Get creative with your holiday wrapping

Once the hustle-and-bustle of holiday shopping is over, it’s time to wrap those carefully chosen gifts. Of course, no matter how much time you spend wrapping, some items are more difficult to disguise than others.

Below are a few predictable or difficult-to-wrap gift items, with suggestions from Ellen Timberlake—gift-wrapping expert and previous winner of a national gift wrapping contest—on how you can preserve the element of surprise for the recipient.

Golf Club: Take a piece of six-inch thick dryer vent (available at the local hardware store) and stretch it to the length of the golf club. Insert the club into the dryer vent, then mold the vent into a candy cane shape. Fill the empty space around the club with old newspaper. Wrap the vent with several layers of white tissue paper.

Secure the tissue paper to the dryer vent with Scotch pop-up satin tape strips (pre-cut, two-inch pieces of tape that virtually disappear on most types of gift-wrap). Wind red ribbon around the "cane" to make stripes. Finish off by wrapping the entire "candy cane" with cellophane or a self-clinging plastic wrap.

Earrings or Necklace: Place the jewelry in a small box. Wad newspaper in a ball around the gift box until it’s about the size of a softball.

Cut several strips of wrapping paper about one-inch wide, and adhere them to the ball of newspaper until it’s completely covered.

Stuff the "ball" into a sleeve of plastic mesh, and tie both ends of the mesh together with curling ribbon. Add a bow to the top, and hang the ornament on the tree using a hook.

Gift Certificates: Hide a gift certificate in an item that wouldn’t ordinarily be considered a gift, then wrap it as beautifully as you can.

Who wouldn’t be surprised to unwrap the prettiest gift under the tree and discover that you’ve given them a brick, a phone book, or a box of cereal? Of course, they’ll be surprised and thrilled when they uncover the hidden gift certificate.

Bicycle: Everyone knows how grueling it can be to assemble a bicycle-let alone trying to wrap one! Instead of wasting precious time attempting to disguise this hard-to-wrap object with yards and yards of paper, wrap a miniature bicycle in a small box. In the small box, you could include a short poem containing clues that will lead the recipient to the garage or spare bedroom where you’ve hidden the real bicycle.

Perfume or Cologne: Buy the cutest stuffed animal you can find, and dress it in a baby outfit or article of doll’s clothing that has a pocket. Tuck the bottle of perfume into the pocket and gift wrap the stuffed animal as usual.

For additional tips on wrapping, you can receive the free Handy Gift Wrapping Tips & Techniques booklet. Just send a postcard to: Scotch Brand Tape Service Center, 2982 N. Cleveland Ave., Roseville, MN 55113, or e-mail your request to tips@3mservice.montagenet.com. (Allow two to three weeks for delivery.)

This story was provided by the North American Precis Syndicate.