I have not bought wrapping paper for years. It is not that I am a total cheap skate, I am just a total tree hugger. I keep the bags and paper that we receive our gifts in and that has kept us well stocked. This year I was going to be crafty and make some gift bags out of felt, but then I thought of something even easier. I bought some Christmas fabric at the craft store last week and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I loved the pattern. I brought it home, washed and ironed it, and then ta-da - the light bulb went on! I am going to use it to wrap my gifts. Then the people can just give it back to me and I'll have it to make some sort of project next year, or just wrap more gifts.
It wouldn't be the most economical if you had a lot of large presents to wrap, but for smaller items, this works great. To make it even more eco-friendly, I used kitchen twine to tie it and made tags out of brown grocery bags.
I found this link that has some other great eco-friendly gift wrapping ideas. I like the idea about holding a contest to see who can come up with the most creative eco-friendly wrapping job! So think outside the wrapping paper tube this Christmas and save a tree! (We'll skip the discussion about live trees versus fake, potted, etc.)
Joining in with livingwellspendingless.com for Thrifty Thursday.