Life
In the world of YouTube video tutorials, you can find pretty much anything your heart desires, but nothing beats the gift-wrapping videos. Honestly, I’m not sure what makes these videos so mesmerizing, but once you start down this path, you’ll want to spend the rest of your afternoon “researching” how you’re going to wrap all the presents you’ve bought.
I’m going to state my bias here: I prefer the Japanese style of gift wrapping over the gaudy North American style. Less is more, and I don’t think four different ribbons, two bows, and a jingle bell ornament are necessary to make a gift look beautiful, but if that’s your thing, own it! There’s a tutorial out there for you, too.
There was a time in my adult life when wrapping Christmas presents was kind of fun and not that big a deal. I was never exactly spectacular at it – I kind of think that the people who are great at wrapping are also very neat and orderly in real life, something which I am most assuredly not – but it was fun to play around with all the same. Currently, though, my kids don’t care how prettily their gifts are wrapped, they’re just excited to have gifts to unwrap at all. That means I probably won’t be creating any of these masterpieces, but I will still be spending my afternoon appreciating them. And so should you.
Japanese Gift Wrap
Honestly, when she got to the fabric part, I panicked. I was thinking, "But it was so neat with just the paper! Now it's going to be messy with the fabric not perfectly folded..." and then it was this perfect little package of amazing. I should never have questioned this master of wrapping.
Diagonal Wrapping, Plus Folded Japanese Wrapping
I can't believe how easy it looks! I would mess both of these methods up, most assuredly.
A More In-Depth Breakdown Of The Diagonal Wrapping Method
Thank goodness for someone who can actually explain the diagonal wrapping. Now I might even give this method a go! It certainly looks easy enough.
Wrapping 10 Challenging Shapes
This is officially the best tutorial out there for all the crazy shapes out there that you end up having to wrap, and the best part? Nobody says a word! It's just relaxing music, some hands, and wrapping paper. And at the end, you get neat little packages instead of a messy explosion of wrapping paper (me).
The Best Wine Bottle Wrapping Ever
Honestly, if someone gave me a bottle wrapped like this (and let's face it, it'll never be the other way around, because I don't have these mad skills), I might never open it up, because it's so damn pretty. Oh, who are we kidding? Of course I'd open it. I'd just take a picture of it first.
For The Overachievers: Origami Wrapping
If you're trying to one up the rest of your family and friends, or if you've run out of tape on Christmas Eve, this tutorial will get you through.
Image: Paper Guru/YouTube
