I was lucky enough to win a copy of the great Ruby Star Wrapping book from Sew Allegorical during one of her sweet giveaways. She kindly shipped it very fast so I got it in time to use many of its ideas for my Christmas wrapping.
I've always liked to use fun or non-traditional wrapping gear; I've used old national geographic maps, old conference posters, calendar pages, etc. but hadn't had any ideas for this year. After thumbing through the book I decided to do a bunch of fabric bags so that I can use them all again next year.
I made several easy gift card pouches, since Mike always gives gift cards or cash to his girls, and I made about six or so drawstring pouches of all different sizes. In the end, the thing that wound up being the easiest was a bunch of the fold over baggies. These are like plastic lunch baggies, but out of fabric. In the book they're small, sort of sandwich and snack sized, but it worked great to make them in a bunch of different sizes, some as big as pillowcases. In cases where the present was smaller, I just wrapped the extra fabric around. Tie it with a ribbon and ready-to-go!
Fairly quick and easy, and definitely less paper and tape waste. There are tons of great ideas for all different non-traditional wrapping materials, I just went with fabric because (duh) that's what I have laying around. It was actually a great chance to use up a bunch of fun Christmas fabric acquired from who knows where that I probably wouldn't have ever put in a quilt.
It's definitely a book worth looking at if you're craving ideas for alternative wrapping materials. Thanks so much Al!
