Unique, frugal and good for the earth gift wrap options

There are a ton of ways to save on gift wrap this year not only for your wallet but also for our planet. Rather than going out and spending a ton on metallic paper that won't biodegrade consider some of these options.

Below are two gifts I wrapped in brown craft paper found at Wal-Mart for $1.88 you could also turn a brown paper bag inside out and use that for a free solution. I decorated them by using the persons name cut from different types of papers. The first is from another Sunday comic page and the second from some left over wrapping paper. (you know the part on the sides you always have to cut off but never have a gift small enough to use it on). The bow is also made from the same left over wrapping paper. The stencils I used were a little too big for the gifts, I'll have to purchase a smaller set for next year. Even with all of that, I"m still really happy with the way they turned out. For different lettering looks you could also use a newspaper page full of text, a large picture from a newspaper or magazine, the inside of security envelopes, or even some pretty scrap booking paper or stationary.

Of course if you have a lot of stamps laying around you could also choose to stamp your craft paper for a holiday look. It's really hard to tell in the attached picture (sorry) but I stamped this gift with red presents and green trees. I also added a little glitter to the gifts to make them stand out. I'm hoping it doesn't all rub off before we get to our Christmas party. My husband so loves when I bring out the glitter so I'm sure this is his favorite method. I only spilled a little this time, I swear.

For another option I completely wrapped one of Matt's gifts in a page from the Sunday comics. The bow was created using my normal method found in previous posts and the tag is just a piece folded over with his name. It's a simple and quick method but I think it's really unique. I wish I would have wrapped more of our gifts this way.

In total I've spent less than $2 in gift wrap this holiday season which was on the craft paper. Since I have so much left over I'll also be using it to wrap birthday gifts in 2009. I can just use birthday stamps or pick seasonal paper for the stencil cut outs. Maybe I'll even keep the paper plain and use pretty ribbon.

Have you used any interesting or frugal gift wrap this year?