If you have managed to avoid the elementary school children and their wrapping paper fundraisers, it will soon be time to purchase wrapping paper for all those Christmas presents. Last year I challenged myself to not spend any money wrapping gifts. I would much rather spend it on the gifts themselves. I ended up spending a few dollars on wrapping supplies, but this year I planned ahead.
After Christmas I stocked up on fabric and ribbon that was discounted over 90%. I combined that with coupons and created quite a stash of wrapping supplies for this year. If you have extra fabric lying around you can make these easy fabric gift bags. It is easy enough for a beginning sewer and you don’t even need Christmas fabric, a solid color with a nice ribbon looks great too!
After I ran out of fabric I used grocery bags to wrap the rest of my gifts.
Are these crowding your mailbox this month?
Take advantage of the coupons and buy some cute ribbon to dress up your brown paper packages. I have also used butcher paper and had my kids color, paint, or stamp holiday designs. Grandparents love getting a personalized package and the kids love to help decorate!
The best part is all these options are either recyclable or reusable, while most gift wrap is not. This Christmas you can save some green by going green.
For more frugal tips visit Life as Mom.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the idea! I love this. good tip!
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I love these ideas! I don’t know about the sewing part, but I will give it a try.
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I LOVE the idea of the paper bags! I can have my son color them for a more personal touch!
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Very creative. I usually stock up on wrapping paper for the next year after Christmas when it is very cheap, but the fabric is a cute idea as well.
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Another reason for me to break out the sewing machine that I picked up a while back. I would love to make wrapping bags. We have used brown paper bags from grocery shopping, and I have to say with pretty ribbon, it really rocks. I love your examples!
We did a lot of stocking up last year too. There were a lot of crazy sales at our local Target.
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What great ideas! I would LOVE to get gifts wrapped in seasonal fabric . . . to which I’d either use to re-wrap another gift or tear apart for a seasonal craft (thinking Advent calendar this year!
However, I’m neck deep in Christmas wrapping paper this year – I hit the JoAnn’s sale last year after Christmas and bought gift wrap for something like 90% off. Each roll was around 20-cents. So, for the next three years we’ll be seeing the same gift wrap!
I LOVE your idea of a fabric gift bag though!
Best,
Sarah
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Thanks for your great ideas. I can’t wait to try something different this year. What a fantastic blog idea!
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I made a bunch of cloth gift bags years ago and I think they were as big a hit with the recipients as were the actual gifts inside the bags!
Mary, mom to many
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I used the free “shopper ad” newspapers you can pick up at the convenience stores…the ones with cars and washing machines for sales, to wrap my kid’s gift the last few years. Sometimes I’ve used a sponge to paint on stars or xmas trees, but sometimes I don’t bother. He just rips them open anyway, and the paper goes in the woodstove.
I’m sure I’ll do the same thing this year…I’m extremely limited in my budget, and I’d rather spend my money on his gifts! I like the fabric idea, too. I’m not a sewer, but I’m sure I could find cheap fabric at the second hand store (even here in France)
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I have use the brown paper wrapping before and people loved it!
I have also used plain old black & white newsprint with a festive red ribbon – looks great! A wonderful way to wrap gifts inexpensively AND recycle!
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That is awesome!!! I love it.
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for those who don’t sew (or don’t have a machine), you can use fabric glue instead.
) (here’s a link: http://www.save-on-crafts.com/su.html ) There are several different kinds, though. My mom used to used it to hem my pants! lol
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I have been hitting the post-holiday fabric sales for several years now. I get both fabrics and ribbons, and make drawstring bags in a variety of sizes. So we don’t even have to tie bows…my husband had never liked the complexity of wrapping (especially oddly shaped items) and my kids love using the bags because even the little ones can wrap things all by themselves. Just drop in the item, snug up the drawstring…
Yes, I suppose that technically it would be really easy for people to peek at their presents before Christmas, but nobody ever has. We all know that it’s more fun to be surprised, so nobody does it even though it would be super easy. Meanwhile, we have a variety of pretty fabrics (better variety than most folks get with paper I’ll bet!) and it always looks great under the tree.
PLUS, on Christmas morning we just stuff all the empty bags into one big bag as we open gifts…easiest cleanup ever.
AND during the year we use the bags to wrap/store fragile decorations or strings of christmas lights in the bigger boxes (no tangling!)
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I love this idea. I’ll be hitting the after-Christmas sales for festive fabric this year.
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I always buy gift wrap after Christmas for 70% off and look for wrap that you can use throughout the year. Last year I was able to find wrap that had a blue background with various colors of packages on the paper. So I’ve used it for showers and birthday all year. Fabric bags sound fun. I never by wrapping paper from school children as it’s so expensive.
Take care!!
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You’d better believe I’ll be hitting the clearance fabric sales hard after Christmas this year! I’ve been thinking of doing fabric bags for a while, but this has given me the push to jump in! Any suggestions on sizes? I imagine it would be quite easy to do the first year – you make the bags to fit the gifts! – but subsequent years might be a bit more difficult. :>) I linked to this on my weekly roundup – the post is under my name. Thanks!!
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TheHappyHousewife Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 9:02 am
I think you can make multiple sizes. We give a lot of books and DVD’s so I make a lot of the smaller bags.
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Great ideas! Thanks!
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Butcher paper or an end roll from the local newspaper works great, too.
I remember my mom wrapping some gifts in comics, too.
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