I don’t enjoy buying wrapping paper and ribbon as it can be quite expensive; money I would prefer to spend on the actual gift. Christmas paper is especially a burden. There’s always a roll or two left over that then has to be stored for an entire year before it can be used again.

An alternative to this is to get crafty and create your own wrappings and trims. There’s so many awesome gift wrapping ideas on Pinterest however I have found many of these to be overly complicated. So I am sharing with you today a few gift wrapping ideas which are very achievable even if you don’t have any crafting ability. They hit that sweet spot of creating maximum impact without requiring a huge amount of skill, time or outlay in materials.

Here I have used inexpensive acrylic yarn to make a pom pom. These are very easy to make. Pom pom makers are inexpensive to buy however if you don’t have one, and don’t wish to buy one, you can improvise a form by using either a fork or cardboard.

I bought a craft punch from Spotlight to repurpose old Christmas cards into gift tags and to decorate the gifts. If you have great scissor skills you might want to save yourself $30 and not buy the craft punch. The punch however is very quick and easy to use and the shapes are always perfect. I have a daughter who loves craft so I am confident I will get my money’s worth.

The gift on the right hand side has a strip on “confetti tape”. To make this, first you use a standard office hole punch to create the confetti and then sprinkle it on the sticky side of a strip of wide tape. It was a nice way to use up the left over bits of Christmas card after I used the craft punch however I found this to be a little tedious and time consuming. It is a pretty effect though.

Here I have used the rounds with the yarn.

The red and white twine makes for a more hipster look. I purchased a large roll of twine from a florist shop for $8.95.

And what do you do with gifts that aren’t beautifully proportioned boxes? Loosely wrap it in tissue paper and place it in a bag!

These plain white gift bags are the perfect blank canvas. They are available from Spotlight and Riot Art and cost about $5 for a pack of five large bags.

I downloaded a reindeer template from the internet, traced it on the bag, outlined carefully with a Sharpie pen and used a blob of glue and glitter for the nose. It’s very simple but very effective.

The most simple option is to decorate with pretty satin ribbon. Simple but elegant.

These are some very simple but still very effective ideas to create beautifully presented gifts – ideas that could easily be adapted to suit any occasion. Check out my Pinterest Christmas board for other great Christmas foods and crafts!

How do you wrap your gifts? Do you like buying wrapping paper?