Mrs Fox Raps... sorry that's Wraps!

Have I told you about my wrapping fetish?

No, oh well, we have a lot to talk about...

It rears it's head every time I have to send out a product from Mrs Fox's Folksy store or one of Mrs Fox's Party Boxes.  I can't just put things into a padded envelope or cardboard box and put them in the mail.  I like to wrap things.  I like opening the package to be as exciting as what's inside (well almost!).

Our red hand-felted fox Christmas Tree decorations, on sale for £7 on Folksy, come in a handmade completely recycled, by your's truly, cardboard gift box, usually covered with hand-made paper or off-cuts of ribbon, tied with fancy string or twine.  It takes almost as long to make the box and pack it into another handmade postal box, wrapped in brown paper secured with Belle and Boo London Umbrella tape, a gummed label and Mrs Fox's stamp, as it does to make the fox.

One of my favourite wrapping projects was a crepe paper elephant head I made for a friend's birthday gift.  It encased a vintage copy of Rudyard Kiplings "Just So Stories", I blog about it here.

For Christmas I sometimes get the little foxes to make print our Christmas wrapping paper, using simple potato printing or similar.  This year I've got a couple of ideas in the mix:



I've designed some "Happy, Happy, Joy Joy", "Merry and Bright" retro gift tags that I'll be using.  They are in our shop as a FREE downloadable PDF, so feel free to share.

I've printed them out on glossy photographic paper.  You can cut them out with scissors or scalpel, punch a hole in the top tie with fancy string, and adorn your gifts with Mrs Fox's gift tags.



I've bought some beautiful coloured hemp string and I'm going to use wrapping paper that is brown craft paper on one side and red on the other.

I have finished a ceramics project at a crafting evening I go to; the Fiver Club at the Forge Museum in Much Hadham; and the result will be part of this years wrapping too.

I've also been making little red pom poms, which I have started to get a bit obsessed with.  So much so that I now want to try and make a red pom pom Christmas wreath, or maybe bunting.  I have a pom pom making method that means they are incredibly quick and simple to make.  Here it is:

You will need:

ball of wool
a fork
scissors

1. Take a ball of wool and wrap the it around the prongs of the fork.  When you have a decent quantity of wool, you'll have to experiment as it depends on the size of the fork, snip it off the ball.

2. Now take another piece of the wool and slip the end through the central prongs at the bottom of your bundle of wool, bring it around the back of the fork through the same two prongs at the top of your bundle of wool pull it tight and tie it tightly in a double knot.

3. Snip the the loops of wool carefully, don't cut the piece you've just tied around your bundle of wool, fluff out the ends, give it a trim and there you have a pom pom.

I'll post some results of my wrapping later in the week.  I've promised little Una Fox that she can help so, I have to wait until we have a bit of time after school.  A girl after my own heart xxx