by Chiara Alberetti Milott

Usually when I think of calla lilies, I think of plain old white ones. But there is a whole world of colored calla lilies out there. Gorgeous pinks, corals, mangos, yellows, and deep purple, even. Colors that make me want to go find gelato or sorbet right this instant. Here is a simple way to dress up a gift using just a few supplies – maybe for your dear, sweet mom for Mothers Day?!

Materials needed: various colored paper, tape, stapler, hole punch, yellow crepe paper streamer, scissors.

Step 1: Begin by cutting a square of paper in the shape of the top left image shown above. The size of the paper will depend on the size of the flower you want. I used a range of 3 – 5 inch squares.

Step 2: Cut a 5 inch piece of crepe paper, fold it in thirds width wise, then in half length wise (I made a bunch of these all at once, production line-style). Pick up your petal shaped paper and bend both sides together while holding the crepe paper rectangle inside. Staple the layers at the base of the flower and set aside.

Step 3: Repeat, and staple this flower to your first flower. When you have two or three flowers stapled together, you will want to hide the staples by covering them with a green leaf. I used a little double-stick tape to secure the leaf to the flowers.

Step 4: Punch a hole through the leaf and flowers, for your ribbon, twine or string to go through.

Step 5: Wrap your gift and tightly tie your flowers on top.

You can put as many flowers on each gift as you like – check out the photos below where I went kind of nutso with the flowers!

I have to give credit to Abbey at Aesthetic Outburst for the clever and cute idea of using neon electrical flagging tape – available at the hardware store – to wrap gifts.

Happy Wrapping!