Present Wrapping

For a long time I have wanted to wrap presents in brown paper because it looks so old timey. Usually I run out of time to plan this so I just end up getting paper with santas on it from a drugstore close by. This year we happened to have some brown kraft paper because we had to mail a package in September. Plain paper means we get to decorate it ourselves so the possibilities are ENDLESS! Since I'm not that artistic that limits the possibilities quite a bit. I choose to do thumbprint designs taken from one of my all time favourite books 'Ed Emberley Complete FunPrint Drawing Book'. I got this book from Scholastic book orders when I was in grade school. It has never let me down. I highly recommend finding a copy bc you never know when a thumbprint design may come in handy.
All I really needed to decorate the presents was a fine black felt pen and a stamp pad in my colour of choice. However I went to the dollarstore and went slightly crazy in the craft aisle. Now I have a nice shoebox full of crafting things. My favourite purchase was some sticker ribbon from the scrapbooking section. It looks like thin christmas ribbon but has a sticky backing. It is perfect for making sparkly collars for thumbprint reindeer.
 One of the best things about this project was the cost. A roll of brown kraft paper at Staples is 4 dollars for 40 ft. The rest of the items were about 10 bucks from the dollar store, including pencil crayons and glitter. The only downside is that the paper is slightly transparent so if I was so inclined to sit under the tree, I could trace out the words on the box beneath. I'm not so inclined and most of our presents will be opened as soon as they are received, so it is not such a huge downside for us.
Here are some of the designs

I meant to post a few more but I can't get blogger to stop posting them upsidedown. Oh well.