Exciting stuff, ya’ll! Real Simple has a list of creative gift wrapping ideas on their website today. I happen to LOVE anything gift wrap-related…. the papers, ribbons, bows. I really look forward to Christmas and getting to wrap presents! Well, really showing off my wrapping skills to be completely honest. I know… nerd!
Just this weekend, as a matter of fact, I wrapped a present for my husband to take to a birthday party our friends were throwing for their little girl (I was busy on baby-shower duty). Of course I made sure to wrap it super-duper cute with all the trimmings. Since I was not able to gather all the compliments I was expecting to get on how cute it was wrapped in person (hehe!), I asked for a detailed report as soon as he walked in the door on the compliments he received. According to him there were ZERO!!!! Yes. Z-E-R-O. Now my husband, let’s just say he is not a fan of reporting every detail on things to me as I like, so I had to probe again just to make sure I was hearing this correctly and sadly my hearing was not failing. No compliments. What a waste that was! I should have just thrown it in a dang gift bag and called it a day!
Anyway, enough of my craziness. 
Here are some of the ideas from Real Simple that I like best:
1. This is super cute for a child’s birthday present. Use old comics from the newspaper to wrap the gift then top with a pretty bow. The only problem is I really don’t like touching newspaper. Something about the way it feels and the ink that gets on my hands…. ugh. This does look so cute I could probably get past it though.
Photo courtesy of Real Simple
2. I love this idea…. white construction paper with ribbon that has been hole-punched. Very fun!
Photo courtesy of Real Simple
3. This is such a pretty idea for the times you run out of wrapping paper and only have a bunch of tissue paper…. which seems to be all the time in my case.
Photo courtesy of Real Simple
4. I really like this idea of wrapping a bottle of wine in a pretty dish towel. We often bring wine as a hostess gift and this is definitely an idea I will be putting to use.
Photo courtesy of Real Simple
5. Okay, I LOVE this idea. Using your old holiday cards as gift tags by cutting out the part that would be cute (and obviously no writing on the opposite side!) and hole punching a corner. Every year I feel so much guilt throwing out beautiful Christmas cards we have been given by friends at the end of the season…. this solves that little problem and saves money!
Photo courtesy of Real Simple
Eeeeee!!! This post just got me really excited for the holidays which are just around the corner!!
well, i’ll tell ya, Iive wrapped with comics before, and i ended up with very colorful hands.
those are some really great suggestions, though, especially in a crunch when the traditional stuff isn’t available!
Ooh ooh, I love this post! I am seriously over the top when it comes to wrapping gifts, too!
Like I coordinate the gifts that I put under my Xmas tree with the ornaments and decorations in my house…is that too much? lol
I have a huge tupperware container of trimmings…thanks for all the good ideas! Now I just need to find some people that deserve gifts, haha
The nerve of some people!
I am just catching up on emails, and was so excited to see this post! I love gift-wrapping. The dish towel wrap and the card tag (I save all Christmas cards and have been trying to figure out what to do with them!) ideas are tops on my list, thanks!
I’ve been doing the last idea (with the Christmas cards) for years now
It works and is brilliant! I love all the other ideas you posted though…especially the tissue paper one.