Choose the right wrapping paper and make a present sparkle
Weve all had the infuriating moment, having spent time to carefully wrap a present and make the folds even and neat before sticking them precisely into place with tape, only to find that one of the edges of the gift has split the Wrapping paper. Thats the problem when you pick up a roll of paper out of the cheap, special offer box it simply doesnt do the job when hiding the surprise. For someone special, having spent a small fortune on a gift that will delight them, its not such a hard choice to pick out a sturdy and select sheet of paper that will make that gift even more special.
Categories: Gifts Tags:
Biodegradable packaging may not always be what it seems
The problem with Biodegradable packaging is that it may not always be what it appears to be. While most of the elements of a package may be biodegradable, some will take considerably longer than other parts to break down naturally. A good example of this is egg cartons, which biodegrade fairly quickly. However, the sticky coated labels on the boxes may in fact take a lot longer. If you are looking to buy products with biodegradable packaging, the key is to examine them carefully and may be peel off parts that will take longer to break down to dispose separately.
Categories: The Environment Tags:
Facilitated team development a chance to learn from others
The terminology facilitated team development can often attract negative comments from the more cynical members of staff from an organisation involved. It often pitches unlikely sectors of a company together: the managing directors secretary may find themselves in a group with the loading bay forklift driver and the HR manager. But a wise approach is to go into such a scenario with an open mind because everyone has different skill levels, methods to their work and also personal interests that may prove surprising. You never know what you can learn from other people in your organisation or those in the external company brought in to facilitate the sessions.
Categories: Business Tags:
The benefits of self seal plastic bags
Self seal plastic bags have revolutionised clothing storage, protecting clothes against moisture, mildew, dirt and dust.
Sealed with an antistatic strip that can be repositioned for different size items and resealed after the bag is opened whenever the contents is required, clothes can now be stored away and worn on the day they are retrieved.
You no longer need to spend the first days of summer rewashing and ironing your summer clothes. Packed carefully away in self seal plastic bags, each item will be as clean and fresh as when you washed it all those months ago.
When it comes to winter, you no longer need to pay to have a heavy wool coat dry cleaned again, as the coat will still be benefiting from the dry cleaning process you paid for at the end of last winter.
Categories: Clothes Tags:
Are you a mess of paper and tape? Then gift bags are the answer
Do you remember the first time someone bought you a cheap bottle of wine for your birthday, but it seemed all the more special because they’d put it in a bottle-sized shiny gift bag?
Thinking logically, it would have made sense for the present buyer to spend the extra money on buying a more expensive bottle of wine. But the thought that went into the presentation wins us over emotionally.
It’s because the amount of money spent on a gift is not the most important element of the gift itself; it’s the fact that someone made the effort to buy a present. And someone who gift wraps the present has made more of an effort.
Do you remember the last time you received a bottle of wine that was beautifully gift wrapped? The answer is you probably haven’t, because anything but a square package looks cheap when wrapped in wrapping paper. For these sort of presents, gift bags are the only answer.
If you buy a bottle of wine from an off license rather than a supermarket, the bottle will usually be wrapped in a few layers of tissue paper, which is enough wrapping to make a gift bag seem the hurried choice. Add a stick-on bow to the tissue paper, and suddenly the wine has been wrapped twice!
Categories: Gifts Tags:
A child’s fascination with packaging
Whether it’s climbing inside the cardboard box your latest purchase came in or playing with the shredded paper or polystyrene pieces it was wrapped in, children are fascinated with packaging.
This is often the case even when the box in question held an expensive toy for them to play with!
It’s not that they don’t want the toy, but the box and packaging offer immediate play potential, whereas the toy requires a certain level of learning, which the child will pick up naturally over time.
So don’t be dismayed if your child tosses aside an expensive present in place of the Packaging it came in. They will get good use of the toy and the packaging!
The packaging might end up being a mess all over your living room floor, but your child has used these items to explore their imagination and this is the best kind of development-based playing there is.
Categories: Education Tags:
Bubble wrap is great for fancy dress
The next time your child asks you to make a fancy dress costume, reach for the bubble wrap. Whether it’s your son wanting to be an astronaut or robot, or your daughter begging for a mermaid costume, the bubbled packaging material is perfect for the job.
Bubble wrap sprayed white can be the foundation of an astronaut outfit. The bubble effect is reminiscent of the ballooned space suits of both Nasa and Star Wars. A few layers of the wrap gives the right level of padding required and a cardboard box sprayed white makes a great helmet.
Spray the plastic wrap silver and paint the occasional bubble black and you have the perfect robot material complete with bolts. Glue it onto cardboard to give the costume the stiffness it requires and team up with silver deely boppers for antenna.
Spray painting bubble wrap green will give the desired affect for a mermaid’s tail which, when teamed with a swimming costume, is a very easy fancy dress costume to make.
Categories: Clothes Tags:
Do men need a flirting guide?
The self-help shelves of bookshops across the UK are filled with dating and flirting advice for women, from how to dress to impress to ensnaring the man of your dreams. But there are relatively few of the same books available for men.
Women have always been more willing to ask for help (just think of the last time a guy asked for directions!) so self-help books are often directed towards them. But what about those blokes who want to improve their flirting techniques?
The answer is, of course, that it’s practise and not reading that makes perfect.
Women like shy men as much as chatty men, and humble men as much as those who brag. A guy doesn’t need to read a flirting-guide to know how to talk to women, he just needs to be himself.
The more a man flirts with different women, the better at it he will get. And if he isn’t successful, he should accept that the female he has tried to chat up just isn’t interested – and that no cheesy chat up line could have worked any better!
Categories: Leisure Tags:
Fancy trying out an online dating site?
online-dating-siteMany of us will buy a variety of items from the internet, from getting our groceries delivered to buying second hand furniture through an online auction site. But many of us are still nervous and apprehensive when it comes to using an online dating site.
When these sites first launched, there was a certain stigma attached to using one – as if only people who couldn’t find a date any other way would be on there. Slowly, however, these sites are becoming more acceptable and, as such, more people are using them.
Part of this increased usage is down to the national advertising campaigns of the larger internet dating sites, which have debugged the myth that only people without social skills use them. The boom in web dating that followed has seen specialist sites arising, covering specific jobs, religions and even looks!
So if you fancy trying out one of these sites, you’ll be one of the millions who do.
Categories: Online Fun Tags:
Is the end in sight for the humble plastic bag?
Stand near the tills of any large supermarket chain store and you’ll notice that fewer customers are using the free Plastic bags available in order to take their shopping home. And that’s if the bags are free.
Some stores are now charging for plastic bags – and given the choice of a flimsy bag for 5p and a strong, larger one for 10p, many customers are opting for a bag that’s obviously meant to be reused. If it costs an extra 10p each time you shop, there’s more chance you’ll remember to take your reusable bag with you.
Other supermarkets are choosing to offer jute-woven or cloth bags as viable alternatives to the plastic bag. Made from funky materials and with witty marketing straplines about recycling, these bags can make the user feel good about themselves for opting to pay for a reusable bag.
At just a few pounds each for a fabric bag, these bags are now being used outside the supermarket arena, with students using them to carry their books and the health conscious carrying their gym kit in them.
The end could indeed be in sight for the humble plastic bag.
Categories: The Environment Tags:
