Frugal Living - gift wrapping

We have some birthdays coming up and pretty soon I will really be focusing on finishing up our Christmas preparations (I start preparing for Christmas and the years birthdays with the after Christmas sales....but that is a post for a later date).  So, I thought I would write today about how we save money with wrapping our gifts.  I like the packages to look nice, but I find spending large amounts of money on wrapping that will just be ripped off and thrown away to be throwing away good money that could be spent on the gift itself instead.
So here are a few tips on how I save money wrapping my gifts.

Save the Gift Bags & Bows
When a gift we receive comes wrapped in a gift bag we save it.  I have a tub in our storage unit that is designated for gift wrapping.  We do the same with the bows.  Of course my husband took a little convincing in this area, especially when you can get bows for really cheap with the after Christmas clearance.  However, as long as its not ripped, torn, or has somehow lost its presentable appearance we reuse.  This has saved us sooo much money!  It also saves on the amount of trash we have from gift giving events.  On the rare occasion that I do need to restock, I go to the dollar store or buy at the after Christmas clearance sales. 

If it isn't ripped, Save the Tissue Paper
Gifts are supposed to be special, so I do have my limits on how far I will go to save a penny.  But if it isn't ripped I don't see a point in throwing tissue paper out just to go and buy more.  I smooth it out and fold it up.  Then off to the tub it goes.  The ripped tissue paper is great for kids projects that they will be ripping it up for anyway.

Shred Used Gift Wrap and Use as a Filler for Gift Baskets
I haven't personally tried this one, but I am making a lot of gift baskets for Christmas gifts this year so I definitely will be.  I found the idea on pinterest  Find the idea here

Turn Old Cards Into Gift Tags
I really got tired of throwing out all the cards we have been given, so I experimented with turning them into gift tags.  I used to cut out the pictures and sayings to use to make new cards, but with two young children I haven't had the time to do that.  To make the gift tag you take a card (preferably with no writing behind the picture you want to use).

Cut out the picture(s) you want to use with plain scissors or the ones with the nice edges.  In this case I used the plain scissors.

This one I will leave as is.

But you can also glue the pictures to scrapbook paper.  Add some scrapbook stickers or glitter.  Then cut out.  For this I used a scissor with a pretty edge.

In this case, I got 4 gift tags from the one card.