If you love fabric, origami and clever ideas then you’re going to love Wrapagami: The Art of Fabric Gift Wraps by Jennifer Playford. This delightful book provides step-by-step illustrated instructions to wrap just about anything using fabric.

At the heart of this book is the furoshiki, a traditional Japanese  square cloth used for wrapping a carrying items, a practice which dates back to the 17th century. Along with easy-to-follow instructions that will inspire a whole new approach to gift presentation, Wrapagami includes a brief overview of the history of the furoshiki, directions for creating your own furoshiki, ideas for reusing furoshiki and resources for purchasing furoshiki.

Not only is fabric gift wrap a creative and eco-friendly way to present a gift (no paper, tape or scissors required) — the fabric is a gift in itself, especially for those of us who love fabric.

I recently tried my hand at creating my own furoshiki and wrapping a few handcrafted treasures for a friend — a set of crocheted trivets (more about that in a future post), a recycled gift card mini notepad and a duct tape wallet.

Wrapagami is going to be a treasured item on my bookshelf that will get repeated use. I may even buy a few copies and wrap them wrapagami style to give as gifts.

Check out Jennifer Playford’s website for how-to videos or to purchase furoshiki with her original designs.

By the way, here is a close-up of the duct tape wallet for those who are curious. Crafted by Us has an amazing duct tape video podcast/tutorial if you’d like to make one.

Wrap on! 

This notepad was inspired by the project on the cover of  Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials by Jeannine Stein, a delightful book which blends together two things I love — crafting and books.

Grabbed some of my used gift cards and a stack of security envelopes that I’ve been collecting and whipped up this little mini notepad.

The thing I love about collecting security envelopes is now I get excited when there are bills in the mailbox! Can’t wait to tear them open and see the pretty paper lining.

Looking for crafty things to do with security envelopes? Check out these ideas:

Security Envelope Beads

Security Envelope Business Card Holder

Repurposed Security Envelopes (turn ‘em inside out and reuse ‘em!)

Security Envelope Valentine

Security Envelope Flowers, Mobiles, Garlands & More

Wait, there is more…check out this flickr group with the mission “to collect and organize envelope security patterns from around the world.”

Still more, The Security Project is an installation containing 289 buttons made of security envelopes.