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Tropical Dreams - Gift Wrapping with Shells

April 01, 2021

Tropical Dreams - Gift Wrapping with Shells

Beachcomber's Bounty - Sea Shell Gift Toppers

Raise your hand if you have jars of treasures found and saved from years of beach combing. We sure do! As we went to style our new Tropical Dreams collection designed by Hawaii-based textile designer Jana Lam, these seemed like the perfect toppers to accent her bright patterns. Layered together with different natural twines and a pop of color from our paper ribbon, the look makes a perfect tropically inspired gift wrapping


We think there's something extra special about sharing one of your treasures, and used as a gift topper, it puts that sentiment front and center in your gifting.


The good news is, for this look, perfection doesn't matter. In fact, we searched through our collections to find the worn, weathered shells that already had a puka (that's the Hawaiian word for 'hole.') Not only did this make it a cinch to tie on to the box, we loved the idea of turning an interesting "broken" bit into a crowning piece, like the topless cowrie shell and coral fragments below. (A few of our favs didn't have a hole, so we lashed it with twine first, then tied it to the box or ribbon.)



If tapping a personal collection isn't an option, your local craft and hobby shop likely stocks bags of shells—even ones pre-drilled with holes. This makes it easy to match the shell colors with a particular paper or ribbon, which may come in handy if you need a uniform look for multiple gifts or want to create a knock-out stack of gifts.



Whatever treasure you choose to give, we're sure receiving a gift this beautiful would make a person feel like a million clams. (Bad pun, but we couldn't resist.)

Happy wrapping!