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A guest post from Amanda from Gift Frippery

Do you buy food for gifts but struggle to wrap them well? These tips should help you to wrap nice food gifts and look great.

Popular food gifts

Making jam with my foraged damsons has reminded me of how lovely a gift homemade food gifts are. I love foraging and seeing what I can find to get creative with. As a gift wrapper, the presentation is very important to me as it extends the happiness of a gift-giving/ receiving.

Trying to wrap things in an eco-friendly way means you can use up your scraps of fabric and reuse any shredded paper.

Common choices for gifting include wine, cheese, hampers, chutneys, jams and chocolate. If you’re wrapping food that needs to be kept in the fridge, add any embellishments after you remove it. Sometimes bows can become droopy in the cold. Bakers twine and greaseproof are good and rustic looking items to wrap goods in.

Jams and chutney can be wrapped in a swoosh of cellophane (eco-friendly cellophane is now widely available). If you want the jar hidden simply layer some tissue paper underneath the cellophane. Alternatively, go old school, pop a fabric doily on the top.

Likewise, wine can be wrapped in tissue, cellophane or a large piece of fabric all drawn up to the top in pleats and secured with a bow.

Using card for wrapping

If you have more time and narrow lengths of the thin cards going spare….try this…

I collected lengths of cards, different widths and colours- anything goes. Lay them flat on a table and start weaving them under and over each other. Secure them in place every now and then with a secure glue stick. Trim the excess lengths off so the final result is a square or rectangle.

Bend it carefully around the bottle of wine and staple or glue it so it’s the correct size to slide on and off. I guarantee the recipient will be delighted with the innovative wrapping and the fact that it’s reusable.

Chocolate is a fairly usual gift and always appreciated. Most chocolates are bought in a box. Simply wrap in brown or plain paper. Take twine or string around the wrapped present four or five times- not neatly! Crisscross it to your heart’s content- then tuck little fresh flowers in behind the twine. You can do this with anything from your garden although I promise that buttercups and greenery would look pretty too. Add the fresh decoration as late as possible before giving the gift.

Have you ever given herbs as a gift? They are very much appreciated by those living in flats or with a very small garden. I’m lucky enough to have herbs in the garden so I can cut a bunch and wrap it in brown paper. I love adding bay leaves and rosemary in little aromatic bunches to adorn food gifts. Punch a hole in a large bay leaf and use it as a gift tag ( just write on it). Tie it on with twine or ribbon.

A hamper gift

Now we come to the hamper. A so-called hamper can be any size and it can be a basket, cardboard box or a terracotta flowerpot.

A hamper doesn’t have to be full of food either but let’s stick with our food theme.

Individual items need to be nestled in shredded paper or wood shavings, this will ensure the products don’t move around and break. Try and balance the heavier items so that when you pick up the hamper the weight is evenly distributed. Decide whether you need to wrap the individual items ( I suggest shades of coloured tissue paper). Once you’re happy with the look you may wish to use cellophane again.

There are two ways to proceed-smooth the cellophane over the top and secure with sticky tape underneath- or – sit the hamper on cellophane and gather it up at the top and secure it with a bow.

Rest assured that however you decide to wrap your gifts the recipient will love that you went the extra mile to make them feel special.