Gift Wrap
There are many different options for frugal gift wrap, and readers at this site probably know most of them- recycled newspaper or comic strips, old maps, cloth bags that can be re-used season after season, butcher paper that the kids decorate, or skipping the wrapping paper completely and going for a sort of scavenger hunt, with clues leading up to the final hiding place where the present is, or using part of the gift for the wrapping, such as a receiving blanket to wrap a baby gift.
Sometime last year I was at a thrift shop and bought a roll of old wall paper for .50. It was a huge roll, and it was old enough that it was the kind that you had to apply the paste separately. My intention was to use it for shelf paper, but my husband found it first and has been using it for gift wrap. It's his new favorite. The paper is flexible enough to fold and wrap around corners with ease, but it's thick enough that it doesn't tear easily, and it's not see-through. The vintage pattern (a sort of red on yellow toule print) is striking, and it looked great under our tree, but looks equally pretty for the spring birthdays our large family has coming up (we have so many that I once joked to a single male friend that I calved in the spring, and he pointed out that if he said that, or if he laughed too hard, he'd get hit).
3 Responses to “Gift Wrap”
January 25th, 2013 at 8:58 am
I had a large, awkward present to wrap for my oldest daughter this Christmas, and I used a dollar-store plastic tablecloth–the very cheap kind. I had a brand-new one that we had bought for an emergency but ended up not needing, and it was the only thing big enough.
January 25th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
We used to use wallpaper for covering our text books in jr. & sr. high when we were younger. Way more durable than paper bags!
January 28th, 2013 at 12:48 pm
I always try to use things on hand to save money and also to recycle items and keep them out of the land fill.
I save the big coffee cans during the year, they are great to put small gifts in and also to give out batches of home made cookies, brownies etc in. I use these for x-mas, easter, thanksgiving.
For hard to wrap items, I make up pillow casea and it can be used as a sack and tied on top with a ribbon, ir gift can be wrapped and then with a ribbon to keep it together
Collect from friends and buy from the resale shop the big popcorn tins. They come in handy for wrapping socks, undies, hba itens etc
I buy from the thrift store wicker baskets used throughout the year to hold presents in and wrrapped up with clear cellophane.
For those people I buy gifts for that tend to throw things out and not very eco-friendly I just purchase a roll of wrapping paper for a buck at the doillar store.
Make your own bows using wrapping paper or from magazine pages, or using,cloth ribbon, or even bias tape.
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