The post about DIY Wrapping Paper

We recently went to a joint birthday party for my friend's son and one of his other friends. It was Chase's first actual birthday party that he was able to really participate in (the whole cupcake, pinata, playing with kids thing)  so it was a lot of  fun for the kids. It was also in a REALLY nice park/party spot that I never knew about until now. If you live in/near Racine, WI and you have little kids and nowhere to go, you should try Smolenski Park. If we do a big birthday party for the boys this year thats where I am going to have it.

ANYWAY I made t-shirts and got a little truck toy for each of the kids (both boys were turning three) and I literally had NO extra money for wrapping paper at the time so I quick whipped up some of my own and GUESS WHAT?!.... The two boys were FIGHTING over my wrapped gifts! Cody opened his and then wanted to open the one I wrapped for Carter and they started screaming/fighting over it. Now LOGICALLY I'm sure it was just because Cody thought they were both for him and didn't want Carter to take it from him, but in my own little twisted self-promoting mind I am telling myself it was my bright and awesome looking paper and ribbon that did them in. They just couldn't resist.

This isn't very hard to figure out, but just incase you are in a bind for last minute present wrapping and you don't have any paper or you are poor like me or you wanna join the rest of the world and "go green", here is what you can do...

All you really need is...
*a paper bag (or other larger paper, packing paper, construction paper, even the back of wrapping paper you already have like x-mas paper or something)
*markers, pens, paint , stickers(anything to decorate with)
*curling ribbon (optional)
*scissors
*tape (duh)

1. I used a paper grocery bag for one and some grey paper I kept that came as wrapping/stuffing from some pictures I ordered off shutterfly for the lighter one. If you use a paper bag you just have to cut  down one side and cut off the bottom rectangle piece so you get a long flat piece of paper. This is the bottom piece that gets cut off and disgarded (or kept for some other crafty Green project).

2.  If you want it to look really nice you could iron the paper so it has less creases, but I didn't have all that sewing stuff out and was not about to plug in the iron and wait all for a little kids gift that is gonna get ripped up anyway. If it was for an adult or something fancy like a wedding I probably would. [note PROBABLY..  or not]

3. Next you have to decorate your paper... You could do anything here, paisley, swirls, flowers, cartoons,  write a joke, whatever. I used these fat sharpie markers

I just drew lines going in all different directions. It is a good idea to do a random pattern where things/ pictures/ lines don't  have to match up perfectly. You could use anything to decorate the paper like glitter, stickers, let your kids draw and scribble on it... its easy

4. THATS IT! Wrap up the gift and add whatever bows/cards you want. I used a lot of multiple colored curling ribbon just to give it some decoration besides just being a paper bag.

and tied on a quick scrapbooked card

I think it looks pretty good for being free and after I wrapped the first one the hubs walked in and asked where I found some paper at (because I was complaining earlier about not having any) so it fooled him :)