Artful Gifting

I was recently searching for a very unique gift for someone special. I racked my brain for quite a while and came up with a very clever gift basket idea. Yay, I was set! Relieved to be past the brainstorming phase, I bought all the makings of an awesome spa kit. Then I realized I had no idea how to wrap it...

I don’t know about you, but wrapping a gift is like a sacred ceremony for me. If you are also an over the top gift wrapping type of person, you’ll know exactly what I mean. It has to be beautiful and fit the personality of the recipient or it just doesn’t cut it. I had no idea what to do! Thankfully, I keep a very large collection of craft supplies like papers, ribbons, and other handy materials that I raid from time to time. This was definitely the time.

I dug into my stash hopeful but crazed. Would I find the right thing? I decided on bright pink and lime green as theme colors, and found a color compatible gift bag. It was a reusable shopping bag that I had purchased a while back and never used. One down! I also found tissue that was very complementary. Two down! Now for the ribbon… I could not find one color that would work with this color scheme. Drat!!! I was so close… but alas, no ribbon.

Well, if there was no ribbon, perhaps it was something else I could use. I had substituted for a ribbon on occasion so I went to work on ideas. Too bad I couldn’t just custom paint a ribbon… And then it hit me! Custom and painting were the key words that led me to create a series of watercolor mini paintings that I could use as gift toppers in place of ribbon. I matched the paint colors to the packaging I had already assembled and went to work on a floral theme.

I was concerned about the time commitment on this type of project, but it ended up being relaxing and therapeutic. I slow down and really enjoyed the process. This gifting project turned into a total joy! I also now had an option for future gift gifting crisis. Creativity truly is the mother of problem-solving. :-)