Wrap It Up! {Quick, Easy, Last-Minute DIY Gift Wrap}

"What's your favorite Christmas tradition?"  That question has come up several times recently, and I always have a hard time answering.  Most of our traditions in recent years haven't been of the big, fancy sort, but we do have lots of special little traditions we enjoy.

One of the "little things" that has become a tradition for us is our annual trek to the newspaper building to pick up an end roll of newsprint.  For years we've gone downtown to the dock of the old green newspaper building and bought a roll of newsprint to use for our Christmas gift wrap.  A big roll costs $3.00, and it lasts us all year for gift wrapping, crafts, and other projects.

I didn't realize what a tradition our trip to the newspaper building was until we called this year and discovered that they no longer sell the end rolls at the old building downtown.  Instead of pulling up to the back dock and ringing the bell to make our purchase, this year we went to the {much newer} newspaper building and bought our end roll right at the front desk.  (The change took a bit of the fun out of it for some of us. :))

It's been fun over the years to come up with creative ways to spruce up our newsprint packages.  I've drawn with crayons and markers, used punches and hand-cut lettering and paper-piecing, and made yarn pompoms.  Here are a few examples...(if you don't have newsprint handy, kraft paper, butcher paper, or even solid-colored wrapping paper can be used instead)...

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