She’s Rapt About Art of Wrapping

Little did Victoria Binggeli dream that her penchant for gift-wrapping would turn into a successful business.

“I was always the one who never wanted to open the gift because I felt it was too pretty to ruin,” the Yorba Linda mother of two said.

She fondly remembers the pains that her mother took to wrap gifts.

“My gift was always beautifully wrapped, and I’m sure that is how I developed a passion for it,” said Binggeli, 32, who teaches gift-wrapping at 13 schools and community centers throughout Orange County.

She often would create gift-wrappings and store them on shelves in her crafts room, partially as a result of her experience in wrapping gifts and a class she attended.

“One day my husband (Tony Binggeli) poked his head into the room and asked who the gift-wrappings were for,” Binggeli recalled. “I told him that I was doing it just for the thrill of it.”

That was two years ago.

“Now, I’m really in my element teaching gift-wrapping,” said Binggeli, who holds a journalism degree from Cal State Fullerton but chose to stay home to raise her children. “My first priority is being a mom and a wife.”

Her infatuation with gift-wrapping has broadened into making greeting cards, many of them decorated with the sayings on 1,500 rubber stamps she sells. Her home-based business is called Glitzy Gifts and Bows.

Besides the joy of creating gift-wrappings, “It really is nice to know you can be special at doing something,” she said. “This is my specialty, and I feel good about it.”

She also says that “Getting people to see gift-wrapping the way I see it is a thrill for me, and it’s just thrilling to influence people by having them tune into your own wave length.”

There’s also excitement in gift-wrapping, she says.

“Everyone can do it and be good at it,” she said. “I try to get my students so excited they can’t wait to finish the (three-hour) class to run out and buy the supplies so they can wrap on their own.”

She also teaches the latest trends in gift-wrapping, including the use of decorated totes and pails as well as bow-making.

Her classes are limited to 20 people who pay $18 at community center workshops. The fees at schools vary.

Learning gift-wrapping is a matter of attitude, said Binggeli, who once worked in public relations for the Crippled Children’s Society.

“People will tell me they are not creative and can’t do it, but after the class they walk out saying, ‘I can do it,’ ” she said in an interview in her home where she stocks her gift-wrapping supplies.

Besides teaching gift-wrapping, Binggeli provides a session in organization, one of the necessities people need to develop a lasting skill at gift-wrapping.

“I discuss how people should get in the habit of buying gift wrappings in off-season and when they are on sale instead of just before holiday seasons,” she said.

There is no question, she says, that people want to get great-looking gifts, especially in today’s fast-moving society.

That’s because people don’t have the time or know-how to do it themselves, she said.