It's Gonna Be a Green & Thrifty Christmas!

I guess Santa cares about being green and thrifty too because he brought cloth wrapping paper! He told me I should pass along the idea because it can save a lot of money, a lot of garbage, and it is super easy. With the holiday sales coming up, you may be able to find cloth fabric for up to 90% off! The tags are wood ornaments you can personalize yourself (and re-use). Here's the details!

HOW TO SEW YOUR CLOTH PAPER

OPTION ONE: You can use any fabric (holiday fabric will be going on sale - it is currently 60% off at JoAnn and 50% off at Hobby Lobby. Cut the fabric in squares (varying sizes, but try to stick with a square). It doesn't need to be perfect, but the squares are a little easier to fold. Hem around the outside (hand sewing is fine, a machine will be faster).


OPTION TWO: Using the same type of fabric (buy off the bolt) sew a bag. To do this you just fold the fabric so the design is facing in and then sew up two open sides. Hem the third open side (the opening of the bag). Then flip it so the design is facing outward and you have a gift bag! This can also be hand sewn, but is much faster if you have a machine.


OPTION THREE: Buy a Christmas Bandanna! Hobby Lobby carries them (regular price is $1.27). There are many Christmas prints and they are already a good size square that does not need to be sewn. They will go on clearance with all of the other Christmas items. The package with the penguin tag is a bandanna.

HOW TO FOLD YOUR CLOTH PAPER

If you made a sack then just put your item in and tie the top with ribbon.


Furoshiki Fold - If you have a flat then there are a few different folds you can make. This page has many of the traditional folds. The green package with the Christmas tree tag is tied using the second fold on that chart. The green stripe package (at the top of the post) with the red ornament tag was tied using the first fold on the chart.


The "Burrito" Fold - put your item at the edge of the cloth, make one fold toward the opposite side, fold in the sides and continue the fold to the edge. Tie the package using ribbon in a T-pattern (wrap it all the way around the package and then twist it and wrap it the other direction). Tie a bow at the top! The package with the green ornament "Daddy" tag was made using the Burrito Fold.


The "Bow" Fold - put your item at the edge of the the cloth and roll it to the other edge. Take the two loose ends and pull them together to the center of the package and tie them with ribbon. Fan the material out so it looks like a large bow. You can also do this fold starting the item at one corner and fold to the other corner. A corner to corner fold will result in a smaller "bow" but it will hold a larger item. The blue snowman package with the red "Callum" ornament tag on it was wrapped with the "bow" fold.

GREEN GIFT TAGS

How do you mark your packages if you can't use stickers! Hobby Lobby, Michaels, JoAnn's, and many other "craft" stores sell wood ornament kits that you can personalize. These are perfect for tags! They range from $0.35-$0.99 each before discounts. You can use them again the next year.

Santa said one yard of fabric ($2.99-$8.99 before discounts) will get you 8 average squares of wrapping paper. A bandanna ($1.27 before discounts) will yield 1 average square of wrapping paper. A package of 8 personalizable ornaments is $2.99-$4.99 before discounts. A couple packages of ribbon will run $0.49 (for thin ribbon) before discounts. I would guess that this wrapping paper will last you as long as you still want to use it. I'll guess 10 years, but honestly it should last longer than that. At most it would need to be washed once a year - I think it should hold up under 10 washings!

For 30 wrapped presents of varying sizes with tags and enough cloth to make 7 more wrappings the total cost was just under $35. With after holiday discounts you could get that down another 50% or so. If I use these for 10 years that is $3.50 a year. I will also not have the extra three bags of paper garbage that I have every Christmas.

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