrapping courses at the Windsor workshops in Melbourne. As soon as I walked into the venue I fell in love with the beautiful space.

We were spoilt by Bree with a huge fruit platter, cookies and refreshments and several of us enjoyed a lunch nearby.

If you are ever hosting a workshop or event in Melbourne I can’t recommend this place highly enough. It’s amazing and in such a cool area (sadly I had no time to go shopping!).

I met some fantastic people and we managed to squeeze in a quick lunch at a local cafe.

One of my Instagram followers Dear Mabel came along and it was wonderful to put a face to a name, and I was spoiled rotten with lots of goodies (thank you Samantha)

I then headed back to Sydney to run a workshop in conjunction with Sew Make Create, it’s a wonderful haberdashery shop in Chippendale owned by the delightful Melissa and her super cute dog called Pepper. During the course we made lots of bows, decorations and covered some gift wrapping projects too.

I had a wonderful trip and many of you asked when I will be returning to run future courses and events. I am planning to be back in February 2017 so if you would like to hear about our future Australia events please drop us an email at info@janemeans.co.uk so we can add you to our newsletter list

Luckily I enjoyed a rare day off on Bondi Beach before heading back to London, and it’s already given me inspiration for my wrapping projects. I love Turquoise so much that some of my ribbons are inspired from the sea

I’ve had a fantastic trip to Australia and one thing I will really miss are the incredible Melbourne sunsets which were different every night

Have a great week folks

X

With less than a week until Christmas, the last few months have been a whirlwind at Jane Means HQ. We’ve hired additional staff for our London Gift Wrapping Service and have been featured heavily in the press this Christmas. We even wrapped Shirley Bassey’s gifts on the front cover of the Christmas edition of Hello Magazine and can’t wait to see it on the shelves next week. I’ve also done several shows and continue to do lots of ‘giftwrapped’ book signings and have joined Kirstie Allsopp on stage and infant of the camera.  I’m now getting ready for National Wrapping Day with Scotchtape (crikey it’s all go!)

Many of us this weekend will be busy doing our Gift Wrapping in time for Christmas, so we thought it would be a perfect time to celebrate National Wrapping Day. As the Brand Ambassador for Scotchtape, we’ve filmed several handy videos which will help you tackle those awkward shapes.

Many techniques can also be found in my book ‘gift wrapped’ (which you can get personally signed if you order from us by Monday)

On Sunday 20th December, I will be doing a live chat with ScotchUK on Twitter where I’ll be answering questions, plus there will be its of tips and ideas. Just follow the hashtag #NationalWrapDay to join in with the gift wrapping party.

We would love to see photos of your best wrapped present and I will be choosing a winner on Monday morning. The lucky person will take a signed copy of ‘gift wrapped’ plus goody bag full of ribbons, tags, tape and craft items. To enter all you have to do is head to Twitter and include the hashtag #NationalWrapDay when sending your photo.

This week I appeared with Kirstie Allsopp on ‘Kirstie Handmade Christmas‘ on Channel 4. Despite being a judge for a competition, I still couldn’t resist having a few laughs.

I’d love to hear your comments if you saw it and you can still watch it on Catch up.  It was a tough decision being a judge for a Gift Wrapping Competition but I loved the Japanese style that was displayed.

I also filmed the Christmas gift wrapping commercials for WHSmith.  It even included me gift wrapping a bottle in 10 seconds which blew my own record! Soon after it was launched online it ended up all over the press

I look forward to you joining the Gift Wrapping party on Sunday, and in my next Blog Post I will be sharing some very exciting news

Happy wrapping x