gift ideas gift wrap neighbor gift paper

Gift Wrap

I really like the look of fancy-schmancy wrapped packages. I just never could justify the extra time and expense, especially when the kiddos just rip into them and destroy all that effort! But, this year I was worried. The kids were only getting 4 gifts total (including from Santa) and I worried that this drastic reduction of the orgy that is opening gifts Christmas morning would result in some unhappy campers.
So, I thought and thought about what I could do to make the whole thing a little more exciting. The first stroke of inspiration was finding these huge vanilla tootsie rolls at the dollar store. My kids LOVE vanilla tootsie rolls so I thought they would be perfect. I was originally going to give them to the kids as part of the countdown, but that peetered out about two weeks before Christmas. So, I took some plastic snowflakes, some ribbon and gift tags from Less Cake {more frosting} and dressed up some packages. They’re hard to see in these pics, but I had to take them at night so it’s the best I could do. 😉


Here’s a mini-tute for ya. Take a package of Ice Breakers and punch out a 3″ circle out of scrapbook paper. Use stickers or stamps to put a name on the circle and tape it to the candy. Get a piece of cellophane (mine was about 14″ by 11″). Place the candy in the center name side down and fold the cellophane around it.


Use ribbon to tie up the ends. You will probably need to trim the ends up a little so it looks more like a wrapped hard candy.

Use some tape and attach to a gift. My kids love this candy too! (can you tell we have sweet teeth at our house?) I usually keep some in my purse and church bag when I’m desperate for something to give them to buy me more quiet. They were thrilled to each get their own package!


These are the cookie boxes I made for some of our neighbors. I didn’t make enough for everyone, but I gave out what I had. If I missed someone, I’m sorry. It was a crazy year- and I plan to remedy it by starting on Christmas 2011, next week! I found the boxes over at Creative Itch and she found them at Inking out of the box.

Here’s the tag I put on each box. They turned out nicely, and I love how the boxes dressed up the cookies. The only thing I would say is that if you have an oily cookie (like my gingersnaps) you may want to line the box with wax paper or something to keep the oil from staining the box.
I’m really looking forward to the new year, with lots of resolutions, big ideas and a few giveaways too! Happy almost New Year.
p.s. I just realized the other day that New Year’s day will be 1-1-11. And who wants to bet that there will be a long line of mama’s trying to have babies with 1-11-11, 11-1-11 and 11-11-11 birthdays? It’s crazy the things women do. 😉
p.p.s. I just did spell check and it didn’t like my use of the words “schmancy” and “peetered”. But I didn’t change them. I’m a rebel like that.

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  • Anonymous
    December 29, 2010 at 10:20 pm

    I really like the icebreaker idea. That will be used this year.

  • Ashlee @ I'm Topsy Turvy
    January 4, 2011 at 2:46 am

    what fun tag ideas for gifts! Thanks for linking up to Topsy Turvy Tuesday's!

  • Jenn-Lee at Moments
    January 6, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    Great ideas! I LOVE getting creative with wrapping gifts too. The candy tag is genius! I am so going to do that for the next bday! Thanks so much. 🙂