I Wrap to Win

If I’m invited to an event that typically involves a gift my first thought is not what I’m going to get them.

Nope.

It’s how I’m going to wrap whatever I’m going to get them.

If it’s a baby shower I look up the registry to see how the room is being decorated.  If it’s a wedding shower I will look at the color theme and or wedding theme.  If it’s a kids birthday, I’ll try and theme it to their latest interests.

You can see a few examples of this in this post.

In other words, I wrap to win.

When I walk into a room with my gifts?  The wrapping alone makes it a winner.  Oh, and I can tell when there is someone else who thinks they were going to win.  They’re usually the ones with their mouth agape as I walk past them smiling (or smirking, hard to tell sometimes.)  The rest of the room just lost.  It doesn’t even matter that they didn’t know it was a competition.

I’ve quilled snowflakes, woven ribbon, set plaster pieces, hand painted, sewn paper quilt pieces with raffia, stamped and stenciled my way through gift wrapping.    I’ve taken up to a month wrapping a gift before.

Let me repeat, a month.

Who is going to win against that level of (crazy) commitment?

Eleven years ago, I even had my own custom gift wrapping business.  I would make product and then sell it at local craft fairs.

My fair set up. They’re not all winners but they are all hand made. (this is a film photo people)

When I was contacted to review the Martha Stewart home office /wrapping line with Avery, let’s just say it was a full circle moment.

YES. YES SEND THAT TO ME NOW PLEASE.

So, what is important to me in wrapping supplies?   It needs to have a nice design, different elements that coordinate and the product is good.

Luckily, The Martha Stewart line has these elements.

If you’re looking to wrap gifts and ship them?  That all can be coordinated too.   Full package coordination.

Let your coordinating OCD heart sing loud while wrapping!

The one thing I really like are the labels.  It has coordinated labels that you can print on using the templates provided.  This gives an overall seamless look.

I like this line so much, I’ve already gone to Staples to buy the craft paper one with snowflakes on it.  And the candy cane one is probably going to be purchased as well.

As great as it is…I do have a few suggestions for the product:

I’m not entirely sure if this is just me or if other people like to coordinate their tree with the wrapping under it.  This year, Martha Stewart has a holiday line of tree decorating products at Home Depot.  My first thought was that if her wrapping line matched her tree trimming line I would be in COORDINATED HEAVEN.  But it was not meant to be.  I understand that Avery and Home Depot are not exactly the same type of store but I would have expected it to have been coordinated or at least have the wrapping line available with the Home Depot product.   It’s not that you couldn’t make it work; it’s just not made to go together in that way.

There was a misprint on the labels.  The template numbers on the packaging (to print on them) did not match the number on the actual label and then it ended up being a third template number I found on the Avery site that worked with chosen label.

Another suggestion I would make would be on the paper itself.  It does not have the interior grid cutting lines.  I’ve become a big fan of those and am surprised her paper does not have them.

To say I’m excited that Martha Stewart has a hand going in the game of wrapping paper would be an understatement.  I really hope the line does well and well enough to expand into other lines other than winter holiday wrappings.

And if by some chance my suggestions are implemented?

I’ll smile as I hand over my cash for it.

________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

P.S.  Do you see that cookie container up there in the picture?  I made it and You Can Too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: Red Sky public Relations contacted me to review Martha Stewart home office with Avery.  I said YES (probably twice and in all caps) and this is my review.  I was sent wrapping, shipping, tags, labels and ribbon.  I wasn’t paid for this review because I wrap to win.  It’s obviously an honest review because I came up with ways to make Martha Stewarts product better and who does that?