Cool Kids - Gift Wrapping

I really like what  Peter Walsh says about gift wrapping in his book 'It's All Too Much'. Who is Peter Walsh? Why, don't you know? He is an organisation guru who has been on Oprah a lot, he has his own show about reducing clutter etc. Peter said that all you need to keep in the house for gift wrapping is a roll of brown paper and red, black and white ribbon. This should cover pretty much every occasion.

I hate wrapping paper. I mean I love it, at the time, because who doesn't love getting presents? But, it is the storing paper that is still pretty much perfect that is hard in my 60s chamfer-on-brick. I thought about Peter Walsh as I, yet again, had to remove the enormous bag of bags and bags of pretty paper from on top of my slow cooker to get the slow cooker out to cook dinner slowly.... 

I thought of Peter Walsh and thought about the logic behind keeping heaps gift wrapping. I don't have enough room to store my Summer Clothes in the house during Winter - they go into the shed. So why would I store something like gift wrapping that I don't use all that often?

So... I put all the wrapping paper I had been keeping for some reason or another, into a folder that the girls now love to 'snip' and decorate various things with (causing another world of problems -sigh). Then I gave all the gift bags to my mother-in-law, as she uses them a lot. Now, I literally have a roll of brown paper and a variety of ribbons to decorate gifts with. Oh it is so nice to have some space and not have things fall on my head when reaching into my hall cupboard.


We now have a tradition when we wrap a present. We roll out the required amount of brown paper and then decorate it with pretty pictures. It is great! I mean, all you really {should} do with wrapping paper is throw it out so why not make it unique and cute? My kids LOVE to help decorate the paper - they spot, swirl, squiggle, write the birthday person's name or age all over it, draw creatures and other lovely things.


Below is wrapping paper we made for a 6 year old friend of Miss A's. We copied the colours and shapes from some curling ribbon we had. We {meaning, I} made a cuff for the gift, something a bit different to our usual big sheet of paper. It was a bit fancier than we normally do. It was indeed cute though!

Of course Miss Z could not miss out on the creative experience!

People seem really touched when given a present wrapped in home made paper. I think it is nice, it shows time and dedication and creativity. How nice to give those things to someone.

I love that a roll of brown paper costs under $5 and will wrap more than a dozen presents. This is considerably cheaper than buying wrapping paper either in a roll or {gasp} by the sheet.


We are now into making cards as well. Miss A is quite the artist and loves to write the message inside. While she is keen, I am going to exploit her talents as much as I can!

The gift inside this beautifully wrapped present was really well received. Pop back in a day or two to discover what was inside it... Perfect idea for a little girl...