Birthday celebrations galore!

I've just gotten over Christmas and Valentine's Day and without pausing for a breath I'm diving into birthday parties!

This is a special year in which I turn the big FOUR OH.  I seem to have forgotten that if I'm turning 40, all my classmates from school will be doing the same!  As a result, this year will have a steady stream of 40th Birthday Celebrations of friends who are all in the same boat as me.  And for good measure, there are childrens birthday parties to plan for and attend, some friends with babies on the way, special religious occasions and of course weddings.  I delight at the thought of all the wonderful gift wrapping I'll be doing over the coming months.  I do also smile smuggly that I know all the tips and tricks to gift wrapping so the prospect of all these gifts to wrap is something to look forward too, not something to dread!

I recently gave a gift wrapping course to a lady who loves a challenge but found gift wrapping rather frustrating.  Once we got stuck in, she kept mentioning how much she was enjoying herself, she never knew that you could do so much with gift wrapping.  I get bored relatively easily so I'm always looking for new inspiration and ideas and I LOVE to be around energetic people.

My challenge to you for this month is to find interesting ways of incorporating your gift into your packaging.  Below is an example of a birthday present that I wrapped.  The flower on the top is a lovely hairclip which was part of the gift.

The bottle of wine below was also a birthday gift.  To in-corporate the gift into the packaging, I attached some grapevine to the bottle.

Over the next couple of weeks you'll have a few opportunities to meet up with me for a chat and an exchange of ideas.  I'll be at my usual haunt, the I Heart Market on Saturday, 3rd March.  Then from the 29th to the 31st March I'll be at the Knitting, Sewing and Craft Fair at Greyville. I'll be popping in and out on the Thursday and Friday but will be spending most of my day at the Fair on the Saturday.  And then you'll see me at the Zimbali Market on the 5th April if you're going.  I look forward to catching up with some of you.

So until then, happy wrapping!