Short on confetti for your New Year's Eve party? Don't toss that holiday wrapping paper! Cut each sheet into a few small squares and send them through a paper shredder, and then send the shredded pieces through once more if necessary.
The stockings may have been hung by the chimney with care, and all of your carefully chosen presents may have been perfectly wrapped, but when gift-opening time starts, you're sure to be left with a mound of paper. But don't throw it away! Here are some ways to make sure that the holiday paper doesn't go to waste this morning.
As much as I love making my own wrapping paper, I can't resist manufactured wrapping paper with a beautiful design. Such is the case with the Snow & Graham Winter Tweets Paper ($7 for two sheets). Featuring small, vibrant red birds perched on brown and green branches, the paper is festive and seasonal.
I love making my own wrapping paper using stamps, butcher paper, and markers, but sometimes even the most diligent crafters run out of time to create handmade wrapping paper. That's when I rely on good old calendar photos for some of my smaller gifts. Do you use "alternative" wrapping paper for holiday presents?
I love this idea for wrapping holiday presents, which I found on Craft. Just use faux bois contact paper over some plain brown wrapping paper. Finish it off with some leaf cutouts, and you have a well-presented gift worthy of any of your faux bois-loving design-maven friends.
Last night I started the long process of wrapping gifts for friends, family, and future in-laws. Does anyone else forget how time-intensive this process is between holidays? I sure do.
TeamSugar member AmberHoney sent me this photo of some decorating paper she made for a business associate of her husband's. She says, "I have only ever used newspaper or grocery-store bags (the inside of course) to wrap my gifts. I started because wrapping papers are just too expensive to rip open and litter the earth.
If you're giving a gift this month to someone who, as far as you know, may or may not celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Britney Spears's birthday, it's best to leave the nativity scenes, dreidels, and bad hair extensions off of your wrapping paper. Choose a paper solely wintry in theme, and avoid symbolic colors like red and green. This Paper Source Moss and Pool Retro Snowflake paper ($6.50), for example, is a good choice of secular wrapping paper.
Recyclable paper is not a new phenomenon. But plant-able paper? That's another thing.