When I travel, especially on long trips, I take at least one outfit for a grand occasion (in case I get invited to a wedding, anniversary or big birthday party. I also take half a dozen cards with matching envelopes, for wedding, birth of boy, birth of girl, congratulations, thank you, and happy birthday, and unspecified.
I also pack a small card to attach to the neck of a bottle of gift, plus a piece of folded into squares wrapping paper and a length of ribbon, and a folded flat gift bag and a flower shape bow. And a piece of sticky tape. (You can buy a bag of ribbon bows from a pound shop or Japanese Daiso.
Packing
These can be packed flat in the lid of a suitcase, especially if you have a hard-sided case, or carried in hand luggage. It saves time shopping at the other end.
Cutting Paper
If you are travelling by car you can take a Swiss army knife containing a knife and scissors. This is likely to be taken from you at security in an airport. It might be posted on to you (requiring you to go back through security, post it, find an envelope and stamp and postage box and then come through security a second time - happened to use once - but you are likely to lose it.
I travel with a tiny pair of nail scissors and / or a metal nail file in my checked in luggage.
If you have no scissors here's how you cut paper. Fold it down over the edge of a desk or counter top. Fold it back the other way. Repeat. Use your finger nail or a weight to make the crease firm.
Cover the part which must remain intact with a book or heavy weight to ensure the paper does not suddenly tear off sideways.
Pull apart very slowly from one end of the crease. Pull apart very slowly from the other end of the crease. Pull along the whole crease.
Cut the exposed end with scissors or scratch off fraying parts with your finger nail or a knife from the kitchen.
If the edge looks ragged, fold back over a ruler edge or the edge of a desk or a big book such as a phone directory.
Making a Card
Make a plain card from white paper or card. Stick on a fancy picture. Alternatively stick on a photo of the donors or recipients.
Making An Envelope
Take a discarded envelope from your waste paper bin. Pull it apart to see the shape. You could use part or all of it as a white liner for a coloured envelope.
To get the correct size of envelope, place your greeting card on white paper. Draw around it in erasable soft pencil ((HB or 2B - with a putty rubber or rubber band to erase). Draw the other four triangles or oblongs from the sides of the oblong covering the card size. Allow room for the four folded in sides to overlap.
Make an envelope template on scrap paper first. When you have your roughly drawn and cut and pasted template the right size, do it again with the coloured or thicker white paper.
Wrapping Prettily
How to wrap a parcel prettily? Go online for directions, ideally on YouTube. Fold paper like a book cover with four triangular folded in corner. Hide overlaps with a double fold. Hide torn edges with a double fold like a hem.
Or leave the parcel ends unfolded like a Christmas cracker, tied with two pieces of small ribbon tied in a bow each side.
Finding wrapping paper or bags
Use wrapping paper to make a bag. If the paper is thin, then use two thicknesses to make a bag.
If you have bags but no cards and no wrapping paper, cut up a bag to make a wrapper. You can make a box, and a matching card. Or a matching card and envelope.
Box Shape Template
How to cut a box or envelope? Two methods. Take a food box from your litter bin and flatten it.
Copy the silhouette onto clean paper. (Newspaper or the printed side of discards from printed paper might leave black ink smudges.)
Practise on plain paper before cutting your coloured paper.
Extending Paper
If you don't have enough paper for the entire box, use two contrasting coloured papers. Or cover the gap with a ribbon or a business card. Or cut an oblong or diamond or strip or figurine from an old greeting card or advertising leaflet or magazine.
Glue
Stick with glue. If no glue use stick tape folded into a loop on the back of the item you wish to stick.
Or get a tiny piece of tape from reception at a hotel or a colleague's office.
Hide Mistakes
If you have cut badly, or have a torn edge to cover, conceal it under a bow. Make a fancy horizontal or vertical design from another piece of the wrapping paper. Make a rose or bow from a contrasting piece of paper. Or cover with a hand-written card with a message of congratulations, good will, and the donor's name.
How to Curl Ribbons
Ribbons can be curled up by running the blade of a sharp knife or scissor blade along the end of the ribbon or the whole of the ribbon.
Failing all else, ask for help from any Japanese man or woman, serving in a store, shopping in a store, sitting beside you on a train, or even at the party on arrival.
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