Gifts: Wrapping paper that's worth framing

Oh, what delicious torture. The attention-grabbing wrapping screams “open me first,” but the paper is so beautiful that the gift’s recipient will be conflicted about tearing into it.

Samantha Silverman’s company, Wolf in Sheep’s Wrapping, grew out of the collages she made to wrap friend’s gifts and the custom covers she crafted for the CD mixes she compiled. She still makes the collages by tearing, cutting and pasting other papers chosen for their images and textures, only now she assembles the whole and has it placed in a high-resolution scanner and printed on 20-by-30 inch sheets of lovely, substantial matte paper. That's her Hearts on Fire pattern above and Manbotic below.

Composition and presentation are nothing new to Silverman, a singer-songwriter. She says taking time to wrap a present in a unique paper “adds to the character and the thought that’s put into the gift. It steps it up a notch.” As for her inspirations, Silverman says, “I’m sometimes influenced by a theme, and sometimes by an image.”

And going forward? Perhaps she'll add tissue paper, ribbon and cards.

Wolf in Sheep’s Wrapping, $5 per sheet at www.wolfsheeps.com, and $5.95 per sheet at Pulp, 452 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, 90036. (323) 937-3505.

RELATED:

A beauty cure for Carmageddon? We wish!

Parisian style flea market in the heart of Hollywood

Everything you always wanted to know about sunscreen

-- Nancie Clare

Photos: Samples of wrapping paper by Samantha Silverman. Courtesy of Wolf in Sheep's Wrapping.