All wrapped up

Labelled the world’s first gift-wrapping consultant by Harpers & Queen, she has trained the Prime Minister’s staff at No 10 Downing Street in this rare art, ensuring official gifts to be bestowed abroad are perfectly presented.

Her bubbly personality – even bubblier than bubble wrap – landed her a series of appearances on ITV’s This Morning, and she has travelled around Europe and as far as Japan to share her tips and techniques.

A woman at the cutting edge of the business of wrapping, she is due to make an appearance at Highgrove, the country house of Prince Charles, to give visitors the ultimate guide on how to wrap the most awkwardly shaped items.

“I love to be really creative and innovative when I wrap presents,” enthuses Arona at her arty and colourful studio in The Drive.

“It’s the challenge to make even the most ordinary item look like a million dollars, and if you think outside the box, there are all sorts of things you can use.

“At the seafront, you can find pieces of seaweed, which just need to be left to dry before you can use them, shells, and plenty of bits and pieces on the beach.

"You can even make moss look interesting, and using recycled corrugated cardboard with twine can give a bottle of alcohol a new twist.

You see, with a bottle, you don’t have to cover the whole thing in paper because you cannot disguise the fact that it’s a bottle. Use your imagination to add a little bit of decoration and it can look far prettier.”

Gift for wrapping

It’s clear this is a subject that fascinates Arona, ideas tumbling from her tongue and her fingers illustrating each point as they fly over the feathers and fripperies draped around her studio.

Her gift for wrapping, she relates with a laugh, came to light when she was three-and-a-half years old.

“My grandmother came to stay and complained to my mother that her lingerie kept disappearing,” Arona says.

“My mother came to find me and there I was, my grandmother’s knickers all separately wrapped in brown paper.

"Since then, I have always been known for the way I wrapped presents, but it turned into a profession when a friend who worked for a publisher suggested I wrote a “how to” guide called Wrap It Up.”

Arona’s clients include Harrods, Selfridges and Visa, a company that for a recent advertisement presented Arona with perhaps her biggest challenge yet: how to wrap a Gucci stiletto shoe.

The result is a work of art, a series of perfectly executed paper pleats.

But it’s the art of personal gift- giving that gives Arona her greatest pleasure: “When you look at what you can do with materials and the creativity you can use in giving a gift, you don’t have to spend a lot. That little bit extra shows you care.”

Arona Khan’s step-by-step guide to wrapping a bottle of wine with style

Equipment: Sheet of double-sided wrapping paper Scissors Ribbon Double-sided tape Single-sided matt tape Stapler Double-sided foam pad

Step 1 Measure how much paper you will need: lay the bottle on its side on the paper and wrap paper around until the ends meet. Allow a little extra to make a pleat. Mark the line to cut by folding and creasing it for the full length of the sheet of paper, and cut.

Step 2 Position the bottle on the paper. Leave enough at the top to fold and seal. Leave enough at the bottom to equal half the depth of the diameter of the bottle, so that the edges “kiss”. Fold the paper over, crease and cut.

Step 3 Along one edge of the length of the paper, fold over an edge, then fold back again. Holding the paper tightly in place around the bottle, take a piece of double-sided tape and put it on the inside of the pleat to hold it together.

Step 4 At the bottom of the bottle, separate the paper where the edges meet and tear out the overlap.

Step 5 Starting with the inner fold of the paper, fold into the middle, aiming directly into the centre.

Step 6 Make small overlapping folds, using a finger on one hand to hold and a finger on the other hand to fold. The final effect should resemble grapefruit segments. Use a piece of matt tape to secure the folds and the pleat end.

Step 7 At the top of the bottle, gently press the paper in at the neck, taking care not to throttle the bottle, lay the bottle down and, holding with a finger, tie with a piece of ribbon.

Step 8 Gently insert the back of your fingers inside the paper and puff it out.

Step 9 Finish 1: The jaunty angle. Take a piece of double-sided tape and tape the paper together at the top. Fold along the top at an angle, then cut and fold it down. Secure with tape at the back and decorate.

Step 10 Finish 2: The bow tie. Measure about 5-7.5cm (2-3in) above the top of the bottle and fold 1cm (1/4in) of the paper over in a straight line. To neaten, cut off corners. Use matt tape to hold it.

Step 11 To make a paper bow tie, use the off-cuts of the sheet of wrapping paper and cut two squares. From one corner, fold a triangular pleat, hold with a finger, turn over the paper and fold another. Repeat until you have used most of the paper.

Step 12 Fold the point over, ensuring the paper pattern you want to show is on the outside, and staple into place. Cut off the excess to create a bow tie shape. Repeat to make a second.

Step 13 Secure the two pieces together with a staple, place in position and secure with a double-sided foam pad.

Step 14 Make a centre knot for the bow tie by taking an oblong-shaped off-cut of the wrapping paper and folding it over two or three times along its length. Roll up and staple. Position at the centre of the bow tie and secure with a piece of double-sided tape at the back.

And finally... it’s a wrap!