Frugal Alternatives for Wrapping Paper and Gift Wrapping

I know some people who spend more money on wrapping a gift than I spend on the entire gift itself. Wrapping is simply a cover to keep the recipient from seeing the gift before they open it. This can be achieved a lot of different ways.

To be fair, I'm not a perfectionist wrapper. I have an aunt who turns wrapping into an art form. I only have the patience to wrap nicely when doing 1 or 2 gifts at a time (birthdays, weddings, etc). When wrapping for Christmas, or when wrapping multiple gifts for children, I am more likely just to get the box covered with something. In all of the chaos of kids and Christmas, they don't really care how things are wrapped! I spend much more effort on single presents for occasions.
I might spend 15 minutes wrapping a wedding gift, but only two to wrap the 15th Christmas gift for my husband.

If you'd like to maintain the look of paper wrapping, think of alternatives. Use leftover wallpaper, or let your kids draw on a roll of butcher or white paper, and then wrap with that! If the item is small, an inside out grocery bag decorated with rubber stamps can be very cool.

I have a big box of rubber stamps, and several colors of paper rolls. (All bought inexpensively from yard sales or craft stores) By matching the right paper and stamps, you can actually make a more attractive gift than by using regular wrapping paper. For instance, for my nephew that adores trains, I would use my roll of white paper- and stamp multicolored trains all over it, along with using the Alphabet stamps to stamp his name in several places. Use a co-ordinating ribbon, and you have a gift that looks professionally wrapped, for only a few cents! This is also a good way for scrapbookers to try out fancy stamping techniques like embossing. People who enjoy scrapbooking probably have most of the supplies on hand to create cool wrapping paper already. Just buy a cheap roll of paper from your local party supply store and you're set! You can make your own holders for rolls of paper or ribbon by using dowels.