My friends and I were discussing Christmas wrapping over lunch one day, and I mentioned I was planning on using my Cricut to make my tags. Giggles followed, along with the guess that I would (a) never get around to it, and (b) spend twice as much as the beautiful tags at Costco would cost me. To which I replied to my gal pals, “STOP KNOWING ME SO WELL!”
As I rarely back away from a challenge, I made my tags for exactly $0.00. I had some basic cartridges that came with the Cricut, and I have lots and lots of paper. I think we all know about my paper addiction by now. Whenever I ask the girls, “Who wants to cut some paper?!”, I can promise they both come dashing from whatever game they are playing. Kids love the little buttons on the Cricut. Here’s the good news! Auntie Amanda bought me an awesome holiday lace-style cartridge for Christmas, so get ready for some slicing and dicing. It’s going to get lacey-crazy from here!
Here’s my 90% off trick: floral stores buy big, fat, expensive ribbon to use on silk centerpieces and in wreaths. They buy lots of it, and I’ve found it’s usually quite ornate, and way too busy to be used in conjunction with holiday wrapping paper. BUT, what if you attended their end-of-the season sales, bought the wildly bright ribbon at 90% off (Indy shoppers: Silk Scapes, 9 am, New Year’s Eve Day, the sale lasts all of 15 minutes before everything is gone), and then used a gigantic roll of plain, white craft paper to wrap the boxes? You’ll get a department store looking present at quite the discount. I spent about $5 wrapping this stack of gifts. I’m probably the world’s worst wrapper and bow maker, so take my advice with a grain of salt and add your own talents to the holiday wrapping show. Target also sells nice ribbon, which you can get at 50% off starting on the 26th, which goes as deep as 75% off by December 30th. But you know me, 90% off is more my speed!
*I got all of this weighted ribbon to hold in place by using my hot glue gun. There are very few crafting disasters that can’t be fixed by a tiny hot glue gun.*
3 responses to “Department Store Wrapping, 90% Off”
Sorry to hear about Rainbow. Hairspray should help, at leaset, dull the pox marks. 🙂
Your tags look great, Lori! Though I still love my $10 Costco ones. 🙂 Wrapping presents is one of my favorite things to do, so being able to put some creative thought into it makes it extra special. I’d say this is a job well done!
I agree with Sherri. Try spraying hairspray on Rainbow and wiping the marker off with a wet rag. If that doesn’t work, maybe one of the Mr. Clean sponges will fade the pox marks. Good luck!
As for wrapping, your gifts are gorgeous! My parents lived on Saipan for a few years and the prettiest gifts there were wrapped in craft paper that had been pleated then topped with origami tags. I tried to do that one year and it took AGES to wrap a single gift.