Brooch-ing a New Idea!

I think we've established on previous posts I'm a bit of a hoarder. I am also a bit of an obsessive. Generally, if I like something I use it/wear it/eat it/ buy it until I am so sick of it and then I have a houseful of stuff I don't use until I start to feel the love again a few months later.

A great example of this is brooches. I love them and wore them everyday when I had a job that required me to wear a suit jacket. Every suit and every outfit had a particular brooch. Since I don't work in such a corporate environment I've stopped wearing my large collection of brooches. That's not to say I've stopped using them.

If you have a gift that requires something to anchor a ribbon, a brooch is a great option. You can buy brooches quite cheaply in accessory shop sales, charity shops and craft fairs. I would recommend using cheap brooches unless it is a special gift where I'm sure a diamond brooch would be appreciated!!

I have shown some examples below

Colourful and quite traditional

For some reason, this feels quite Christmassy?

A great brooch for a knitter

Bling on a single ribbon

 Some examples of other brooches

For music lovers, you could use a range of band and music badges. You can often find a brooch or pin to suit any interest

Washi Tape Wrapping

I have to confess that this idea is a bit of a homage to something I saw a few weeks ago!

Washi tape is a Japanese paper tape which is available at most craft stores, stationery stores or online. The tape is writable, comes in a range of colours & patterns and not too sticky so is ideal for gift wrap purposes.

The gift I needed to wrap was large and quite personal so I wanted the wrapping to reflect this. I took some good old fashioned brown paper and cut lengths of washi tape, sticking the tape in a random pattern on the paper.

It's not the most fancy wrap but I think it's simple and colourful!

Washi tape

For an extra washi tape tip, you could wrap this around string or ribbon to create an unusual package tie!