wrapped.

Gift wrapping is one of my very favorite things to do.  Tim always makes fun of me because he thinks I spend too much time wrapping gifts.  But I can't help it, I love doing it.  Sometimes I end up liking the way I wrapped a gift better than the actual gift itself...

Each year, I come up with a theme for all the gifts we give.  I love coming up with a new theme each year.  Last year I used old grocery sacks and leftover yarn, giving all the gifts a very textured look.  This year I needed something less time consuming than the yarn wrappings, but still aesthetically pleasing.  I also wanted to consider earth-friendly options, when reasonable.

Here's what I came up with:

TA-DA!  I was inspired by the really cute polar bear pics I stumbled across in the LIFE online picture archive (thanks Jennie Orr for introducing me.)  Each gift was adorned with a cute polar bear, and a "merry christmas" tag that I typed on the typewriter at work.

Materials used:

• Reused newspaper from the recycle bin at the Pourhouse
• Reused scrap paper from work used for printing the polar bear pics and typing the tags
• Glue stick
• Scotch tape
• Hemp to tie packages together (leftover from my junior high hemp bracelet phase)
• Black acid free scrapbook paper (not recycled or reused, but leftover from other projects)

So even though I could have been a bit more eco-friendly than I was, I am still very pleased that I didn't have to purchase anything to wrap my gifts.  I also love how they look!  If you have any creative gift wrap ideas, let me know!  I am already planning for next year...