DIY Wrapping Paper - Beyond Newspaper

I don't usually celebrate the holidays, at least not in the traditional sense, but as I am now back in Colorado and living with friends who do celebrate in a big way, I kind of had no choice. So this year I decided that if I was going to participate in the gift exchange I was going to do it my way. Because I was short on cash I decided I would wrap all the gifts with materials lying around the house. All of the embellishments and gift toppers were found, except the ribbon, but it was on sale and can be used for oodles of other projects.

Now honestly, I feel kind of silly blogging about diy wrapping paper, but I had a lot of fun, and I saved a lot of dough. Also, it was empowering, yes I said empowering, not having to buy super expensive/super cheesy wrapping paper, bags, and bows from Walmart, or the like. And like any diy endeavor, making your own gift wrap is seditious, however subtle it may be. With the holidays behind us, we should all have plenty of time to accumulate lots of stuff that can be used as next season's gift wrap.

It all starts with a raggedy old Kleenex box

And a few pieces of wheat from my roommate's arrangement.

And the paper that was shoved inside the toe of my new boots.

The final product.

We begin again with an old Kleenex box

I used the top of the Kleenex box as a template.

And then glued the Kleenex cut-outs to yellow index cards.

I wrapped the gift in a leftover fabric remnant and glued on a piece of garland that was on the top of a popcorn tin I had received.

A piece of upholstery strapping and an anonymous button

I wrapped this gift with a brown paper bag, ribbon and an image I found on the internet.