This gift is wrapped in free, yes , FREE gift wrap. Well, not entirely free because I did have to buy feed for my livestock and poultry to obtain it. The teasel embellishment grew near our pond and was cut and preserved by me. The tag is a very old tag I found in the antique secretary my husband inherited from his Great-Aunt Marion Lowery. I added a dried leaf I found on our front lawn , dabbed it in black pigment ink, drenched it in silver embossing powder and heat-embossed. The ribbon is from a gift I received ....so this gift wrap cost me nothing but my time because I would have bought the feed anyway...the chickens do have to eat to produce eggs ya know! ( see, keeping chickens gives me joy, eggs, and gift wrap!) "Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons." Ruth Ann Schabacker
To get a LOT of paper for gift wrap, or for you home-schooling Moms, it makes wonderful art paper ...I take my feed bags...
..cut off the ends and and then cut from top to bottom to open out the sacks. There are usually at least 4 layers of paper in feed bags and all can be used. Sometimes the inner layer can be a bit messy or smelly , depending on the type of feed the bag contained. Most livestock feeds smell at worst, like molasses. A lot of feed sacks are so well done and colorful that the top layer, or feed bag cover, is very colorful and "farmy" making it a good gift wrap for children's and mens' presents. If the paper is too wrinkly for you it can always be ironed. I have used feed bag paper for wrapping presents for years and it gives me a bit more money to spend on the GIFT..and knowing that as the gift wrap is ripped open and tossed aside....well, I don't see dollar signs going into the re-cycling bin along with it. Besides, recycling is very popular now , even patriotic! I call it thrifty and frugal..and FREE! "Love is, above all, the gift of yourself." Jean Anouilh
~Gifts wrapped in my Frugal Farm-Girl Gift Wrap~
"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it."
William A. Ward
"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadows." James 1:17
23 comments:
Beautiful packages Kathy and I love free! I don't have feed sacks but I do use the brown paper grocery bags to wrap many presents and also to ship packages in. Nice and sturdy and free! I notice in the picture of the packages on the table your beautiful table runner you made.
Hope you have a good day.
I like your gifts, they are very original...:o)! Good idea!
I have been reusing all the pretty ribbon from Christmas packages. I think this is the third year I have recycled it and the kids packages , I think anyway, are beautiful.. I guess I should post them later. The paper is from the after christmas sale, though not free, very cheap. Your gifts have a special touch and made more homey by your thoughtfullness.
Kathy, nothing but inspiring creativity flowing from you through your gift wrapping (and your blog post).
Beautiful!
Yes! Makin' do with what we already have on hand! I love it!
I re-use those gift bags that folks spend big money for....just fold them up and tuck them away with the rest of my wrapping supplies. They are good for at least one more round of gifting!
What a wonderfully creative idea, Kathy. I'm really impressed with the beauty of your finished product. Those packages would put a professional gift wrapper to shame.
What beautifully wrapped gifts, Kathy! You are so clever. I, like Mildred, have sometimes used brown grocery bags as gift wrap. I have also used newspaper--especially the colorful comics pages to wrap gifts. :)
Those packages are almost too pretty to open Kathy. I love being frugal!
Kathy I love your packages too!!I have recycled ribbons for a long while now. Love using real ribbons that can be used and reused over and over. Still have wrapping paper that I bought for hardly anything (the day after Christmas) several years ago...does that count?? lol!
Thanks so much for sharing with us!
Christmas Blessings,
Lynn♥
Great Idea, Kathy! I don't have feed sacks (hope to one of these days when I get my chickens) but like some others, I use grocery sacks for various things. And I re-use ribbons, bows, and gift bags.
By the way, I love your new winter banner! Those goats need some jingle bells and red ribbon on their horns.
Oh, you have a good thinker my dear! Those are so cute! I think the pioneers must have used it up just like that..."Necessity is the mother of invention"...thats what my mom always told me! Come say hi :D
Such good use of feed sacks and trimmings!!!
You have done an outstanding job here. Looks great.
Your blog header is neat.
Merry Christmas,
d
What a right big ejiit I've been; all my feed bags have been used for trash bags. Think I'll start tearing them up for gift paper. Thanks for the tip; loved this post!
Hmmm, my last comment didn't make it here. I actually never knew where you got your brown wrapping paper from! Thought you had a large roll of butcher paper and brown paper in your craft room. I'll make sure to sniff it next time to try and guess what kind of feed it carried. =)
Those packages look beautiful! As a nature lover, it especially appeals to me! (And you can't beat free!)
:-)
Mildred, I used to wrap things in brown paper sacks too, but they are getting hard to come by, and also, feed bags give LARGE sections of paper, making it an even better deal for wrapping those larg gifts. And yes, you notice a lot, that was my "Torque on The Table/" Thanks Mildred.
Timi, do you buy bags of feed for your most interesting and beautiful sheep?
Wobegon Cottage, ( Alice ) I do buy gift wrap when it is on sale for a very good price...and I also re-cycle ribbon, gift bags and ribbon . 3 years of recycling , wow, that is a lot of bang for your buck!
Mary, thanks! This gift wrap reminded me of your soap packaging and I might snap a pic of how I tuck your soaps into my gift boxes / bags. They go perfectly.
FarmGirl Cyn, I re-use them too, and re-use them, and sometimes get them back containing a gift FOR me and then they are re-used again!
Mary, very kind of you to say so...thank-you.
Daisy, the funny papers were our typical wrapping paper when the kids were little.And even sometimes, now. But have you noticed they aren't quite as big, bold and innocuous?
Susie, if you don't have feed sacks I discovered there are a lot of bulk foods, like rice and flour, that come in really great bags that have layers of nice paper.
Lynn, I think that counts a LOT, after all, we're saving money and being creative.
Vickie,thanks for the kind words and yes, the animals would be very festive with bells dangling from their horns...don't think Goth will allow that, although he does wear fir and cedar boughs that get stuck in his horns.
Julie, your mother was right and I can tell you are very resourceful in all things necessary to raising a family too.
Deanna, thanks! I am not too adventurous in changing things I like and I really like my original header of my ducks swimming in our pond, but a pic of my sheep in the snow is another of my favorites.
Sandra, yes! You must have a lot of free gift wrap about the farm!
A.joy, that will be fun to watch, we could start a new game...sniff the wrapping paper and guess what kind of feed it contained! And isn't it fun to realize we can still learn new things about each other?
Shelley, thanks. You know, a lot of those bulk bird seed bags are pretty interesting and contain a lot of nice paper too!
Kathy
What a cool idea. I hate throwing those sacks away. Thanks for all your help today
I love that idea, I am always looking for ways to reuse. I just put a couple chicken feed sacks in the trash yesterday, I am going out now to get them. Thanks!
I love your creative wrapping! And I love the way you use items from your farm land to embellish them! You have a lovely blog and I am choosing it as one of my favorites!
I'm off to the barn to check out our stacks of feed sacks. Your use of them is great! Art work on a feed sack is now in my head.
I enjoy all your posts, but you amaze me with your ingenuity! beautiful giftwrap!!
I absolutely love this, do not look at it as frugal, it's art and creativity and very green which is so en vouge! I wish every package was wrapped like this.
Robin, I KNOW you have plenty of free gift wrap !It was fun decorating the hall and taking coffee breaks together yesterday wasn't it?
Leslie, see how beneficial it is keeping chickens?
Alice, thank-you very much, I am honored !
Karen, thank-you so very much. You know, necessity and a budget really do inspire creativity ~
Noble Pig, high praise from you, thank-you!
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