Happy Everything.................and Ribbon Posies

I am calling these Ribbon Posies because this gift embellishment is as simple as gathering a handful of flowers into a flower posy. I was hunting around for short pieces of ribbon as I have this fab idea for a designer hair adornment for Daisy if it works and came across these Midori Ribbon samples. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was ironing linen fabric, stamping grosgrain ribbon, and tying up these short but wider lengths of vibrant silk. This ribbon Posy is easy, easy and a great way to gather up leftover lengths of ribbon or minimize your ribbon yardage purchase. Take as many ribbon pieces as you want, loop each ribbon, mix up the widths, colours and textures in this case I mixed up the patterns, then tie with another short ribbon piece. That's it.

I was dying to use my new Besotted rubber stamps and just love this Happy Everything, I think it is my absolute favorite phrase. Since this ribbon is a grosgrain, the stamp image isn't as sharp but I love the result on this banded grosgrain.

This would be a beautiful presentation for a holiday birthday. I am always careful not to decorate a holiday birthday gift with a Christmas theme as it can look like you grabbed the seasonal gift wrapping supplies if you know what I mean. It might be the holidays but it is still their own special day so I like it festive but mindful. The same applies to gifts given to anyone who does not celebrate Christmas but has their own festivities. 

I have used linen fabric before for gift wrapping way back here but wanted a smoother presentation. I simply cut the two pieces of linen fabric slightly larger than the box size about 1", pinned along cut edges in place to fit exact, and then ironed the edges. One piece going one direction, one the other and both affixed on the underside with double-sided tape. I have yards and yards of this linen fabric from my designer days and think I will use it more now that I have this result. You can use any fabric that will give you a nicely pressed edge. 

I tucked the ribbon on the one end and left the top with a stylish v-cut. The ribbon is also held in place with double-sided tape. The Ribbon Posy is held with a dab from the hot glue gun. 

Should you wish to indulge in this Midori ~ Gala Dupioni ribbon found here, it does come with a finished edge. These are sample pieces so the raw edge is shown. Midori has just opened a retail website. 

Linen and ribbon done simply and beautifully too. 

Another way to use this ribbon.

A sparkly holiday ornament gives the Ribbon Posy an extra dose of holiday sparkle. 

A sparkly welcome to new followers and thank you to readers 

who left lovely comments this week. 

Photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Linen On My Mind ..... again

When I buy roses, I head to Costgo where I can afford to buy masses of them if I have any kind of gathering.
I like to mass them, but also love it when they are used in a flat layered fashion. Just the heads, all lined up in a square flat container. There is a floral product that you add to water which turns to a gel, this is how the roses stand in position. I wanted to replicate that look with these paper roses (if you had them you would be using them alot too). They come in a package of 20 and literally come out of the bag this way. I slide them out and wire each row together and I have a square arrangement. I like the colour combination here with yellow striped cotton ribbon and these coral paper roses. I like it best on this taupe linen, but it would probably work on my matte black paper as well.



You can see the gel in the background holding the roses. I also used the same material and a low flat square container to do roses in a heart shape, but couldn't find the image. This was way before I knew how to store photos.


Give me a armful of roses and I will hunt down every container I have and fill them. This was for my neice's bridal shower a few years back and she loves pink and peach. It does make for a beautiful colour scheme. I must have used that criss-cross scotch tape method to hold this mass of roses. When it comes to roses, nothing is wasted, I also used all the excess petals across the table.

A simpler neutral version of the same idea.


There are the paper roses in green and some new organza roses I am trying out, they come in this green, a bronze, chocolate brown and black. They come with ribbon attached so you simply tie around a box. At $3.50 each they are certainly a more stylish gift wrap choice that a store-bought bow. But, that just seems too easy and I was inclined to try them in multiples and see if I liked them better that way.

I am not sure what I think about this, but I thought I would show you anyways. All you can do is think I have lost my gift-wrapping mind. I will keep experimenting. My issue is with the 6 ribbon tails, so I gathered and braided them so it would look like a bouquet stem and just let it trail down the front. Their assumption with these gift box toppers is that you will tie the ribbon to the bottom of the box. I never cared for a knot at the bottom of a box as it won't sit straight. Silly and overly-particular I know, but there must be a better way. This final presentation reminds me of something, but can't for the life of me find the words. Maybe it's just plain crazy?

All photos by Sande Chase ~ Oooh la la Cadeau

Linen On My Mind

A friend called me before Mother's Day and asked me to wrap up a special gift that she could take to her mother. The gift was a gorgeous ivory linen wrap from Italy with ivory and white linen layered flowers on the back. So....of course this gorgeous creation needed an elevated gift wrap ( and I adore her mother), something that would capture it's simple but stylish elegance. I enjoy it when the gift wrap suggests the contents and gives you a hint of what is to come....in this case I figured I might as well use the real thing. I was curious to see if the fabric look I was picturing could translate into a gift wrap. I do have yards and yards of it in my storage room, it was my favorite fabric of choice for draperies the past few years. It always has that casual but elegant "french look", especially when I would have a tone-on-tone embroidered design somewhere on the panels, very subtle. Sometimes it was a scroll pattern along the bottom crawling up the side, once a French word embroidered along the bottom edge of a roman blind. If I was to do one today, I think I would look to add silk or linen flowers along the bottom in a somewhat random pattern like Dior did with that Vanity Fair photoshoot I posted a few weeks back. In other words, and as you will see over the next few days, this neutral linen can handle a varied selection of presentation materials.

It's not a fabric to gather when wrapping like the "pouf" wrap I did before, it would be a wrinkled mess. I simply folded and taped just as I would with gift wrap paper. You do have to use more double-sided tape than you would with gift wrap paper, but it does hold. These first two are quieter presentations as I think linen in any colour is by nature a quieter look, it's beauty is in it's understatement. This gift shows how little is needed when the base is setting the mood, I simply used 2 velvet flowers (from a scrapbook collection) and a thin taupe velvet ribbon on the top one, the bottom one a beach shell napkin ring. In order to secure the ring I had to loop through and then knot the ribbon back to the main ribbon, but I liked the look. I have been on the hunt for a variety of belt buckles so I can do this technique with wider ribbon. A little French gift tag and it's done.

Once I started experimenting with this linen base, I simply could not stop. I enjoyed how it could handle just about any look I cared to try. Even when I mixed two colours, peach and pink with a taupe polka-dot grosgrain.

When using fabric in this manner, do not strive for perfect folds like you would with paper. It simply cannot be done. It's fabric and there is no mistaking that fact and it becomes part of the look. I'm not sure the ribbon was needed around the base, now that I look twice, the taupe polka-dot ribbon peeking out of the flowers seems quite enough, after all those flowers don't really need any competition.

I used this linen fabric in a bedroom for a client not too long ago and was reminded of it when I was experimenting (fondly, she was a fabulous client). They had an existing wood sleigh bed with one of those generic leather upholstered head and footboards and faux brass nailhead trim. The bed had to stay, but way too masculine and the look too heavy. We took the leather off and had both sections reupholstered in this exact neutral linen with silver nailhead trim, the whole room and scale shifted. We then wallpapered the walls in a silk grasscloth in this same neutral colour and installed multiple recessed picture lights. The drapes and embroidered valances were in this linen as well. Something I insisted on was all-white, high-quality bed linens, beautifully crisp in this setting. When the bedside lamps and four picture lights went on, the artwork (a mix of oil paintings and historical prints) and silk grasscloth just shimmered with an understated elegance. To make a long story short, I just love taupe and white together. Here I get to use up the foliage that is left on all those silk flower stems I cut for gifts. The look works whether it is a small pink bud or a larger magnolia.

A triple white satin bow with simple rosebud. I would like to try this with pink ribbon, or blue, lavender or purple would be lovely......I just can't stop and it works with everything. Hope you like this linen wrap, tomorrow I will show you even more variations with a little twist. Remember I do have that wide ivory linen wide ........I really meant it when I said I couldn't stop.

All photos by Sande Chase ~ Oooh la la Cadeau

Pouf Wrap

There is a corner in my store room with remnants of my former life as an interior designer. It's not that I have been ignoring these pieces of low yardage fabric, I've just been waiting to experiment with them a bit. I don't sew and this is a disadvantage for my next little project....fabric gift wrapping. This isn't a new idea......it's just people feel a bit strange doing it I think. Maybe afraid you'll look like cheap Aunt Minnie......you know what I mean. Of course it may mean you just want to save these remnants, a clever idea will come along and you'll be sewing them up like crazy, gorgeous sachets for everyone next holiday. It won't happen, here anyways so gift wrap makes sense to use these up. Figuring out the right size that makes sense for general gift wrapping is a bit of a challenge..........then I had a duh... moment, I'll make three sizes. So this photo is just my experimenting, take the fabric, gather, twist, then pull out the top to pouf and quickly secure with ribbon. I haven't sew the edges yet so I have a voluminous amount of "pouf" but I like it, gives it a faux-couture look. I know......the silk ribbon doesn't hurt either. And yes, I know you can do this look with a scarf as well and I might just try it coming up.

I think the Aunt Minnie look everyone fears is possible if the fabric is too cute (unless that's the gift theme). If the fabric is opulent like this embroidered floral silk, I think your gift just got upgraded. Fabric gift wrap makes sense these days, it can be re-used, recycled, and regifted many, many times over. I can see this look twisting in many directions, Pucci, gorgeous chiffon, lots of possibilities. You can use pinking shears if the fabric is casual and fun, anything more elegant will need edges sewn. Watch for clear-out pricing on fabric remnants, especially raw silk as it has the stiffness needed for a good "pouf". Anything slinky is going to fall more than pouf, though not a bad idea either. You're going to feel positively "green" with your regift wrap. As soon as I confirm the sizes I will post again on this idea.

Little Side Tip: If you can't quite work fast enough to tie the ribbon while holding the pouf, then use an elastic band, then tie the ribbon bow. If careful, you can then go back under and carefully snip the elastic.

Both photos by Sande Chase - Oooh la la Cadeau