I was not blessed with the gift of gift wrapping. I am always in awe of those that can tie a bow with the flick of a wrist or at the very least cut a straight line. I chose to cover up my lack of skill by doing the gift bag thing for a very long time, too long. I gave up the bag habit when we starting attending a lot of birthday parties, a whole lot of birthday parties. With two kids under 6 we go to at least 2 birthday parties a month and some months it is as high as 5! So with 2-5 parties a month, gift bags + tissue paper+ a card is almost as expensive than the gift inside! Also if you have ever seen a Christmas tree with only gift bags under it, it looks pretty sad. The conclusion, I must go back to gift wrapping. I needed to simplify the process and loop the kids into the process.

Now, my all occasion gift wrapping supplies include: brown butcher paper, washi tape, and a set of letter stamps. That’s it. No ribbon, no cards, no tissue paper. I use butcher paper because it comes in large rolls that last forever. I also like that it can be dressed up or down. I use washi tape because even the kids can wrap it around the gift and it looks great. They also come in really fun patterns and colors, but is more user friendly (or idiot proof if you prefer) than ribbon. I use stamps because it looks cool and even the three year old can help! I also let the kids decorate the gift with any drawings or designs. This replaces a card for us and is more personal in my opinion.

My five year old can complete all the steps on her own and the brown paper is very forgiving of non-straight lines. I didn’t get any pictures of her doing the early steps, but below are a few of her stamping a gift for a friend last weekend. I also make this process even easier because I only buy Step into Reading books, that’s it. So if you invite us to a party, you are getting these books. Sorry to ruin the surprise but kids love them and they are easy to wrap (do you sense a theme?)!

Happy Wrapping!

Finished product!