After Christmas, I buy all the red, green, gold and silver paper and bags I can find at a very cheap price, sometimes at 75 to 90% off. They can be used for occasions all throughout the year. Red for Valentines Day, silver and gold for weddings, any of the colors for birthdays! Sure can save money this way.
By dorothy wedenoja from New Creek, WV
This page contains the following solutions.
This wrapping paper idea came from one of my friends years ago. Use outdated atlases and maps for colorful, cool-looking, and good quality wrapping paper. I use mostly for birthday gifts, but cut out a silhouette of Santa in his sleigh and/or reindeers and attach for Christmas gifts.
Embellish a used book when passing it along to someone else. Here, I wrapped the book with a scrap of patterned paper and satin ribbon with silk flower on top.
I did this for my sister's bridal shower, but you could do this in a birthday or another fun holiday theme! For a wedding gift tower:
So much money can be saved by reusing, being inventive and being green on wrapping gifts. Christmas presents cost so much money.
Use colored masking tape instead of ribbon to wrap gifts.
After running out of tape during a Christmas present wrapping marathon I decided to try hot glue. It worked so well I haven't used tape since.
A great holiday tip that became a tradition. Make a family box, box with separate lid, wrapped separate, for easy opening, fill with movies, games, new ornament, books, anything your family will share. It's great for video games.
Because of our consumer society, wrapping paper can be a huge expense. We may want to consider "downgrading" the packaging and wrapping of the things we purchase in the coming year. I recently heard of a great idea: instead of wasting what amounts to tons (collectively) of wrap and ribbon, why not use seasonal dish clothes or towels to wrap some items?
Use silk flowers instead of a bow on gifts. When ribbon streamers are added to a silk flower and it is tied on a gift, it becomes a gift in and of itself, and can be kept and placed in a decorative vase.
These plastic gift bags are so nice! I bought this one because it was so colorful. I plan on buying a matching blue fleece throw and adding a little stuffed Olaf character.
This time of the year, after Christmas, the stores all have Christmas throws on sale. I got several from a dollar store for $2 each last year.
When wrapping gifts, for whatever event or occasion, instead of using a obvious gift bow, think of using something else, that would be more useful to the recipient...
Many companies are now using crumpled plain brown paper instead of styrofoam peanuts when they ship merchandise. Instead of putting the brown paper in the recycling bin make Christmas gift wrap.
When wrapping Christmas gifts there are always those smaller items that you don't have a box the right size for. Last year I used White Lunch Sacks. You can get these at most dollar stores and they work great to wrap a bunch of stuff.
Opening all those packages under the tree is one of the most enjoyable parts of a holiday celebration--a part that everyone enjoys, from youngsters to oldsters!
Instead of purchasing shirt boxes for the holidays, use cereal boxes instead. They are just the right size to slide a shirt, pants, robe or anything else like that into.
If you are lucky enough to receive flowers, save the outer cellophane wrapping and use it to wrap gifts. You will be recycling and saving money as well.
Free Gift Wrap, especially if you have a sense of humour and like to travel! For wrapping gifts, at the holidays, or more especially souvenirs you bring home to friends and family from your vacation, collect the unused "barf" bags from the back pocket of your airplane seat.
Instead of pretty (but impersonal) store bought wrapping paper, you can use brown paper bags cut to size. Then draw on them, or use stickers of the recepient's favorite character (i.e. scooby doo, peanuts--and you can find those at dollar stores).
Save your kids artwork to use as frugal holiday wrapping paper. We did this last year and the kids were thrilled that everyone saw what they had made and it cut down on a lot of clutter for me! By Katie in NY
Save money and get creative with your holiday gift wrapping by reusing items you already have, such as brown paper bags, colorful paper napkins, and tissue paper. This page contains ideas for thrifty holiday gift wrapping.
This is a page about decorating plain brown paper for gift wrapping. Less expensive rolls of plain brown paper provide you with a canvas for creating your own unique gift wrapping paper.
Instead of buying rolls of preprinted wrapping paper, why not make your own. This is a great way to add a special personal touch to any birthday, wedding or Christmas gift. This is a page about making homemade wrapping paper.
This is a page about recycled gift wrap ideas. Reusing gift wrap or wrapping gifts in recycled paper is a great way to not add more paper to the landfill. Share your ideas for using recycled or reusing gift wrap.
My mom got a last minute invite to an event and she needed to take a gift along. As a crafter, I always have gifts that could be given, but what to do to wrap the gift? There was no time for water colors or food colors, as I needed to make gift wrap that would dry almost instantly and would still look presentable.
You can skip the bow on your next gift by using this cute technique. You will be able to make a paper flower with your gift wrap by following the steps on this page.
This is a page about making a matching bow for your wrapped package. By using strips of your wrapping paper, you can make an attractive matching bow for your gift.
This is a page about use newspaper comics for gift wrap. If you still receive a copy of the newspaper, the colorful comics pages make fun recycled gift wrap paper.
