how to gift wrap: recycled and handmade ideas

i'm always looking for new ideas on how to gift wrap my christmas and holiday presents, especially diy and handmade ideas that involve recycled or upcycled materials. every year, since I fly home for the holidays, all of my gifts get wrapped post-flight while I'm sitting around my parent's house and generally in a very crafty (aka stir-crazy) mood. as a result, my gift wrapping gets very creative and sometimes very bizarre (my gift tags are never directly addressed....they are always from fictitious characters, and figuring out the recipient usually includes some sort of riddle or guessing game). I try to only use things that I find laying around my parent's house to wrap things, but still try to keep things pretty. And over the years, I've come across many online tutorials to help spark my creative wrapping.

generally, my presents are wrapped with the only 2 large scale paper-ish items that I have laying around the house -- kraft paper and tin foil. i'm a kraft paper addict and always have at least 5 rolls on hand. you never know when you're going to need it. tin foil makes unusually sparkly wrapped gifts!

these plastic bag pom poms are genius! this completely fantastic bow is made from.....a regular ole plastic shopper bag that you get from the grocery store (!!) i have a ton of these piling up and this is an excellent way to recycle them. they look amazing (and goes great with kraft paper.).



tie it all together with beautiful red and white bakers twine (above). ........and a few more of my favorite upcycled gift wrapping ideas include this bow tutorial from a magazine page is so, so clever and pretty! (via How About Orange). Jess also makes these mini-bags, made from an envelope and covered it beautiful tape. also one of the most adorable things i've ever seen!


And finally, Ed Emberley has the most ADORABLE website on how to turn your thumbprint into a cute little creature. Design*Sponge steps it up a notch and uses them to make your own tags.