Mom’s Money

Quick Ideas To Wrap Up Those Gifts

It’s crunch time and you haven’t finished wrapping gifts yet.  Happens every year; the wrapping paper either runs out or seems tacky or old.  You want to involve the kids in wrapping some of the gifts, but they lose their interest fast when they find out it’s a job instead of being fun.  Try these fun, quick, easy, and inexpensive wraps.

Large Paper Bags:

Always the go-to solution for a wrapping problem.  Open a paper bag, and let your youngster loose with colors, paints, markers, stickers, or anything they like to decorate with.  Let dry and you have a creative, inexpensive, and sturdy wrapping.  Paper bags make the perfect wrapping paper for gifts that require a heavier paper, like odd shaped items.

Small Lunch Bags:

If you keep small lunch bags around the house, you have an instant gift bag.  Have your child decorate to their hearts content, using as many sparkly items as you have, such as glitter and sequins.  I use the glittery things because I think it’s a humorous touch, off-setting the plain old brown paper bag.  Attach some ribbon or jute rope for a handle.  Use shiny or colorful tissue paper and you have completed the look, and have a great homemade gift bag at a fraction of the cost of those store-bought ones.

Comics:

A tried and true wrapping for kids, or adults who are kids at heart.  Using colorful comics from the newspaper, wrap up your gifts using several sheets if necessary, and use matching colors of gift ribbon.  If the comics leave ink on your fingers and you want a cleaner wrapping, use a sheet of white tissue paper for one layer over the comics.  The comics will show through and your gift recipient won’t get their fingers dirty.  I like to use a little extra gift ribbon, the curling kind.  Run it around the package several times, and curl up a big, silly bow.  This wrapping should be extra fun.

Aluminum Foil:

Using heavy duty aluminum foil is a great wrap especially on smaller packages.  I wouldn’t use it on large packages because it’s not as inexpensive as other wrapping and it might tear.  Use heavy duty aluminum foil just like you would wrapping paper.  I like to use metallic curling ribbon to complete the space-age look of the wrapping.

Freezer Paper:

Another kitchen item you may have in your pantry is freezer or meat wrapping paper.  This, again, is simple.  Just get out the crayons, markers, and paints, and let your child use their imagination.  Wrap up your packages as you would with any wrapping paper.  Again, this paper is usually studier than the normal store-bought wrapping paper so you could use it on difficult to wrap gifts.

Cloth:

If you have remnants of cloth laying around from old sewing projects, or if you are cleaning out your closet and there are clothes that you had intended to throw out because they wouldn’t be good enough to go to the resale shop, consider cutting them up for gift packages.  Wash and dry your cloth items, and cut them into sizes needed for wrapping.  You can either purposefully fray the edges (denim works well for this), cut the edges with pinking shears, or use fabric glue to seal the edges.  Then wrap packages either as you would with wrapping paper, using fabric glue to seal, or form a bag around the item, closing with another piece of fabric or ribbon.  This works very well if you have some unusual fabric patterns, or use fabrics that are interesting, especially denim, velvet, or shiny fabrics.

Now, when the time comes to get those last few packages together to take to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, or to drop off at the neighbor’s house, you can find everything you need right there under your roof to make a first-class, fun gift wrap for pennies instead of dollars.  I suspect the wrapping may cause just as much commotion as the gift!