When times are tough you can still have a nice Christmas by cutting corners, here and there. Use pine sprigs and bark from your backyard to create rustic but appropriate decorations for the table and other areas of the home. Hand-write your own Christmas cards rather than spending a lot of money on store-bought cards. Or, wrap presents with potato chip bags instead of buying costly, metallic gift wrap. Think potato chip bag gifts won’t be too impressive? You’ll think otherwise once you see just how beautiful the potato chip bag gift wrap really is.
After emptying a potato chip bag, cut the bottom off of it, then cut it down one side. Wash the bag with warm, soapy water and air-dry or use paper towels. Be careful not to tear the bag.
Set your gift on the printed side of the potato chip bag and wrap it as you would any other present. Ordinary Scotch tape works fine to secure it. The silver package is beautiful and really cheap. But, when the recipient opens the gift, he or she will see that it’s a potato chip bag. If you’d like to make a better impression than that just take the craft one step further.
After cutting down the side of the bag, lay it out flat, placing the metallic side against the table. Use lengths of colored, metallic tape, and cover the entire printed side of the bag. Just tear a long strip, stick it to the bag, tear another, and place it next to the first one. Barely overlap the tape pieces or just butt them together nicely. You’ll find it easiest to tape the bag if you cut the tape pieces a little longer than needed. After the entire bag is taped you can then trim the ends to be the same length as the potato chip bag.
Besides using a potato chip bag as wrapping paper you can also use it as ribbon. Although it’s nearly impossible to tie the flimsy potato chip bag into a bow, it’s still suitable as ribbon. After opening the bag, and laying it flat, cut slender or wide strips, from one short end to the other. After wrapping the ribbon around the package one way, and around the package the other way, use a store-bought bow to conceal the ends of the ribbon and to finish the look.
Every time you empty a potato chip bag this year, wash it, then put it away for next year’s Christmas. You can make silvery, shiny gift wrap that will impress any guest on your list, while saving you all that money you used to spend on gift wrap.