Six crafty ways to wrap homemade sweets and treats

Fancy trying your hand at sweet making? You’d be surprised at how easy it is to make your own sweet treats and present them to your nearest and dearest – perfect if you’re on a budget! There are lots of recipes for sweet making, including scrumptious fudge, caramel, toffee, chocolates and sugared nuts. But let’s not rule out other great recipes when candy making, such as peppermint creams, amoretti biscuits and preserves. However, once you’ve made all these delicious delicacies, just how do you present them nicely? Step this way for lots of ideas on gift packaging….

1) Jars 
Storing sweets in jars is a very simple, but effective way of presenting your hard work. It adds value and shows you’ve gone to a little more effort.
What you need:
– Recycled jars like jam jars or condiment jars
– Thin cloth or an old patterned shirt
– Pinking shears
– Ribbon
What to do:
– Remove all the labels from the jars, by soaking in warm water and scrubbing off any excess glue. – Sterilize by boiling water and leaving for 5 minutes.
– Measure the diameter of your lid and draw out a circular template. Cut around the template with your shears to give a decorative edge and place on top of the jar.
– Tie a ribbon around the circumference of the jar to keep the cloth in place.

2) Boxes 
What you need:
– A book box or cardboard box
– Tissue or crepe paper
What to do:
– Arrange your homemade chocolates in petit four cases.
– Shred some tissue paper to pad the box out – especially if you are planning on posting the box.

3) Sweetie packets 
What you need:
– Cellophane bags
– Card
– Stapler
What to do:
– Pop your sweets in the bag.
– Make a card topper by measuring the width of the bag and adding on 5mm
– Using this measurement, cut out a square on the card and fold it in half.
– Secure and staple.

4) Mugs
What you need:
– White mug or large cup and saucer
– Cellophane wrapping – Ribbon
– Scissors
What to do:
– Cut a very large piece of cellophane and place your sweetie-filled mug in the middle.
– Gather the cellophane around the mug and twist it closed.
– Secure this with lots of ribbon and score with scissors so the ribbon curls.

5) Hampers 
What you need:
– Hamper
– Tissue paper
– Cellophane
– Sweet treats
What to do:
– Line your hamper with tissue paper.
– Lay out your goodies in the bottom of your hamper. These can include some home-made muffins, a box of fudge, a jar of sweets, and a jar of jam.
– Wrap the hamper in cellophane – this not only helps the present look good, but tricks the eye into thinking it’s larger than it is – perfect if you were running low on sweets!

6) Labels 
What you need:
– Backing card
– Brown paper
– String
– Pen
What to do:
– Measure out how big you want your labels to be, draw a template and cut around the paper.
– Stick onto backing card and cut around the outline again.
– Carefully write the name of who the present is going to, punch a hole and thread some string through, so you can tie it onto the present.