Make Your Own Eco-friendly Gift Wrapping

Do you remember the most exciting gift you've ever received?  I do.  It was when I was about 7 or 8 and my sister Peggy - see her blog here - made a complex structure made of paper blocks all joined together.  Opening it was the challenge.  You needed to think a while which part to start tearing into.  It looked so artful by itself that it was a shame I wasn't a blogger then and took a picture first.

Upon opening each block, you would uncover a small gift.  I don't remember what the contents were any more.  The wrapping and discovering made it unforgettable.

This brings me to my point that gifts wrapped with care make an impact and if you spend more time wrapping it, then it  a) gives a more personal touch than store-bought packaging  b) helps you practice your crafting skills  c) if you use recycled materials, helps the environment  d) saves you money  e) hopefully gets appreciated by the recipient more.

Like many of you, I don't have a lot of time to tinker around with but it was little Lucas' Christening (a friend's son) and I wanted to make the wrapper really handmade.

I used:

Martha Stewart puncher
Letter stamps
Scissors
Old magazine pages
Markers
Twine
Kraft Board
Colored Paper

With the Martha Stewart Puncher, you can cut on any part of the paper.  The design I chose was the Flourish Square (but you can just cut one up with any shape you like).

It has a strong magnet so it will "click" together and you can punch just anywhere and not waste any paper.

It worked on thicker kraft paper so I was just so giddy with joy punching away.  I find punchers so difficult to resist, don't you?

You can make dozens of these tags by just punching a hole at the corner and writing on them but I took the road less traveled.

I used the cut out portion of the paper to make the border of the tag.

Then I used some different colored paper underneath.  I then stamped the words "For" and "Lucas" with a space in between for my hand-written word "Baby".

I used these Letter Stamps which I bought in a book store in China.

Always remember to stamp this way.  Rather then putting the stamp onto the pad, put the pad onto the stamp like so.  This makes for better quality stamping.

Here's my gift inside - a scrapbook album kit for the baby.

Okay jumping to the finished product (I told you I was busy ha ha).  Here it is.  It's not soooo fantabulous I know but it was made with love.  Would love to see your packaging ideas too!