I love to wrap gifts. It’s so exciting to see the packages piled up and think about the excitement of the recipient. Some wrapping paper can be expensive, especially when you consider most of it just gets ripped to shreds and thrown away or recycled anyway. Here is some fun free and cheap ideas of gift wrap this year.
1. Save gift bags and reuse them. This is one of my favorite ways to save on wrapping paper. I even save the tissue paper if it’s not too wrinkled up or torn. This is a quick and eye appealing way to wrap a gift. I save them from birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, etc. The plain white and brown ones are nice too because you can have the kids decorate them or even decorate them yourself.
2. News Paper. Seriously. Add a red bow and your all set. If you don’t think it’s festive enough, after you wrap your gift run a glue stick over it and sprinkle some festive glitter over top. Or use festive washi tape or even duct tape if you’re creative enough to add some touches. Another cute idea, save your comics every week and use those or save holiday inserts.
3. Brown paper from sources like paper bags, department store bags, or kraft paper rolls. This is great to make it look like a shipped gift or an old fashion twist. Tie it up with some twine or again add your own touches with things like glitter, washi tape, curling ribbon, Christmas Stickers, ink stamps, and more. I bet the grandparents would love their paper decorated by the grand kids.
4. Don’t turn your nose up at promotional bags like these: 
You can easily cover the logo with a number of different ideas. Have the kids draw a festive picture on a piece of construction paper or cardstock and glue it over the logo. Also I save holiday cards. Put them up with my Christmas decorations when I pack them away. The front of Christmas cards are perfect to cut off and glue over the front. If you’re desperate enough you can even take one of these bags apart carefully and put the logo on the inside and wrap a small gift in them and again….decorate as you please.
5. Old scraps of fabric. For a small gift like jewelry for instance you can take a round or square scrap of fabric set it in the middle, pull it up like a little sack and tie it with a bow. You can use larger scraps if you like for larger gifts. You can safety pin it or use fabric glue to glue it together. With glue though, just remember it might take a little while to set!
6. Disposable table clothes. Seriously, I bought a roll of the thin plastic table cloth when I did my sister’s bridal shower over the summer. I have a bunch left and was trying to think of uses for it. Other than using if for future parties at our house it would also work great as wrapping paper. The paper ones would work well too.
7. Use part of your gift as wrapping paper. Giving a gift for baby? Wrap it in a receiving blanket or crib comforter. Attach with safety pins. Cooking gift? How about wrapping it in dish towels, table runner, fabric placemats, etc. A relaxation gift how about a pillow case or lap blanket.
8. I also save nice baskets. You can always grab a basket and make up a gift basket for the holidays.
