• Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact
  • Let’s Organize These Posts:

    • Art Attack
    • Backyard
    • Barn
    • Basement
    • Bathroom
    • Beach
    • Bedrooms
    • Being Thrifty
    • Business-y
    • Buying and Renting and Selling
    • Casual Celebrations
    • Closets
    • Curb Appeal
    • Dainty Details
    • Deck
    • Decor
    • Dining Room
    • DIY
    • Dog-Related
    • Entryway
    • Flooring
    • For the Kids
    • Garage
    • Gardening
    • Helping The Economy
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects
    • Holiday-Related Projects
    • Home Safety
    • Kitchen
    • Lighting
    • Living Room
    • Merry Travels
    • Office Space
    • Organized
    • Other Pads
    • Outdoor Living
    • Scooter Fun
    • Stairwell
    • Sunroom
    • Supporting Sponsors
    • The Art Room
    • Tools
    • Uncategorizable
    • Wedding
    • Windows
    • Work-pads
  • Search

  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle.

    You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)
  • Search

  • Pages

    • blog
    • Merrypad Features
    • Privacy Policy
    • about emily
    • before + after
      • before + after, our current home
      • before + after, our first house
    • contact me
    • choose a badge and share the merrypad.com love
  • Home
  • about emily
  • before + after
  • HGTV + DIY Network
  • good press
  • contact

A Craft Paper Christmas

December 20, 2011

The holiday season has gotten the best of me yet again.

I always have grand plans of wrapping my gifts beautifully, colorfully, and to photographic-perfection (the same way I remember Santa’s presents, or how all of my most envied packaging pins on Pinterest are), but then I get caught in the retail headlights, over-thinking the investment of wrapping supplies, juggling my time (especially when I’d rather be jamming on a certain bear rug), or becoming immediately frustrated by deciding to wrap the round, squishy thing first. (You should know that anything round, squishy, and unboxed inevitably gets launched across the living room, sliding through a pile of dog fur, and then I need to spend more time lint-brushing stuff, humph, Merry Christmas.)

This year’s gifts aren’t wrapped as as ornately and over-the-top as I’d prefer, I guess they photographed well, even if my camera was a little bit tilty for this here shot.

Gifties, 2011.

Imperfections and simplicity aside, I do like that I managed a wee bit of consistency this season by choosing to use a roll of brown craft paper (bought with a 50% discount from JoAnn’s) instead of investing in “traditional” printed wrapping paper. For $3, a single roll provided enough square footage to wrap all of my gifts, which I know can’t be said for the comparably priced 45-sq. ft. rolls covered in candy canes and Santa. In hindsight, I do regret not price-comparing that purchase with the brown craft contractor’s paper rolls that are sold at Home Depot and Lowe’s, because I know you can get a hell of a lot of brown paper in those contractor bundles for $10. Clearly, it’s my seasonal mission is to find durable wrapping paper at the best cost per square foot. (Bring it on.)

Craft paper and gold assorted ribbons.

I used ribbon that was already on hand. Much of the tulle-ish material and gold embossed ribbons were bought at 90% off last January (I wrote about that steal of a deal here) but I supplemented it with a little bit of green sparkly on gifts for my sister and mom (who would be appreciative of the green and the sparkly and also maybe save it to reuse it). At $1.30 a roll for 24-ft of the green sparkles (a Black Friday early bird sale), I couldn’t say no, but I also couldn’t justify buying the whole gamut of colors to make the girliest sparkly rainbow packages ever. (If you’re ever wondering what to get me, look no further than sparkly ribbon. It’s like crack for a DIYer, thanks.)

Glitzy with bows.

The best part of working with tulle (and I’ve never used it before, so how would I know this before now) is that it allows the most lux bows that I’ve ever created. So full and lush, I’d almost like to toss my curl-able plastic ribbon and stick with this stuff forever.

Sparkly green.

Side note: Remember that the tulle at the fabric shop costs about $1.99/yard and you could save yourself a small fortune in full-priced “tulle ribbon” by just buying a few yards of the fabric and carefully cutting into strips. Bazinga.

When simple bows weren’t desired, layered colored tulle knotted loosely turned out nicely. Reminds me of a tutu. But a manly tutu. That’s Dad’s gift.

Layered colors.

When all was said and done, the only wrapping investment this year was:

  • $3 sale-priced roll of craft paper
  • $2.60 in green sparkly
  • half of my previously purchased tulle ribbon stash (about $3.15)

That right there is <$9 in wrapping accouterments. (Pete would like me to point out that ribbons aren’t necessary on gifts to men, nor is wrapping paper.)

How have you wrapped your goodies?

Share

Holiday-Related Projects

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

8 Comments


scott
December 20, 2011 at 9:39 am
Reply

great minds think alike! (craft paper)I do the same thing BUT not with paper from a fabric store but painter’s drop paper from Home Depot. brown, greenish, and a purplish papers to choose from and yea very inexpensive. the printed stuff for holidays is just too expensive.



    Emily
    December 20, 2011 at 10:19 am

    I didn’t realize there were colorful options in the painters/contractors variety – I’ll keep that in mind for next year!

Kate @ Twenty-Six to Life
December 20, 2011 at 10:22 am
Reply

I’ve been thinking about wrapping my gifts in craft paper too this year. Unfortunately I’ve slacked on shopping and haven’t wrapped anything yet… whoops…



    Emily
    December 20, 2011 at 10:36 am

    5 days, 100+ hours left. Plenty of time to catch up, right?

Strep
December 20, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Reply

I use brown craft paper to make sewing patterns because that’s what we learned on in school…huge industrial-sized rolls of craft paper.

Dig this craft paper wrap job I saw on Pinterest yesterday with the added bonus of double stick tape: http://pinterest.com/pin/32088216064516964/



    Emily
    December 20, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    I love the hole-punch-double-stick-tape-ribbon for sure (even considered doing it but it seemed… time consuming). Also, not too far off what we did last year with potato print stamping, and drawn sketches on craft paper that were recycled for wrapping would be kind of cool. I could see going crazy with a Sharpie on my brown craft paper and then just chopping up the sheet for various presents.

Fern
December 20, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Reply

everything looks perfectly lovely.
clean and sparkly, plain and tulle-y, practical and silly.

but what I really want to ask you about is dog fur.
will there be (or has there been) a post about living with it?
I too have a big, shedding dog and I want to give up.
so.much.fur.



    Emily
    December 20, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    Oh, the dog fur :)

    The only post that I ever really went into depth about the fur issue is this post about our Dyson (a.k.a. our savior). http://www.merrypad.com/2011/06/22/dyson-animal-tesco-direct/

    We have also tried the Furminator to remove the undercoat during the summer, and that helped to cut down on shedding for a few months, but aside from vacuuming, lint brushing, and sweeping daily, I think the only other option would be to shave him bald. But he’s so cute and fuzzy that I deal with it.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • HI, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

    I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

    Thanks for visiting!

  • Instagram

    Can’t believe I ever bought dumpling wrappers. 🥟 Pulse a few cups of flour in the food processor drizzling in cold water until it forms dough. Roll smooth. Use a conveniently large cookie cutter, or just trim out squares. The end ❤️ #hny #dumplings
    Didn’t think I’d be making more masks, but her Didn’t think I’d be making more masks, but here we are (now feat. recycled t-shirt layer for added softness and bonus-layer protection). #diy #amateurseamstress #diymask
    Get out there ☀️ Get out there ☀️
    The gang finally showed up. 👻 The gang finally showed up. 👻
    A record 233 cloves + 10 shallots 🧛🏻‍♀️ 
#merrypadathome #garden2021 #garlic #gardennotes #whatisnormal
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    Immeasurably tall, lanky tomatillos. #garden2020 # Immeasurably tall, lanky tomatillos. #garden2020 #tomatillos #nofilter
    32 oz., reserved for the brave 🌶🌶 😍#homeg 32 oz., reserved for the brave 🌶🌶 😍#homegrown #tomatillos #harvest2020
    Nothing says “let’s stay home all fall, too” Nothing says “let’s stay home all fall, too” like a badass custom fireplace on our patio. 🔥 #chiminea #merrypadathome
    Load More... follow emily: @merrypad



  • Like Us On Facebook

    Facebook Pagelike Widget



  • Popular Posts

    • How to fix an IKEA drawer. Cheap IKEA Drawers (And The Quick Fix) 39.7k views
    • DIY sideboard rehab. Our Refinished Midcentury Buffet 39.4k views
    • How to design and make a barn quilt. How to Make Your Own Barn Quilt 33.2k views
    • DIY driveway removal. The Driveway Rocks 24.6k views
    • How to hang art on brick surfaces using specialty clips. The Easy Way to Hang Art on Brick or Stone 24.2k views
    • Goodbye, gold fireplace covering. Less Is More: How to Remove a Fireplace Surround 22k views
    • Our DIY flagstone patio. Building a Patio in One Day 17.3k views
    • Bedroom paint, freshened up with Snowbound paint. Painting Everything White: We Chose Snowbound, By Sherwin Williams 16.4k views
    • Tips for dying pasta different colors, and a Halloween Recipe for the kids. Tips for Dying Pasta Different Colors (+ A Special Halloween Recipe) 15.3k views
    • Finished stained kitchen cabinets. Javalicious, A Gel Staining Reveal (Update #3) 14.1k views



  • BROWSE POSTS BY CATEGORY:

    • Art Attack (7)
    • Backyard (92)
    • Barn (8)
    • Basement (27)
    • Bathroom (43)
    • Beach (13)
    • Bedrooms (73)
    • Being Thrifty (53)
    • Business-y (12)
    • Buying and Renting and Selling (23)
    • Casual Celebrations (36)
    • Closets (17)
    • Curb Appeal (44)
    • Dainty Details (8)
    • Deck (23)
    • Decor (286)
    • Dining Room (37)
    • DIY (577)
    • Dog-Related (24)
    • Entryway (59)
    • Flooring (58)
    • For the Kids (32)
    • Garage (17)
    • Gardening (70)
    • Helping The Economy (30)
    • HGTV + DIY Network Projects (283)
    • Holiday-Related Projects (80)
    • Home Safety (12)
    • Kitchen (83)
    • Lighting (31)
    • Living Room (77)
    • Merry Travels (21)
    • Office Space (21)
    • Organized (41)
    • Other Pads (14)
    • Outdoor Living (12)
    • Scooter Fun (8)
    • Stairwell (20)
    • Sunroom (22)
    • Supporting Sponsors (43)
    • The Art Room (3)
    • Tools (43)
    • Uncategorizable (1)
    • Wedding (28)
    • Windows (14)
    • Work-pads (10)





  • a little bit of everything, friends, DIY, and inspiration

    • Dadand.com < My husband and his BFF
    • DIY Network
    • HGTV
  • Get Posts Via Email

  • Some Legal

    Merrypad incorporates the occasional affiliate link to Amazon.com and Minted; we link to many other websites and products, but if it is in context of a paid sponsorship, it is always noted as such. Please review the privacy policy and contact me if you have any additional questions.

    Theme customized by Pete Fazio Creative, the guy from dadand.com.


© Copyright Merrypad