Delve into the mind and thought processes of Suzanne, Epically Beautiful’s founder, for insights into the products and business brand.
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When it comes to wrapping up a present, the outer wrapping paper is the first thing people see. It’s like a secret papery doorway that hides a secret within. It’s a mystery that only the gift giver knows.
It creates a spark of excitement when the receiver holds the gift. What’s in this? Their curiosity is activated and you watch their facial expression change to one of wonder.
When it comes to gift wrap, the design and paper material matter. You might think they’re all the same, that cheap is the same quality as something expensive; but once you know, and see, you can’t really go back.
Why Paper Quality Matters
Back in my younger days, I always thought that cheap (low cost) gift wrap was “good quality”. (These were the days before I started working in the printing industry and gained knowledge on what REAL quality was when it comes to paper materials.) I remember buying two thick rolls of Christmas gift wrapping paper from a local supermarket for about £1.99 per roll. On the surface you might think it was amazing value. The issue I ran into was that the paper was TOO thin! When I was wrapping up the presents, the paper tore SO easily. Super annoying and created wastage. It also felt thin and cheap when you touched the paper.
There’s A LOT of cheap mass-produced gift wrapping paper sold in the world. They’re cheap because the paper weight is thin, probably around 90gsm so it costs less to produce. In the world of printing, paper costs go up as the paper weight increases. Once the machine setup cost is covered, mass market wrapping paper can be churned out thousands at a time in rolls that are relatively low cost, meaning they can be sold cheaply. The businesses make their money through selling in high volumes.
Epically Beautiful Wrapping Paper
When I first wanted to expand into creating gift wrapping paper for Epically Beautiful, I wanted good quality paper with a luxurious feel. This meant going to a higher gsm weight than the mass-produced ones so the paper didn’t rip at a single touch. I also wanted them in rolls to avoid the paper getting crease lines when it gets shipped. I’ve bought high quality wrapping paper from other indie stationery businesses before. Fantastic gift wrapping paper that was a decent weight and didn’t rip easily when I came to use them. Unfortunately, because they came in sheets instead of rolls, they were folded up when shipped, meaning they had these awful crease lines across the paper. It didn’t look nice once it was wrapped around a gift.
An issue I ran into when looking for manufacturers in the UK, was that, to produce gift wrapping paper in rolls, they are VERY expensive to produce in small quantities. After much research, I discovered I could have the gift wrapping paper produced as sheets and it would be slightly more affordable for a small business only needing small quantities in stock. With sheets we can just roll them up when we ship them out and you avoid getting creases on a lovely product and the quality will remain. Got to think outside the box sometimes!
Once our Epically Beautiful gift wrapping paper products are designed, we work with our UK printing partners, getting proofs or a small batch print run to check on colour and paper quality. How it looks on screen isn’t always how it will look in real life, and you can also get colour variations depending on what printing machines are used even if it’s the same artwork file being used to print. One thing I was taught in the printing industry was to always make sure you look at physical proofs first before you order a bulk batch that might turn out to not look how you intended. Most importantly, test out the product to see what it’s like. At the heart of it, Epically Beautiful gift wrapping paper has to be beautiful but functional while also retain a high level of quality. If it fails this, then it’s back to the drawing board.
Gift Wrapping Paper Sheet Sizes
When it comes to the sheet sizes of Epically Beautiful gift wrapping paper, they’re mainly produced to the sheet size of 700mm x 500mm. This is large enough to fit small and medium-sized gifts.
We do also have some gift wrapping sheets in the slightly smaller 660mm x 480mm which are great for smallish gifts, but these will soon be discontinued in favour of the larger size mentioned above as the larger sheets are multifunctional in being able to wrap both small and medium gifts. We’re a big fan of multifunctional stationery!
Eco-Friendly and Recyclable Gift Wrap
When it comes to Epically Beautiful gift wrap, they are mainly stunning artwork printed on high quality paper material. Most of the gift wrap will have no foiling or plastic manufactured into it, meaning it can be recycled along with normal household paper. It will usually be mentioned within the listing whether it’s recyclable or not.
Tips from Suzanne: Try not to use clear plastic tape on the wrapping paper to seal up your gifts as the plastic can’t be recycled. Look into the art of Japanese gift wrapping (YouTube has tutorials) where they fold the gift wrapping paper over the gift and use paper stickers or paper tape to seal up the end (sometimes even just folding the ends into the slot without tape). Everything can then be put into recycling once the unboxing experience is over. If you do need to use plastic tape on gift wrap, try to keep it to a minimum and your receiver will need to remove it before the paper goes into recycling.
[Extra tip from Suzanne’s blog proofreader who also suggests to] use fabric ribbons - the receiver can reuse them when wrapping their own gifts.
Suzanne’s Favourite Gift Wrapping Paper Design
I’m a big fan of the 1920s art deco aesthetic, from colour to style. To me, the roaring twenties were a time of old-world elegance and sophistication. Everyone was just so well dressed and even their building architecture was stylish. They knew what looked good and timeless. You can see this in the modern day where art deco features have lasted throughout the decades.
We have some vintage art deco style gift wrapping paper sheets as single designs, and it’s hard for me to choose a favourite as I love them all. Luckily, we also have a variety set that has them all in one set. This way, there’s no need to choose as you’d get them all, so this would be my choice for favourite gift wrapping paper.
Shop Suzanne's favourite vintage art deco wrapping paper set.