Messy Desk
Does this make you feel better or worse? I truly do make a mess when I work. I love messes. I love to make them…and I love to tidy (a.k.a. organize) them when I’m done. I’m not sure which of these two facts is scarier…
Wrapping Gifts
Yippee! I love wrapping gifts. This years strategy: a limited supply of gift wrap, which I stow in a five gallon paint bucket and pull out of the closet for wrap sessions. Perhaps not terribly elegant (especially with that random piece of red fuzz down there at the bottom) but it’s cheap, portable, puts vertical space to great use, and it’s time tested. I’ve had this bucket for years…and it really does work well for me.
Add to the limited supply of gift wrap, a holiday CD, some plain white tags, plain white tissue paper, letter stickers, chipboard and rub-ons from American Crafts, some green curling ribbon, and buckets (felt and metal from Target) a voila! the gift wrapping has begun.
Do you have any fun ideas for gift wrap this year? I’d love to hear (and see!) what you’re doing…
The Tree
It felt more like Easter today than Christmas…so the tree will have to wait for another week. It has to be cold…the colder the better when we get our tree. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for cold weather next weekend.
But…all in all, it is feeling more and more like Christmas around here. Love that.
I hope you had a great weekend, too. So much more to share…but it will have to wait. My pillow is calling.
Good night 😉
I must admit – although I usually like wrapping, it has felt like a drag this year. I keep all my wrapping stuff in a 44qt. plastic garbage pail. It fits neatly in the corner of a closet and holds my wrapping, plus tissue paper and bows. That whole storage discovery has been a lifesaver. I also saved time this year by printing out gift tags on the computer. I played around in photoshop and using some digital scrapbooking software, monogramed some tages and did holiday graphics on others. Wwhen it came time to wrap I just put the to/from names on the back and they still looked customized and personal. Whatever ya gotta do to get through it. 😉
Gotta love Target buckets and those felt bags – I snagged a bunch of the snowflake ones. I love your wrapping paper storage!
I like your bucket idea. But I have to say (and yes, I will brag!) that I am done shopping, done wrapping, done everything. Feels strange not to be running around with a thousand things to do. Now I just walk around aimlessly.
Stacy
I haven’t even started this process yet. ugh. My supplies are kept in a similar bucket with a wrap-around garden tool caddy with pockets. It works great for keeping everything together, but I tend to be a gift bag wrapper, mostly.
My key? Get the kids to do it! They seem to really love it, and all I have to do is save the “Santa” stuff for me to wrap.
I have a “gift wrap box” that I found several years ago. Just a plastic tote with 2 shallow “shelves” that hold tags and bags/tissue paper nicely. I save that for the holiday wrap, but will be using your bucket idea for the birthday wrap that stays out year round.
We make our wrapping paper every year. Last year we used brown paper (available in a huge roll) and star-shaped cookie cutters as stencils. Plenty of gold spray paint, and wow!
Another year, the boys made bright red and green handprints on our wrapping paper. Mess!
We make our wrapping paper every year. Last year we used brown paper (available in a huge roll) and star-shaped cookie cutters as stencils. Plenty of gold spray paint, and wow!
Another year, the boys made bright red and green handprints on our wrapping paper. Mess!
I have an extra tall “under bed” storage box in the bottom of a closet filled with Christmas wrap and bags. The bows and ribbons fit nicely into a plastic shoe box to keep from getting squished.
I have a second under bed type of box filled with all purpose wrap.
(BTW, Aby, I had that same green snowman wrap until last year. Isn’t it precious?!)
When we had a smaller home with less closet space (and less wrap… hmmm) I had an organizer that would hang int eh coat closet.
i love the bucket idea to store wrap – i end up with it lying everywhere over the floor when it is time to wrap the presents
Even messy, your desk looks organized 🙂 I love your Christmas wrapping ideas- thank you!
LOL! The only 5 gallon bucket I have it one of those orange Home Depot ones and I use it to clean my fish tank once a month :o) Good inspiration though.
I use a trashcan that is basically the same shape to store my gift wrap too!
Your wrapped presents look so good to the eye … love them! I love your idea for gift wrap … I need to find a solution for mine, it’s tucked away in the garage at the minute!
My daughter and I used to sponge paint our paper each year – before I was a scrapbooker and felt completely uncreative, I wanted to find something I could do with a toddler that would be a fun memory. We cut holiday shapes out of kitchen sponges and then dipped them in paint and onto white or brown kraft paper. Then we switched to coordinated store-bought paper with handmade gift tags. Then we bought plain white gift bags and used old Christmas scrap supplies to dress them up – that was fun and simple. This year I’m going to use up my non-coordinating stash of paper and just be okay with it! I love your little white tags, though, and may incorporate those onto the packages. I do enjoy wrapping, although I’ve yet to begin for ’07 😉
I LOVE the paint bucket storage solution…
But what is behind the wrapping paper? A magnet board of some kind?
I LOVE it – did you make it, buy it?
A girl has to know…
Christall