The Oddity That Is Us

Due to constraints, we had to be cheapskate and combine our anniversary, Chap Goh Meh and Valentine's present for the Chief this year all in one package.

What did we get the Chief? See see, the Chief's is in Ice Blue while ours is Turquoise Blue.

Requires:
One iKea NOSTALGISK dvd box.
Wrapping paper (remains of iKea's ISIG wrapping paper were used).

Construct box.

Put present into box and cover with wrapping paper.

Close box. Hand over present.

When all we have at hand was just a paperbag, some craft kit and no wrapping paper, we've to make do with what's at hand.

Requires:
Paperbag (we used our Starbucks paperbag)
Ribbon

Simply put the present in, fold down the bag, punch hole and tie ribbon.

We're a person of many bookmarks - people who've looked in our books will know this for a fact. All our books (okay, nearly all our books) will carry leather bookmarks, pieces of paper, scribblings, cards, receipts, cash, movie stubs, odd momentos, parking tickets, expired MPH book vouchers, even our Touch 'n Go at one point (when we used to commute - we'll be reading all the way, even as we walked, and when we reached the turnstile we'll slam our book on the Touch 'n Go panel and walk through when it beeped).

Generally the first bookmark our books gain would be the book's receipt. But not all of them have receipts for bookmarks - we don't just buy one book sometimes, and we've gotten a few more books as presents. After that, the books slowly pick up bits and pieces as we buy stuff and the likes - after all, the book acts as a handy wallet when we need to stash stuff away quickly.

Still - we can't say that the miscellenous bookmarks are a permanant fixture for a book. When someone borrows a book from us, we'll scan the book and remove all bookmarks first - cash especially - and transfer them into another book. When we get our books back then we'll reshuffle bookmarks here and there again.

The interesting thing about having so much of these things in our books? We'll pick back up an old book for a reread, come across an old receipt with the actual date we bought the book, the feather we laminated from our college days, even a faded thermal receipt that'll have us wondering about its origins (most of them quite likely to be Starbucks receipts for a Hazelnut Latte). It's sometimes not just a book we're reading, it's also a trip down Memory Lane.

When dad passed us Reader's Digest's 'Select Editions' that he has been getting to read, we come to realise how handy the binded ribbon bookmark was.

And so we decided to experiment with our book wrapping.

First time around, we made use of whatever materials we had on hand, which was Ikea's ISIG paper string...thingy.

We're not sure how functional it was as a bookmark tho'. We have yet to try it out.

Then we found another kind of ribbon, also from Ikea. This one felt much more suitable but the problem we have with this ribbon was that it was paper - which meant it creased rather easily. It sort of hampered our reading because we had to handle the bookmark with care while we read.

What we needed was something similar to that we came across in the Reader's Digest Select Editions. Narrow and made from polyester or something. Happily we found a roll of ribbon that would do in Papier, while shopping for more scrapbook paper for the sis.

Once we finish Saki, we'll be able to put this new bookmark to the test.

There, the evolution of book wrapping. Now with ribbon bookmark! What about in the future - pockets?

As we've got an XBox 360 game to wrap up this time, and things in these shapes tells the recipient, 'DVD case' immediately.

Presenting, the padded envelope. Similar to Lesson 102, but here you've got to make sure the envelope's big enough to fit the case. In our case we got a...7" by 12" padded envelope, although in retrospect we might as well have gotten a bigger envelope to further add ambiguity to present identification. The 7" by 12" will fit a CD case just right though.

Requires:
Padded envelope.
Wrapping paper.

Yet another mistake we did was to seal the envelope - we could have just folded the flap in. That way, recipient gets two presents: a padded envelope to use as well as the XBox 360 game. Now recipient will need to use own cellophane or Scotch tape.

Wrap envelope.

Voila. Stick on a card if you are a bit more hardworking.

When we've clothes to deal with and no boxes for easy wrapping, we've got to make do with what's available.

Requires:
Wrapping paper (Ikea ISIG wrapping paper was used)
Plastic bag
2-way tape

First, fold clothing nicely and place inside plastic bag - the ones normally supplied by the clothing boutiques are fairly good ones, retaining their shape without getting crumply. Once clothing is placed neatly inside, fold the bag so that there's no empty space.

Next, measure out enough paper to fold over twice width-wise. Leave about an inch on each side.

Use the 2-way tape to stick the edges. Now it can be used as a pillow until opening day.

This time we've a big prez to wrap. Not keen on taping 2 pieces of wrapping paper together and working from there, I'd decided to go back to wrapping tissue. Unfortunately, this time it's not so quick to finish this.

Requires:
Wrapping tissue
Box
Paper

Firstly, box the present.

Wrap boxed prez in brown paper. Note: Brown paper makes wrapping ugly.

Print out birthday greeting big enough to cover top quarter of box top.

Lazyman's option: Stop here, paste birthday greeting on box and send by courier service of choice.

Else, continue. Paste birthday greeting on contrasting card and stick onto a corner of the box.

Then proceed to wrap with wrapping tissue.

This time we've a tie to wrap. Since the tie didn't come in a nifty box to thwart gift-guessing, we'd to use an alternative. Presenting, the envelope.

Requires:
One medium-sized, long envelope.
Wrapping paper.


This was a nice tie until I added a couple of Magic: The Gathering mana symbols and the Selesnyan sigil. I was trying out the iron-on transfers. Anyways.

Fold tie nicely and place in envelope. Preferably one that has the government letterhead or from the Revenue department and addressed to person receiving gift.

Wrap letter.


Voila. Wrapped-up present does not feel limp nor difficult to wrap.

We picked up a new trick for wrapping while shopping at MidValley. This be good for wrapping articles of clothing.

Requires:
Tissue-type wrapping paper
String

Place present diagonally on wrapping tissue, front side facing downwards in the middle. Size of present should be roughly 1/3 that of wrapper.

Fold each corner towards the centre. Tissue wrappers have an advantage in that crease lines don't show so you can adjust till you get it right. If the corners fold over to the front, fold backwards and inwards at the edge.

Voila. Then tie up with string. Simple, no?