I like coming up with cute new ways to present gifts. I like them even better when they help save money. I'd really rather put the cash towards the gift instead of the gift wrapping. I think I'm going to use some Stamps and ink to decorate paper lunch sacks and use those as gift bags. I'll make paper bows and gift tags to match. I can find a whole package of lunch bags for the price of one typical gift bag. I also like to fold pretty paper into envelopes. It makes for a nicer presentation when giving money or gift cards.
@Zyni. Good ideas. I save gift bags that I receive for future gift giving. I always like to try different things to see how it turns out. Often I have used yarns instead of ribbons which I find at the thrift stores too. Once I used newspaper and black yarn. It was going to be thrown away eventually.
Oh, I do that too. Why throw them away? My kids even save theirs and give them to me, ha ha. "Save the bags for Mom." Then, I'm the first one they hit up when they need to wrap a gift. I save all the tissue paper that's in them as filler too. Well, I save it if it is good condition. Some people stuff a whole pack of tissue paper in one gift bag. I've even used it as wrapping paper in a pinch. I double it up. I've made my own gift bags out of pretty paper as well, but I think the lunch bag idea will work well for small items.
At Christmas time I take the gift boxes that you get from the store and wrap the top and bottom with Christmas wrapping paper. They become a permanent gift box we use every Christmas. It doesn't take much time to wrap the top and bottom separately and then each year my husband doesn't have to wrap he just has to put his present to me in the box. We have saved a lot on wrapping paper and time. We are still using the same prewrapped boxes since we were married 15 years ago. This works great for presents we give in our own family. When I give gifts to friends I like to get creative. I pick up things from the Dollar Store that I can use to hold presents but they become part of the present. I've bought wicker baskets, laundry baskets, platters, tupperware, tin pails, clay pots and even a garbage holder for the car that hangs over your seat. It's fun and creative.
Wow, you have made those boxes last a very long time. That must have added up to a big savings over the years. How do you store them when not in use? I love these ideas. It's so fun to make the wrapping part of the gift. I also like the fact that you get more bang for your buck. Kitchen towels to wrap kitchen gadgets, baby blankets to wrap baby gifts, and yes, lots of fun containers. I like trying to find something fun to use, instead of going straight for the wrapping paper. Thanks for the tips.
I have sometimes used plain brown paper and ink stamps to wrap gifts. One time I was giving a gift supposedly from the pets, and I used an ink stamp and got their paw prints on brown wrapping paper. It was really pretty cute. My sister used to use the comic section of the paper to wrap gifts as it is something different..but most people don't buy newspapers these days..and I don;t even know if the colored sections are around anymore.
I've used plain brown paper and stamps as well, @Ke Gordon! I've never thought about using the ink to stamp paw prints on gifts from the pets though! I bet that comes out really cute! I've used any sort of unique paper to wrap smaller gifts before. Sometimes packaging has paper within it that can be worked into wrapping paper. I got some new duvet covers for example and around it was a sample of the pattern inside. It was probably the size of an A3 piece of paper I should think. It was fine for wrapping a smaller gift! I've also used wallpaper when we had decorated our house recently and had some scraps left over. They were house warming gifts I wrapped in wallpaper, I might add! They looked quite good I thought and being thicker paper there was no way they were going to see what was inside!
