When I go for the flower sweep with the gift wrap from guard my opponents have been squeezing in a cross face with their other arm. The sweep is stuffed but I now have my opponent's arm and I can't figure out what to do with it.

Can you elaborate what you mean in this setup? I'm not sure I'm following you...

couldnt u let go of the arm and go to a armbar?

Seems to me like if he has crossfaced you the direction so that you can't still get the sweep, then you could go to the armbar. Otherwise, if crossfaced the other direction, you could still get the sweep.

Here is a clearer set up to see what I'm talking about: You have the guy in your guard and you arm drag one of his arms across his chest, then you reach over and get the gift wrap. You then do the typical flower sweep. My problem is that the guy is using his free arm to press his forarm down on my face thus pinning me to the ground. I can't do an armbar transition because the gift wrap is the hold and not the typical armdrag/arm hold. Also I want this technique to work b/c I feel it has real self defense applications and I think the cross face response from the opponent would be a typical response on the street.

I will have a guy do that to me at class to feel the pressure. Is the crossface toward the direction that you wanted to sweep or other direction?