Holiday Gift Wrap Suggestions?

[scfr]

What are your best tips for wrapping holiday gifts frugally that look gorgeous?

I am running the holiday gift wrapping fundraiser for the non-profit I volunteer with for the 2nd year. We have grown quite a bit this year so I need to get a lot of supplies on the cheap.

I probably have enough wrap and gift tags, but I need more ribbon, bows, and tie-ons.

It's important to me that the gifts look fabulous, not only to bring in more donations but also because each gift we wrap tells people something about our organization and the care we put in to our work. In other words, I don't want to just slap a "30 for a buck" star bow on a gift.


Would love to hear your creative suggestions! Thank you.

[briandownie]

Hi, I don't know if this will help you but I saw this site. Looks like some good ideas.

How to Decorate a Gift Box - wikiHow (if we're not supposed to link to other sites I'll apologize now)

Our next door neighbor's woman's group always collected used Christmas cards to cut into pieces to make tags and decorations. They would use pinking shears, craft paper, and a glue stick to make some really nice stuff.

You can also use glitter glue to make designs on plain paper and on tags. It's inexpensive but it may not dry fast enough for you.

Brian

[Breton Wench]

Our next door neighbor's woman's group always collected used Christmas cards to cut into pieces to make tags and decorations. They would use pinking shears, craft paper, and a glue stick to make some really nice stuff.

Yes , that is a great way of making tags and place names. I collect the Christmas cards in January from two of my clients and the kids spend hours making new cards. It can end up a bit odd though - one person had a Get Well card with 'Silent Night, Holy Night' edging the design because my daughter thought it looked pretty.
Make great bookmarks too, to slip into cards and books for presents.

On the wrapping side - Wallpaper !!! Great stuff, get some swatches and end of stock rolls and cut them into stiff boxes; get the plain white stuff and spatter pain it, or potato block it; get some patterned roll and decoupage the pattern - flowers work well - so you 'layer' the print with two or three times the design.

[disneysteve]

I recall reading years ago, perhaps in The Tightwad Gazette, that you use less paper if you position a box on a 45 degree angle to the sides of the paper rather than parallel to the sides. I know I used to do that and it did seem to work.

Also, I second the wallpaper suggestion. We've used it for years. For a couple of dollars, you can get 20 times more paper than you do with wrapping paper where there is a giant tube and paper only wrapped 3 or 4 times around it. The wallpaper rolls are solid paper with a very small tube if any.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

And there are places to get discount wallpaper, too.

Do you have a wholesale source for you wrapping paper? You could at least check into that for next year, though it may be too early for this year.

There is a sort of salvage and drug store here that always carries huge rolls of wrapping paper. Got any place like that around?

If white paper is acceptable, you might be able to get a big roll at an office store or buy printer's ends of high quality white. Then use your ribbons and decorations to make it more holiday-ish.

An odd item I once used for years was a huge roll of shiny purple plastic from which sequins had been punched. It made ribbons five inches wide, and some spectacular bows. Looked good on that white paper. Mine came from a salvage fabric store. I must have had 300 yeards for about $3.

For cloth ribbon, I check Jo-Ann Fabrics all year long. They put skinny cloth ribbon on sale frequently. It is great for tiny packages and for tying vintage ornaments to packages. I usually get red, but other colors as well as prints are available. Grosgrain ribbon is sometimes very inexpensive at Big Lots. For some presents you could coordinate a ribbon directly on the gift, with one on the outside of the wrapped package. Gauze, organza, or cheesecloth can be fluffed into a nice bow (or backing for another bow, as can --um, oh darn I can't think of what it is called---that net like material that bridal veils are so often made from. Think of combining bows made of two different materials, to differnt levels of shine, two different textures.

Don't underestimate the potential of brown kraft paper. It coordinates well with natural-looking package ornaments such as spruce twig and pine comes.

If you are wrapping in a place that allows a big volume of business, it might even be worth your while to bring in some real plant material to allow customers to choose to be added to the package. They should be cautioned though that a gift wrapped that way needs to be given within a day or two. Or if you can get hold of the little rubber-capped water vials that florists sometime use, you can pop a twig of holly, magnolia, pine, etc right into it and wire it onto your bow or ribbon.

Don't forget that you may want some tissue paper on hand, too. But small ends of regular wrapping paper can serve the same purpose inside a box and will look nicer if you edge them with pinking shears.

[nanamom]

My kids make my paper, may not be gorgeous but means alot more to the people getting the gift.

[kork13]

As long as the gifts are for kids (or adults who still appreciate comics), for a long time my family has saved the Sunday funnies throughout the year and wrapped gifts in that. By tradition, my family takes opening of gifts slowly (one person opening one gift at a time), so the funnies can keep the little ones occupied until it's 'their turn'. Besides, who doesn't enjoy reading a bunch of comic strips??

[disneysteve]

Another money saving tip. If you are using gift boxes, just wrap the top of the box. You use half as much paper. Then you just put the gift item in the box, put the decorated top on the box and a couple of pieces of tape to hold it on. The other good thing about that is that the recipient can reuse it. It isn't necessary to unwrap anything - just cut the tape. We have a number of gift boxes like that that we have been reusing over and over for several years around our family.

[briandownie]

Another money saving tip. If you are using gift boxes, just wrap the top of the box. You use half as much paper. Then you just put the gift item in the box, put the decorated top on the box and a couple of pieces of tape to hold it on. The other good thing about that is that the recipient can reuse it. It isn't necessary to unwrap anything - just cut the tape. We have a number of gift boxes like that that we have been reusing over and over for several years around our family.

We like gift bags too. They just keep getting recycled between our family members. Those things last for years if you're careful when you put them away.

Brian

[scfr]

Thank you so much to everyone for all the suggestions ... lots of great ones!

Oooh ... I have visions of lovely, lacey, fluffy, purple-sequined bows in my head now! Joan.of.the.Arch, I wish you lived in Austin ... I'd recruit you to come help us wrap gifts!

[ThePennyHoarder]

I'm not sure where I saw this, but I just read a How-to article on using old sheet music as gift wrap. It looked so cool! It would be perfect for someone who is musically inclined.

[snshijuptr]

Instead of bows, this year I just made bows from leftover bits of wrapping paper. I cut it strips and designed my own bows. You can even curl the wrapping paper. And if you already have lots of types, you can mix and match. My one wrapping paper is two sided so I just flipped the sides.

[SavvySpendingMommas]

Comics sections of the newspaper are good for children's gifts. Sports section for jocks, etc.

[snafu]

The design show on TV used scarves from charity shops, many were vintage @ .50 ea. They used two sided tape to keep the folds in place and were making the suggestion for those who consider themselves gift wrap 'challenged.' A small rubber band held the scarf together at the top of the package and the excess formed it's own bow.

Item 2 was brown paper bag cut up one side to flatten and reversed. They had kids stamp or draw Christmassy items like a wreath or candy canes or just add stickers. A thin band of Raffia & a Raffia bow/blob looked very environmentally friendly.

Item 3 wrapped soft items like a T'shirt, pyjama bottoms, scarf or socks. Two sheets of tissue paper, the gift was rolled, jelly roll fashion, set at the top of the tissue and rolled. The ends were tied off tightly with paper/ curly ribbon, crimped with craft scissors that leaves a design wave or zig zag and fluffled. the look is so casual you could re-use existing tissue wrapping paper.