11 Ways to Wrap Gifts without Wrapping Paper
- December 9, 2008 by Fox | Comments: 28
Wrapping paper is big business. This time of year stores tout it in their displays, tempting us to wrap our gifts in shiny, colorful, and expensive papers. I’m always amused at the cost of gift wrap after the holidays, it’s 50 percent off. Nice.
Anyprettypaper, after years of spending big bucks on wrapping presents, I’ve decided to put a wrap on this needless expense. This year I’m getting creative, green, and frugal when wrapping presents for loved ones. Besides, I’d rather keep the pretty paper in the forest, on the trees.
Here are 11 frugal (and green) alternatives to wrapping presents without gift wrap:
1. Roll it in Reusable Shopping Bags
Many readers have mentioned they are wrapping their gifts in reusable shopping bags this year. The readers are smart. Reusable shopping bags reduce the number of plastic bags released into our environment and provide an awesome alternative to gift wrap. Give a gift and give it in a reusable bag.
There are many colorful reusable bags to choose from nowadays. Here’s a frugal Reusable Grocery Tote Bag 6 Combo Pack ($9.95 Amazon) in multiple colors. Split the pack and you’ve got 6 ways to wrap gifts.
2. Swaddle it in Baby Blankets
If you’ve got a new parent on your gift list, try swaddling holiday baby presents in a receiving blanket. Very creative, and very helpful to new moms and dads.
3. Can it in Cookie Tins
Who doesn’t have a few cookie tins laying around the house? Get gifty this year by placing presents in a simple can. Vintage cookie tins make especially nifty gifties.
4. Put a Lid on it with Jars
Give a homemade gift in a jar. If you’re not into giving food then place toys or other smaller items in a jar, then put a lid on it.
5. Drape it in Fabric
Use leftover sewing notions to drape gifts in fabric. Add some ribbon and you’re good to give.
6. Bag it in Reused Gift Bags
Re-gift those gift bags and see if you get yours back next year. Snicker.
7. Tie it in a Scarf
Giving a warm winter hat with a pair of gloves? Tie it in a scarf to complete the set!
8. Crate it in a Jewel Box
If you’re giving something small, try placing it in an old ring box. So pretty.
9. Dress it in Wallpaper
Use your wallpaper scraps to dress up holiday gifts.
10. Wrap it in Used Gift Paper
Get some crinkled gift paper and wrinkle it some more. The extra folds and wrinkles give it an intentionally disheveled feel.
11. Pack it in Painted Postal Parcel Paper
Go postal with some simple brown postage paper and add some painted stripes. Get the kids to draw designs with markers, paints, or crayons.
For stripes, I often paint random and uneven lines to give it the homemade look. If you’re into perfection, here’s how to paint perfect stripes.
There are so many ways to put a wrap on gift paper. Got any other gift wrapping ways to add to this list?
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Comments:
I love this article! I’m a huge fan of using anything other than wrapping paper! I think that whole business is a crock. I mean, considering how much they charge and then you just throw it away? Ugh.
Along the lines of your parcel paper - you can do the same thing with paper grocery bags as well.
Your alternatives to the wrapping paper certainly look very yummy themselves!! Love your list!
My mom has a bunch of holiday boxes that are reuseable, they’re printing and they nest inside each other for storage. She uses them every year for gift wrapping. She’s had them for 7 years and they look as good as new.
1. When I cut and wrap meat, it’s in saran wrap, and then butcher paper. Usually I save that clean butcher paper to reuse again, and it works well for wrapping. Use some Christmasy rubber stamps and stamp it up in a Holiday design!
2. Scrounge garage sales for rolls of wrapping paper. Sometimes it’s in the free box. Once I got a box of about 20 rolls, assorted new and used, all for $1
3. Also at garage sales, find fabrics in Christmas prints or colors. I sewed drawstring bags for the grandkids’ gifts. I just have my kids save the bags and return to me for gift giving the next year. This also works for Birthdays for grandkids. And they are reusable year after year!
4. Cardboard boxes - both shipping boxes and cereal or oatmeal boxes work great also.
5. And a 2nd on the cookie tins. I find mine at garage sales, and especially like finding the large ones that popcorn or something similar has come in. Usually they are 10-25 cents, and can be used for years. Mine go in the attic, nested inside one another, for storage.
6. Backpacks, totes, cloth advertising bags - all found at garage sales - a lot of times free!
Great ideas. Last year I didn’t buy any gift wrap and just used things I already had. This year I’m wrapping all my packages in fabric. It’s amazing how clever you can be when you don’t just go out and buy something - works the same way with the gifts themselves!
Great ideas! A few more to add:
*Newspaper or for smaller presents, colorful magazine pages
*Maps, especially if the present has a travel theme to it. Best of all, if you’re a AAA member, maps are free at local offices. If not, check out your local Tourist/Visitor’s office since they usually have maps for free as well.
Thanks for commenting on my site. You have a very cool blog here! I loved your About Me section.
Great ideas! I always use gift bags other people had given me or else cloth bags. Never would have thought of using a shopping bag though; that’s very innovative.
We save wrapping paper each year. The folds and wrinkles can be ironed out—–it looks good as new
Great ideas. I’m not a fan of wrapping paper because it always ends up in the recycling at the end of the day anyway (if it IS recyclable).
I love the idea of wrapping things in reusable shopping bags. They aren’t pretty but you can get them for under a dollar at Walmart. You can always dress them up a bit by painting them or stamping them. I have been recycling gift bags for years. If the gift will fit in a bag, that’s what I use as I have quite a collection.
I sew drawstring bags out of Christmas fabric I buy on sale after Christmas. I invite the recipients to re-use the bags for future gift-giving.
I actually LOVE wrapping in magazines and newspapers!!
Great article - resources such as this will prevent people from spending big bucks on wrapping paper
I use http://www.giftzip.com to give gift cards electronically or print them on recycled paper. I found this site off a green blog and have been using it for the last week or so. Apparently plastic cards put 75 million pounds of toxic, carcinogenic polyvinyl chlorine into the waste stream. Not to mention the manufacture, shipping, packaging, and wrapping of something that is essentially a just digital code.
My mom has this kids arts and crafts books that shows you how to make little boxes and gift bags from paper…. That’s what I’m using this year. I thought of making little christmas stockings out of bandanas also… but it’s too much work for all the ones I have to make.
I also use brown paper bags, or an inexpensive roll of brown paper wrap. I take white hobby paint and a stippling brush, and stipple all over the package, as if it were snow. I also have some homemade star stencils - use an exacto knife and make star stencils out of paper plates. I stencil stars over the snow (using a metallic blue hobby paint over white snow paint is really gorgeous). A little creative writing of the recipients name in a colorful marker, maybe a recycled bow (can even be inexpensive raffia tied in a bow and taped on the package) - and you’ve got yourself tailor made gift wrap. It’s actually a lot of fun to do!
Everyone seems to really enjoy their special gift wrap, and inside are just little homemade items like jams & baked goods, etc.
Every year, my neighborhood has a “green” wrapping party. They have many of the previous things mentioned, like maps and parcel paper, but also things like blueprints (from an architect or building site), and movie posters. I love using maps, personally. Since I got a GPS device a couple of years ago, I don’t need my outdated atlas. I have used it to wrap gifts and also for several origami projects.
My roommate knits a lot, and does other crafting projects, so for her Christmas present, I bought her a skein of yarn and a few crafty trinkets (beads, fabric paint, etc.). I wrapped the trinkets in the yarn by rolling it into a yarn ball around the little stuff. I’m pretty excited about making her unroll the ball and have all the fun stuff fall out!
I didn’t come up with this myself, and wish I could give credit to the website I found it on
BTW if you try this, you want to make a sort of core out of the bigger items you have before wrapping the yarn around it. Smaller things can be worked in as you wrap.
There’s yet another way, and it’s called furoshiki. Economical and earth/environmetal friendly too. You don’t need a special cloth to use this method, as any cloth will do too.
I had a end of roll of butchers paper, got some potatoes and made x-mas tree, bell, star and santa hat shapes and used a tiny amount of acrylic paint i had laying around (red and green) and stamped it nearly to oblivion. it looks RAD. I also used a bunch of boxes I have been saving from cereal boxes etc, cut them up smallish and put one potato stamp on each one (actually my 6yo did this) then hole punch then a bit of twine. VOILA. Gift tags. Also looked RAD.
There is also Furoshiki, which is a Japanese way of wrapping objects in squares of cloth without needing to tie it- it’s like wrapping [paper] origami!
http://furoshiki.com/home.php
Thanks for getting the word out about all the cool ways you can wrap sans traditional wrapping paper. My family has been doing this (alternative wrapping techniques) for as long as I can remember, so I am happy it is catching on with others!
We have a large roll of plain white paper that we use for art projects with our daughters, and I like to let the girls color, paint, or stamp whatever they want on the paper before I wrap a gift. This goes over big with the grandparents!
The cutest reusable bags I’ve seen are actually at Toys R Us. They even have winter and Christmas-themed reusable bags! My biggest pet peeve has always been the brand names covering the reusable bags, but these only have the brand on the side in smaller print.
Something we used to do as kids is use plain tissue paper, something everyone usually has… and then…
cut a few potatoes in half, carve shapes into the halves, and dip them in paint and press onto the tissue, making your own personalized wrapping.
If I get gifts in wrapped in gift wrap, I put the used paper through my shredder. You can then use it for filling in a gift basket, or filler in a bag. I used some of it this year in the packages I sent in the mail. It worked great as a buffer for the smaller packages in the box.
I enjoy the other ideas I’ve seen listed. Great ideas for birthdays, etc. also!