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The challenge: To decorate some holiday gift packages using only fast2fuse^® craft packs, some brown paper wrapping, and what was on hand in my studio.

Being someone who is known for my over-the-top gift wrapping, I was a little worried. I like tailoring my gift wrap to the person receiving the package—finding just the right ribbon, the perfect paper (sometimes even painting my own), or tying on a special accessory. Would I still be able to do that with just what I had on hand? For the sake of stretching my creativity and being green, I said I would give it a try.

SO armed with a craft pack of fast2fuse, C&T Publishing’s double-sided fusible stiff interfacing, I headed off to my studio. The best way for me to get started on a new project is to start cleaning up from previous creation. It seems that returning objects to their home and unearthing others gets my mind moving in the right direction. By the time I found the top of my desk, I knew what I needed to do…..just keep it simple!

I started off by making a sort of belt. Using pieces of fabric from my stash, I covered lengths of fast2fuse with fabric and added a ziz zag stitch around all the edges. At first I thought I was going to add a couple D rings to close the belt, but I didn’t have the right size and since I couldn’t buy anything, I had to keep looking. That’s when I came across my cache of vintage buckles….perfect! Using a buckle allows the fast2fuse bands to fit multiple size boxes and makes the bands reusable! I also used a metallic thread for my decorative edge stitching which jazzed things up a bit.

Then I wondered what else I could use for a closure. I made a fabric pin out of a coordinating fabric and my die cut machine (though scissors would work). This allowed me to simply pin (straight from the pin cushion) the fabric belt around the package and cover the pin with the, well um…fancier Reindeer pin!

To make the “belts” fit around larger packages, I cut several strips from the craft pack, which is a 14″ x 18″ cut of fast2fuse, covered them with fabric and stitched around all the edges. Then I overlapped the ends about 1/4 inch (more or less) of two pieces sewing them together with a straight stitch. I thought later it would be fun to use various pieces of fabric for a homespun, scrap look, overlap several belts, weave a number of similar colored belts together, use 3 or more belts on package offsetting the placement of the buckles…Oh the possibilities…..

Out of one fast2fuse craft pack (heavy- or lightweight) you can make two or three large, three medium and about seven small package belts. These are just approximate as it all depends on your box size and the belt width you cut. After the first gifts were wrapped, I was on a roll and I started looking around the studio to see what else I could use to connect the ribbon “belt” together on the box…..here is a collection of things I found….

This challenge really got me thinking of different ways and different things to use to wrap a package. It also got me thinking I need to better label the drawers in my studio! I suppose I even could have embellished the brown paper too….maybe used some of our Liquitex^® acrylic soft body paints to give the  paper a little highlight by dry-brushing some gold or silver paint across the package. But that’s a tip for another blog post!