
It doesn’t take much effort, time or money to make your gift wrapping truly special. Grab your scissors, tape and a few “extras” and you’ll be well on your way to beautifully wrapped gifts. Try one or several of these gift wrapping ideas. You won’t be sorry.

Gift Wrapping Idea #1: Use Greens and Other Natural Objects
It never fails, we always seem to pick a tree that is a bit too tall for our 8 foot ceilings. No worries. We trim it. We shape it. And we end up with a lot of left-over greens. I use these greens for decorating all around my home. I add snips of these greens to my packages to make them festive. (Also see my blog: Decorating with Greenery.

But greens aren’t the only natural elements to add to your holiday packages. You can also add things like shells and pine cones, which are both available for free in your local forest or at the town/state beach. Last year I added cinnamon sticks to the greens on my packages (I bought a jar of them for $2.25 at a local discount store). My packages were pretty and smelled wonderful too.

Gift Wrapping Idea #2: Brown Craft Paper

When I was young, the nuns at school made us wrap our books in brown paper (These wrappers were usually made from paper grocery bags). Other books were wrapped in brown paper because people didn’t want someone to know what they were reading. It was probably something scandalous or risque like Helen Gurley Brown’s “Sex and the Single Girl.” Today, brown craft paper is used in all kinds of new and fun ways, and gift wrapping is paramount among them. Brown wrap is easy to work with, inexpensive, and gives you a blank canvas that allows your embellishments to really stand out. You can rubber stamp green trees, like the example above, or make a reindeer, using a Sharpie, some hot glue and a pompom.

Gift Wrapping Idea #3 Dollar and Thrift Store Ornaments and Candy
This blog is not meant to be a great, big, giant ad for the Dollar Tree (or The $1.25 Tree around here), but you can get a lot of mileage in making your wrapping beautiful at these establishments. At this time of year, Dollar Tree has Holiday Decorations at Dollar Tree“>ornaments to your packages and really spruce them up. This year I am using all cream-toned items, like owls and stars that they have in abundance. Instead of brown paper, I ordered blue craft paper from Amazon. I’m going for a little Tiffany box feel. LOL.
The other inexpensive thing that really brightens your boxes is seasonal candy. Be it Hanukkah gelt or candy canes, these sweet treats bring joy to the receiver and are an extra little gift as well.

Insider Tip: Another great resource for ornaments to add to your packages is your local consignment shop. Stores like Consignments Ltd. have ornaments at deep discounts, so you can afford to adorn all of your gifts.

Gift Wrapping Idea #4:Scrapbook Paper and Non-Traditional Ribbon
I was very heavily into scrap booking for about four weeks once. Standing in the scrapbook aisles at my local
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