Potato Print Wrapping Paper
December 14 Yesterday my husband asked me to please not to buy any glossy wrapping paper this year. "I can't recycle it, and I can't burn it," he reasoned. "Can we get some more of that plain brown paper, and the kids can decorate it?"
Well, sure. But Santa can't pull off plain brown paper, people. Instead of arguing with his all too valid observations, I went shopping.
First stop: JoAnne's Fabrics. There were a bunch of 100% cotton fabrics on sale at half off--in Christmassy prints. At $4 a yard, it's more expensive than Santa usually spends. But it won't be thrown away. Instead, these same fabrics will reappear next year. I bought a skein of chubby yarn to tie it shut. This year, Santa wraps in fabric.
Next stop: Staples. I was happy to find a roll of what they labeled "Banner Paper" measuring 36" by 52...feet! In other words, there was about five times as much paper on this roll than on an average glossy roll of wrap. The paper is uncoated, bright white and completely recyclable. The weight approximates good quality butcher's paper. It cost $7. It was pretty much the best thing I've ever bought from that soul crushing hell known as Staples.
Next stop: my basement. I took a couple of fingerling potatoes out of storage and then dug out some 20 year old lino cutting tools. The tools have "V" shaped blades, allowing me to easily carve a design into a halved potato. But a sharp paring knife would have also worked.
I told myself I'd wait until the kids were hope from school, but I just couldn't help myself. I made a sheet of wrapping paper solo, and promptly experienced that same Eureka! I-am-a-Freaking-Genius feeling I get whenever a craft works even marginally well.
Oh, and the kids enjoyed it too.
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Reader Comments (7)
Great gift wrapping ideas, thanks for sharing. Some things my family and I do are: reuse gift bags, use the newspaper funnies, the business page (for member of the family who pays the bills.)
I love it! You are a freaking genius :) You had to test it out before the kids came home-right?? My paper is generally boring-comics, magazine pages, brown paper bags. Maybe we'll step it up a notch this year and add some potato prints.
Thanks guys! I was thinking that gold paint on brown paper would look pretty too. Maybe next year.
Awesome! I am all over the fabric wrap--maybe I'll go snatch up a bunch of 75%-off Christmas prints right after the holiday and stock up for next year.
I used to be the free-or-cheap zero-waste wrapper-extraordinaire. I'd collect bits and pieces of pretty things all year--50 cent baskets at yard sales, pretty glossy photos out of magazines (for small gifts), colored comic pages, scraps of bright fabric left over from projects, misc fake flowers or leaves, etc. I'd also collect candles and other pretty little things I could find at yard sales, as well as ribbons and yarn for garnish. Then come Christmas, I'd pull out all those materials and make first-rate gift baskets, bags, and wrappings--practically for free, and definitely Earth-friendly.
This year time has been critically short, so I bought everything on Amazon and had it shipped to the in-laws where I'll use whatever wrapping materials they already have to make everything pretty. It will probably not be Earth-friendly.
But there's always next year...
LOVE this! I have to go to soul crushing Staples for mid-year school supplies and am definitely doing this...plus I am past Santa so the kids can help. I have a friend who loves fabric and wraps her gifts that way every year - beautiful and green!
Wow. Your potato print wrapping paper looks PROFESSIONAL quality! You could seriously sell it. How come mine come out with extra big globs of paint?
Mia- I use very ordinary rubber-stamp pads instead of paint! There are no blobs. But there are sometimes smudges.