Gift wrapping is part of the fun of giving
gifts – but the collection of paper, gift bags and ribbons can get
overwhelming. Especially when Pinterest
is full of beautiful ideas for presenting gifts, it is easy to accumulate a
large collection of various gift wrapping supplies for various occasions. I have found that the easiest way to minimize
my gift wrap collection was to choose a personal style that I like to use for
giving gifts and only to keep the essentials that fit with that style.
My chosen style is to use silver patterned paper
to wrap gifts and then finish them off with a simple bow made out of florist
ribbon. I then add a handmade tag or card with a greeting. This is fairly
simple to manage and works for most of our gifts. It also means that if I am tempted to buy
more gift wrap, I always stick to paper that has a silver colour so it
co-ordinates with the ribbon that I already have.
I do find however, that this style can be a
bit somber for small children, so I do sometimes end up buying a small amount
of more colourful paper to wrap their presents. For Christmas I also usually splash
out and buy a few rolls of themed wrapping paper that co-ordinate with red
florist ribbon as we have a red and green colour theme to our Christmas tree.
This strategy seems to work for me at the
moment and it means I only need to keep a few bulky rolls of paper and a small
collection of florist ribbon to meet most of our gift wrapping requirements. I
keep all the supplies together in our art and craft room, so when it is time to
do some wrapping everything is to hand. I have also discovered the joy of
having a proper sticky tape dispenser to hand rather than wrestling with a roll
of tape!
Besides choosing a particular colour theme, here are some other ideas for a gift wrapping style:
- Brown paper or brown paper bags with a colourful fabric ribbon attached
- A particular pattern of wrapping paper such as butterflies, dots, hearts or star shapes
- Adding a fresh flower or greenery to an otherwise plain package
- Using washi tape decoration on plain paper
- Embellishments such as lace, fabric or feathers on a plain background paper
A note on gift bags: I think gift bags are eco-friendly as they are more likely to be re-usable than wrapping paper. If we are given gift bags I try to re-use them if I can. However they are a bit tricky, as they often require co-ordinating tissue paper (which I always forget!) and they need to match the size of the gift. Unless they are plainly coloured, I also find that they are often themed to a particular occasion or gender. So I tend to rather use wrapping paper unless I am trying to wrap something awkward, like a bottle!
Do
you have a gift wrapping style? What are your tips for keeping a gift wrapping
stash to a minimum?
