How to Wrap a Gift Origami Style
Japanese gift wrapping is more than a style choice; delving into the intricacies of this art, rich with symbolic messages carried by how you wrap each gift and what you use to wrap it, would take years. You can use one of the simplest Japanese gift-wrapping styles, however--the basic, origami-like Furoshiki wrapping--within just a few minutes. Because the Furoshiki process is so simple it's easy to add extra embellishments to make the project your own; see Tips for ideas.
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Things You'll Need
- Square piece of gift wrap
- Scissors
- Double sided tape or pretty stickers
Instructions
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1
Cut a square piece of gift wrapping paper from the roll or unfold the paper if you purchased a pre-cut square. The paper should be sized so that, when you place the object to be wrapped in the center of the paper and fold one corner of the paper across the gift, the corner of the paper should reach between the middle and the far edge of the gift.
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Orient the paper, outside facing down, so that one corner points toward you. Place the object to be wrapped in the corner of the wrapping paper. For the best results the object should either be square in shape or be packaged in a square box. Orient the object or box so that its corners point toward the sides of the wrapping paper. Another way of looking at it: Place the object with its edges lined up with the edge of the wrapping paper, then rotate it 45 degrees in either direction.
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3
Fold the nearest corner of the wrapping paper up and over the box. Hold the point of the folded corner under tension against the box as you crease the paper against both top and bottom edges of the box to make neat folds.
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Maintain the first fold under tension as you bring the left-hand corner snug across the box, creasing where the top and bottom edges of the box meet the paper. Imagine a diagonal line that starts between the two folds you just made and leads across to the opposite corner of the box. Tuck any of the folded paper that protrudes beyond this line underneath the corner you just folded in so that you have a clean diagonal line across the box. Crease.
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Repeat Step 4 on the right side. As before, tuck the edge of the just-folded paper corner underneath to make a clean diagonal line on the box.
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Repeat Step 4 for the remaining (top) corner. Tuck both edges of the paper underneath to make a neat triangle out of the remaining paper.
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Place a piece of double-sided tape underneath the last fold to hold it in place, or put a pretty sticky over the fold to keep the package closed.
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Tips & Warnings
For easy embellishments add ribbon or string, wrapped around the package and tied with a pretty bow, or use stencils to color in designs on the paper. You can also fold another sheet of paper in a contrasting color in quarters, snip patterns out of it (as if creating a snowflake or string of paper dolls), then open the paper out and wrap the package in it using the same techniques described above. This provides an elegant, cut-out stencil pattern around the package.
References
- Photo Credit Red Gift Wrapping Paper image by Stacey Alexander from Fotolia.com
