Merry Christmas Eve eve! My shopping is done—more importantly my crazy work week is done—and I’m finally getting into the holiday spirit. This year instead of spending even more money on gift wrap, bags and bows, I thought I’d use what I already have on hand to make my gifts extra special.

I love kraft paper. I’ve used it for envelopes, limited edition prints, and this year I decided to use it to wrap several of my gifts. I grabbed a couple grocery bags from my recycling pile and voila! The perfect blank canvas for all your creative endeavors. You’ll notice my palette isn’t exactly traditional: I love to work in blues and other jewel tones to make a modern holiday scheme.

On any patterned wrap, my letterpress circle garland would get lost, but against a simple grocery  bag background, it really pops. So easy to do, yet it’s really all you need! Then I tried a great ribbon plaid wrap I’d seen online. It looks complicated, but it’s really just a matter of weaving your ribbons over and under each other and taping them to the back of the box. If you’re more of a bow person, find a great tutorial here to make your own with all those scraps of fabric you might have lying around.

Next: the perfect solution for those oddly shaped gifts. I gathered a silk scarf around the top of this wine bottle—creating a gift that’s twofold, since the receiver can wear the scarf!

That big white box is the standard gift box you get when making purchases from any department store. I decided to glam it up with black satin ribbon on each corner, and accented the top one with some plastic rhinestones I’ve had in my craft bin for years.

Here’s wishing you and yours a fantastic holiday season. I didn’t quite make my blogging goal this month, but I hope you’ve enjoyed what I have been able to post for you! I’m heading out this afternoon to spend time with family, relax and do a lot of printing, so I’ll see you in 2012!