It's a Wrap!

I am that Mom who is up until 2 am on Christmas Eve
(OK, on every eve) wrapping gifts.
Not this year, I say!...and I mean it (I hope!).

Now, wrapping gifts is not one of my favorite things.
Don't get me wrong, the beauty of a nicely
wrapped gift is not lost on me,

but I am not a SUPERSTAR wrapper -

I have been know to give gifts

in the bag they came in, plus a bow (maybe) - and

plus the thought of all that waste drives me insane.

So, this year, I had a great idea...

I couldn't wait to share it with the kids - mainly Joe...
but I did not quite get the reaction I was looking for....

Me: "Joe, listen to Mommy's idea for wrapping presents! This is going to be so much fun!"

Joe: "What Mom? Do we get to put candy on each present and eat the candy as we open them?"

Me: "No...we are going to wrap them in newspaper."

Joe: "That isn't going to be pretty."

Me: "Yes, it will. Besides we will save money and we can recycle the newspaper."

Joe: "Does that mean I get more presents if we save money?"

Me: "No, but it means we will have a "green" Christmas. We can add pretty bows."

Joe: "OK....but can we ask Santa to use regular wrapping paper so some of the presents aren't ugly."

I am determined to win him over. So, in order to do that I have already started wrapping gifts. I am using newspaper. Nothing difficult there - actually the hardest part is to find pieces of the newspaper that do not have completely inappropriate or depressing stories on them, although I did wrap one in the stock market pages and some would say that is scary!

To decorate the packages..so they are "not too ugly" (as per Joe's request)...I pulled out my craft goodies - tissue paper, trims, ribbons, glitter, letters, even Christmas ball. Almost anything will work and all of these items are reusable. Here are some of the creations. I am so excited to wrap some more.

I knew all those hours making tissue paper flowers

for Homecoming (in high school) would pay off eventually.

I made a tissue paper flower and tied am ornament in the middle.

Then took a small length of ribbon and attached it to the back.

I am just a little addicted to coffee,

and the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf's Mocha Powder.

Lucky for me, the powder now comes in these great tins.

I just wrapped the tin in scrapbook paper

(newspaper would work too),

and attached some cute trim.

Chipboard letters, glitter, glue, ribbon, and string..voila!

For the simple looks above, I just layered ribbons and trims.

NOTES:

• I used glue dots or cellophane tape for many of the projects so that the trim or paper (if necessary) would come off really easy, and I could reuse it again.
• Paper bags would work really well too, as would butcher paper.
• Joe's job on Christmas will be to pull off the tape so the newspaper can be recycled!

This is not the first time I have had an idea like this! Back in the 80's (I think) when recycling was still "new," I asked (er, made) my parents wrap all the presents in brown craft paper so that we could recycle the wrapping paper - they have always been great sports when it comes to  my (sometimes) crazy ideas! Here is a shot of our tree that year. And, yes, I was the one who got to take all the tape off.

Christmas Tree circa 1980-something

Happy Holidays!
Holly

PS-Check back later in the week for gift tags!