don't know what happened to my original response! but i did go check out the link, and i signed up for free, and then downloaded dozens of decorative fonts and shapes, which i use a lot in my projects, would be very useful for greetings cards. plus i downloaded some cookbooks, and a craft projects book. there's one cookbook for 111 recipes for eggs, looks interesting! and one with camping recipes plus the usual cookies, and a cheesecake book......and more. i liked the link, myself. kudzu

As long as I didn't have to clean up the mess of the shredded paper, I didn't mind wrapped. I kind of enjoyed wrapping gifts. But I do think it's a waste of money and other resources. Better to use the comics or something. You can get creative in wrapping. My sister was the first to start using bags and cheapo that I am, I'd save and reuse them. We'd give the same bag back and forth. Now I use the reusable shopping bags more and more for gift bags. It's an extra gift in itself. As far as what I'd prefer to receive? An envelope. Stuffed with cash. Large denominations. As I've said before, THERE'S a thoughtful gift! You may wrap it in money if you want. Or use cash for the tissue too if you like. Christmas is approaching. Feel free to send anytime. It's cheaper to ship too!

We also do bags for odd shaped items, but mostly we do paper because we're coming off 7 years of elementary school gift wrap fund raisers... I joke with DD that her kids are going to get gifts wrapped in some of that paper. I've vowed to not buy anymore paper until we use up what we have. So no theme, except paper we like. In our family, particularly with DH's family, we tend to recycle the gift bags and the same ones turn up year after year. It's sort of fun to see the same ones again and again, though sometimes hard to make a call that one needs to be culled and recycled.

I agree that beautifully presented gifts do not have to cost much. My favorite DIY touches come from my garden... a sprig of rosemary or clipping of boxwood tied with twine on plain craft paper. I also have a hearty lavender bush, and I love to clip from it because the leaves still have a light scent even in winter. My favorite paper is an ivory craft paper. (It's not all paper-bag brown anymore). Some green garden twine... cheap. And various dried florals. I work with dried florals so always have extras, but you can go outside and snip anything from your garden. Greeting cards have become ridiculously expensive for what they are, IMO. Instead, I use a lot of dried florals for greeting cards, too. Plain white or ivory stock cards from the craft store work just fine. I know an amateur photographer who prints his favorite landscape shots and flower close-ups, attaches them to the front of plain card stock, and uses them for thank-you's, birthdays, invites, etc. The handwritten message on the inside is what makes it so special. I'm wrapping a few special gifts today... I'll try to remember to take a photo.