I confess, I've gotten out of using wrapping paper and ribbon, but when I did I had a system.

After Christmas when the clearance sales were on, I'd stock up on plain wrapping paper and all the pre-made bows and rolls of ribbon I could find.

Plain red wrapping paper can be used for valentine gifts.

Plain green wrapping paper can be used around St. Patrick's Day and for spring birthdays.

Gold and silver works well for wedding, anniversary and baby gifts.

If I'm lucky I'd find 75% to 90% off of odd colored wrapping paper like pearlized white, blue, brown and pastels. If you're careful, no one will ever know it is Christmas wrapping paper.

Be on the look out now because over the years I've noticed more and more of these plain paper and colorful bows getting sold-out earlier. Take note of which stores have the best wrapping paper now so you can bee-line to that store when the clearance starts.

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I save brown paper grocery bags....I could never reuse all that I have accumulated...if I need to "wrap" a gift instead of reusing a gift bag I cut the paper bag to fit or tape a couple together and then stamp the outside with pretty stamps...whenever I see fabric ribbon on clearance I buy it...wrap it around the homemade gift paper and it actually looks pretty nice.....

Take a look at what you have around the house and see if there's a way to use those materials creatively. Florals from craft stores look great when tied with a ribbon (there are ALWAYS some on clearance after holidays). Ribbon is also great on brown paper bags, yarn - or you can even use fabric to wrap gifts. What's great is it can be used again!

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I use the comic section from the newspaper.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

I just made some with the kids- I bought plain brown packing paper from the only a dollar store, then use potatoes- cut them in half push a cookie cutter in to the half and then cut away the extra potato to make a stamp-
let them go to town... I haven't tried it on other holidays but you could do it for any holiday

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Drive like a Cullen

Here are some packages I wrapped with things I already had at home:

Brown paper sack + fabric ribbon found on sale:




Newspaper, yarn + floral stems found on clearance:

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