"I love to give gifts, and I especially love giving gifts that I have made," Annette Joseph says. One of Annette's favorite gifts to give is her homemade infused olive oil. By adding fruits, spices, peppers and other flavor-enhancing ingredients, olive oil becomes infused. The mixture is allowed to sit for about two weeks and the result is olive oil with a unique flavor. It can be used on salads, as a marinade or as a dip for breads. To prepare her gift, Annette selects an unusual bottle and wraps it with decorative items she creates herself. She demonstrated some of her favorite wrapping techniques, beginning with tulle ribbon. Placing the olive oil bottle on the center of the ribbon, she gathers each side and bunches it up around the neck of the bottle. She then chooses a coordinating ribbon and, with a simple overhand knot, ties it around the neck of the bottle. "Always remember simple," she advises. "Less is more -- you're trying to emphasize the gift and not the ribbon." To create a gift tag, Annette uses manila shipping tags. To personalize the tag she uses one of her many stamps (figure A). Using acrylic craft paint and a small brush she paints over the stamp pattern, and applies it to the tag. Annette then takes a pair of decorative edge pinking shears and cuts the tag just below the stamp. She replaces the string on the tag with raffia. Annette has also discovered that her computer is a useful tool in creating eye-catching tags (figure B) for her gifts. She will scan into her computer a favorite photograph or a picture from a magazine. She may enlarge an interesting stamp or a portion of an old letter. "You might want to list the ingredients on the tag," Annette suggests, "or write a recipe which includes the oil, or perhaps give suggestions for how to use the oil." Sometimes, along with the tag, she will tie a wooden salad fork, or if she has written a recipe for a shish kebob of shrimp or scallops, she will tie on some wooden skewers. "The more unique and personal you can get, the better," she says.
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