Home For The Holidays: Emily Anderson's Pretty Packaging Ideas

Today's Home for the Holidays post is brought to you by another mama with a knack for making the everyday stuff a little bit more exciting with a dash of creativity and a smidgen of resourcefulness. My present pile is currently hiding in our new closet waiting to be wrapped. Have you started checking the gifts off your list?

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Well hello there, Smile and Wave readers...I'm Emily and I am thrilled to be over here today, sharing a bit of some easy holiday cheer :)

Packaging gifts has always been a long time love of mine...most of the time, I like to make the outside of the gift, just as nice as the inside. Sure, it pains me to see someone rip into my masterpiece, but that's okay...that's what it's for! I wanted to share a few ways that you can add to your gift packaging skills. And on the cheap too!

First up---use things you already own.

I'm a big fan of not spending money...luckily for me, I was given this amazing twine as a gift...and I already owned the brown paper lunch sacks (and because we use re-usable lunch bags, these hardly get used)...so, I combined the 2, to make a sweet and simple gift bag:

These can be changed in so many ways too, depending on the gift receiver's style.

Up next---make the outside of the gift, part of the gift.

I love to add a little something pretty to my gift packaging...this is a barrette I own, and look how cute it would look on the outside of a package:

There are tons of tutorials out there, for making these little clips---you could add a little pretty to all of your packaging---and it would double up as something they could look pretty wearing!

Lastly---use fabric to wrap your presents:

I am a self proclaimed fabric junky. Not gonna lie. I own tons and tons of it...so, why not re-use it to wrap some of my lovely boxes this year? And better yet...fabric won't rip, so you can re-use it, or it can be an added bonus to the gift you're giving. If you're giving a sewing kit, wrap it in fabric!

So, wrapping presents this year, doesn't have to expensive, nor does it have to be cheesy. If "happy holidays" wrapping paper is your thing, then by all means, rock it. I think the most important thing to remember is to put love into it...however that looks for you!

Thanks for having me Rachel! You can find me over at The Anderson Crew. I write 5 days a week about life as a mother of young kids...with a little bit of humor thrown in there for good measure. We are adopting a 5th child, little Elsa from Ethiopia. Come on over and join our journey if you'd like! ~Emily

Emily takes weekly photos of herself with her kids to capture the everyday. Check out her regular posts and link up to share your own! It's a great way to ensure plenty of simple memories for you and your children to enjoy when they come home from college and need a good laugh over your hairstyle from 2010. Thanks for sharing your wrapping ideas with us Emily!

xoxo,
Rachel