I learned how to be thrifty creative at my mother’s  eco-friendly knee. Our family was large, unconventional and short on cash most of the time. My mother wrapped gifts with newspapers and wallpaper fifty years ago, made bread, cinnamon buns and even tofu from scratch. She invented re-gifting  way back in December of 1962 when she magazine collaged an old wooden radio that belonged to one of my brothers, and gave it to another one of the kids for Christmas.

We never used wrapping paper for gifts, and we didn’t need no stinking tape. There was never a roll of any kind of tape in our house. I thought tape was for rich people.

A proud chip off the old block, I recently, quite beautifully, wrapped a small gift in the car while steering the car with my elbows on the way to a party. I  used an envelope scrounged out of the glove compartment, a bobby pin wound into a spiral on a pencil found wedged between the front seats, and two dandelions plucked out of the grass alongside the walkway to the front door.

Gift bags are all the rage now, mainly because people are just way too busy to wrap a present these days. But why buy gift bags when you can make your own from containers you already have on hand?

Here’s a Handmade in PA Gift Box for a  T Shirt

MATERIALS

1. A food box to fit your item

2. Twine, yarn, ribbon, a shoelace, a vine, raffia, drawstring out of an old pair of sweatpants, anything you can think of to use to make the tie handles.

3. Scissors

4. Glue

5. Hole puncher.

6. A picture, drawing or something, if you like, to decorate the box.

DIRECTIONS

Cut off the top of the box and put the top pieces aside to use later to make a gift tag.

Glue the bottom shut. Your box may already be glued together. I keep all boxes, and store them flat so I can fit a hundred of them in my studio, because you’ll never know when I may need one. If yours is already glued then you are literally one step ahead of the game, and can go to the head of the class.

Now glue your picture or drawing on to the front. I’m using a copy of one of my collages, that I scanned and printed on regular computer paper, which is easy to glue since it’s nice and thin.

You can of course decorate your box any way you wish, or not at all!

Punch two holes up, evenly spaced, at least an inch from the top edge, on both long sides of the box.

Measure the twine, or whatever you are using, by holding it your fingertips, and pulling it up  just beyond your elbow, and cut there. Use this piece as a guide to cut the second piece to the exact same size. Put one piece aside.

Then tie one end of  the other piece into a knot twice.

and pull the other end through the hole you punched, from the inside of the box to the outside of the box.

Pull it all the way through, and the knot will hold it in place. Then make another double knot at the end you pulled through. Now pull the loop on the outside to make the handle. The knots will hold the handle into place.

Then do the same thing on the other side, with the other piece of string you cut, to make the other handle.

MATCHING GIFT TAG

Cut and fold in half a piece of the top of the box that you cut off earlier,

and punch a hole near the folded corner.

Tie another piece of whatever through the hole

Put the shirt inside the box,  gather up the handles and tie the gift tag on to the top of the handles to keep the gift inside till party time. I like the shirt poking out , but you can use a piece of newspaper, tin foil, wax paper, tissue or whatever to hide it if you want.

Ta Da!

Victoria O'Neill, a multiple mediums artist and owner of ArtyPantz Productions LLC has been sharing her creativity with people of all ages for years. "I love people and I love to make things. Creativity flows through me like a hose on full blast, spraying in many directions, all at once."

You may also enjoy: Re-lights by Jerry Kott | Carol Cole, Artist | Gift Guides – New Mothers |