Gift Wrapping - Cascade of Hearts

T'is the birthday season so I have been wrapping up a storm in recent weeks. I bought a retro biscuit barrel for one of my friends which threw up a few wrapping challenges.  A large, cylindrical shaped gift is a difficult shape to wrap as the large surface area makes the wrapping paper look very flat and uninspiring.  I decided to add some structure and texture to give the wrapping a lift.  I started with a blank canvas of brown paper, added some sinamay and twine around the centre, and topped it off with some heart-shaped ornaments.

The main feature is the ornaments.  You'll need some coloured card (preferably coloured on both sides), craft glue, twine and scissors. Draw half a heart shape and cut it out.  Mine is about 5.5cm.   Use this as your template.

Fold the card in half and cut out six half-heart shapes on the fold so you get six complete hearts.

Take one heart, and glue half of another heart to half of the first heart.

Repeat until you have glued five half hearts on top of one another.  For the sixth heart, glue one side of a whole heart and stick it to half of the fifth heart and half of the first heart.  This creates the ornament shape.  Press all sides together firmly, and trim any uneven bits.

Take some twine and thread it through the centre of the ornament, and tie a knot and the bottom.

I made five ornaments using different lengths of twine.  I knotted all the twine together and stuck the knot to the top of the present.  

The end result is a cascade of hearts in 3D.

Pin It