Re-Gift Tags -- Giving Holiday Cards a New Purpose

Happy new year to you! I don't do resolutions, but have pledged to continue to post SB Gift Girl ideas and tips regularly throughout the new year, so please check in often (and tell your friends!).

A fresh new year means out with the old and in with the new. At the moment, our recycling bins runneth over...but before you pitch the lovely holiday cards your friends and associates spent 44 cents a pop to mail to you, think ahead to Hanukkah or Christmas 2010 -- those colorful cards can easily be repurposed for use as gift tags for next year's holiday gifts.

 

Making gift tags is easy -- use scissors (cut out a shape traced using a small glass as a template) or pony up for a special die cut punch at a crafts shop (about $15 at Michael's Arts & Crafts). Cut a small hole and add ribbon or twine as a tie. Ta dah!

Re-gift tags make a nice giftlet for friends in the first few weeks of December, or can be used yourself to label holiday gifts for friends and family. Christmas or Hanukkah might seem a like long way away now, but they are on the calendar for 2010 (I checked), so it can't hurt to do a little pre-planning. If you do it now, you'll be thanking yourself (and me) come next December.
 

If you're not motivated to create gift tags but want to repurpose your 2009 holiday cards, SB Gift Girl will gladly and gratefully recycle them on your behalf. Please send your old cards to SB Gift Girl (e-mail SBGiftGirl@gmail.com and I will send you my address).

Here's to a perfect 2010!

 

Wrapping Things Up

In Japan, “tsusumi” is a philosophy wherein the wrapping is considered a part of the gift itself; both are chosen and implemented with thought, care and consideration.

This is not to dis the convenience of a colorful gift bag with tissue paper, but there's still time to put a little thought and ingenuity into your own tsutsumi for this year's holiday gifting.

Here are some ideas for creative gift-wrapping:

• Enlarge a meaningful old photo and use it as gift wrap -- extra great if the photo ties in with the gift inside somehow. I used a picture of my dad and brother in classic 70s tennis togs to wrap a funny book on fatherhood... the book was soon forgotten, but the wrapping paper was definitely memorable.
  
  
• Enlarge the gift recipient's signature or favorite doodle...trace it with glue and add glitter. Dazzling!
  
  
• If you have photo-editing software and photos of your giftee on your computer, you can have fun using creative filters and wild effects on digital photos, and use the printed output to wrap a gift.
  
  
• Old maps are big pieces of paper that make perfect gift wrap -- especially if the map somehow ties in with the gift recipient or the contents of the package.
  
  
• Go green: expired calendars, blueprints, posters, shopping bags, newspaper pages (Sports section for the sports guy!) and the Sunday comics can also find a second life as wrapping paper.
  
  
• Magazine pages with beautiful (or funny) ads can make lovely gift wrap for small packages.
  
  
• If you have little kids, you can turn a fun rainy-afternoon activity into wrapping paper production session. Tape a long roll of kraft brown or white paper on the kitchen floor and put 'em to work with finger paints, holiday-colored markers, or sponge-stamps and tempra paint. Once it's dried you'll have a nice roll of custom gift wrap (which the kids will be proud to see under the tree).
  
  
• Think outside of the box -- really! There are lots of clever ways to package your gift besides boxes: new paint cans (available at hardware stores), reusable shopping bags (colorful Chico bags are perfect), takeout containers, mailing tubes, jars...