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holidays, 2011
 Love gift wrapping with all you've got
No need to dash to the store for fancy wrapping paper and bags of artificial ribbon to wrap your gifts. Look to your scrap drawers, used wrapping paper, and folded shopping bags.
O yes, recycle and re-purpose materials to wrap gifts. Relax, and tinker with the options you discover. Your final presentation will WOW the giftees.
Here are examples of the creativity you may endeavor. Basic tools needed: scissors, tape, glue.
Brown paper bag base
Take a brown paper bag of any size, be it a small, convenience store bag or a hefty grocery store bag. Cut out the bottom, and voila! you have gift wrap. For grocery store bags that have logos, turn their cut-off tops inside out.
The first beauty of this process is that the shape of the hollowed bag or hollowed bottom tends to cozy your gift. Fold close, snip off the excess, tape it snug.
The second beauty is that the brown-wrapped gift leaves a canvas to decorate at whim.
Scrap wrappings base
Whether you're the type who gingerly opens gifts to preserve wrapping paper or one who rips gifts open, take the scrapped wrappings to cover a new gift.
Decoration-brown paper wrapping-things you may have aroud the house
--- water paint: paint colors that suit your mood, and expect them to dry "understated"
--- string or rope from shopping bag handles: to tie the gift or top it with a bow (like the one that tops your shoe)
--- scrap artifical ribbon: to tie the gift or top it
--- scrap fabric ribbon
--- glitter (sprinkle over shallow glue, or polka-dot gift with glitter)
--- stray decals separated from lapel pins, hair pins, or other decor
--- orphaned buttons, to be glued on the gift or to be strung in ribbon or string
--- flower-cuts, fresh or dried
Decoration - re-purpose wrapping paper
--- make the gift a collage of wrapping paper. Tape or glue scraps around the gift
--- tie gift with re-used ribbon and curl the ribbon strands with a scissor
Gift topper ideas - tape or tie a little gift on the gift
--- candy canes, classic red and white, for kids of all ages to savor
--- accessories, for example. handmade wine charms for wine lovers
--- things you don't use that your giftee will treasure, for example, a cookie cutter for somone who loves to bake
Relax!
--- You have your gifts, the wrapping, the toppers.
--- Turn on your favorite Christmas tunes.
--- Pour that beverage of choice -- hot tea, rum and nog, tasty wine, hot cider or chilled beer. Whatever 'tis, take a sip and sigh.
--- Adorn the gifts at leisure, and at whim.
***photo by Jacquee T. |
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Part of being a romantic
is loving
(and defending!)
the environment
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