Although I do purchase ready-made gift wrapping materials from time to time, most often I prefer to use rolls of solid paper, craft paper bags, and plain gift tags that I decorate while keeping in mind each person’s style. You may recall the hand-printed gift wrap I made last year or the easy button gift embellishments I created quite recently. Both were a hit with the recipients. Perhaps it’s the decorator in me, but how the package is wrapped is almost as important as the gift inside.

As many of you know, wrapping presents is one of my favorite things to do around the holidays. I’m so fortunate this year to have a wrapping room (a project/storage room that has been taken over by wrapping materials), and I don’t have to haul everything up to our dining table, wrap some presents, and then pack it all up again so we can eat. It’s made the whole experience even more enjoyable, and I highly recommend having a dedicated area in your house for these kinds of projects if you have the extra room.

Wrapping gifts doesn’t have to be expensive. This year I found so many items around the house, as well as free printables online. As a result I only had to purchase a few gift bags and a bit of ribbon.

Button Gift Tags

While I was preparing for projects earlier this fall, I came across containers full of buttons I thought would be perfect for creating something for Christmas. Recently, while my husband was in Europe for work (so jealous!) and my son was snowboarding (again, so jealous!), I took advantage of the free time and hand made a series of gift tags for specific people on my list.

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