Expert Level Gift Wrap

As a rugged and manly sort of man I am a bit of an anomaly. I really enjoy wrapping Christmas gifts. So much so that over the years I have discovered what I think is one of the best looking, albeit time consuming, ways to wrap gifts.

I was partly inspired to write this Instructable was this Gift wrapping Instructable by ALEXHALEY12. What I'm doing here uses the same principles, just with some extra aesthetics.

What it's made of:

• Gift wrap (Striped)
• One gift (Preferably some sort of cube or rectangular prism)

Things I used:

• Scissors, or other cutting tool. I used a letter opener.
• Tape
• Large flat surface

So to get started you're going to need to do some measuring to make sure the wrapping paper will cover the gift box. I like to roll the box end to end for the length, or wrap the paper around the box like in the picture. And make sure that I can cover two faces for width.

Once you have established that your box isn't too big for your wrapping paper. And you know the length you need go ahead and cut it. Double check your length before you cut, because adding paper on will look like crap. If you have too much you can always fold over the excess.

Now begins the tricky part. Wrap the ends of the wrapping paper around the box. For this infinite stripe appearance all the stripes will have to line up to ensure the illusion of seamless-ness. You would think this is easy, but somehow it is more difficult than it seems. Especially if the box you're wrapping does not conform to the ideals of an OCD gift wrapper and is not square in one or more corners.

With the stripes now matched it's time to work on getting the sides lined up. My box was right at the edge of my paper's capacity. So I didn't have a lot of fudge room here. My advice is to make sure that you can cover the sides. I had to finagle the box in the paper until I could cover both sides.

Once you have ensured proper coverage pull down one edge of the wrapping paper and tape it to the box. Just like in ALEXHALEY12's Instructable start folding one edge in a sort of triangular shape. For you math nerds, the angle of this newly formed flap should be half of the angle of the corner you fold it from. So in our ideal OCD world, that angle should be 45 degrees.

But here comes a fresh wrinkle. Yes I know I just made a paper pun, couldn't help myself. So we're folding this angle, but we want stripes to match in the corners. Which takes quite a bit of trial and error.

A tip for this is to not set a hard crease in the paper. This way you can roll the the fold until the stripes match. It's pretty hard to explain, but once you get your hands on it you'll have a better idea.

So now you should have the two single folds completed with mated stripes. The last thing to do is fold up the bottom flap with its double corner folds. And you guessed it, the stripes need to match here too. Again this will require some trial and error. Worse still it requires twice the trial and double the error.

Now that you have all the stripes running into one another cleanly at the folds you may notice that the tip of the final flap is overlapping other stripes. Unless you are especially lucky. In which case, go buy a lottery ticket or hit the casino you lucky bastard.

What I have found to work best is to continue with the fold to match method we have been using all along. Take the tip of the flap and fold it so what remains will blend into the paper it will lay on top of. This takes much less trial and error. And is also the point where it is most evident how true the box is, and how well you have lined everything up. Once you have lined everything up apply the last piece of tape to finish the side.

Yeah, sorry. You'll have to repeat this on the opposing side of the box. Or if you're like me you have been doing each step on both sides of the box concurrently.

And if you have been patient enough. Possibly even obsessive enough, you should have a really neat looking wrapping job. No stripe will just end, and will have the appearance of running around the box uninterrupted.

Just add whatever additional decorations you prefer. Ribbons, bows, and tags. Go nuts! Because you clearly already are to go to this amount of work for something that will be torn off.