Now you can trick out your canisters with the best of them, and transform your empty egg cartons into muffin holders. We’re going further into upcycling gift wrap territory by using an even lowlier receptacle: the lowly shopping bag.

Not a plastic one. I haven’t figured out how to beautify those yet. No, I am speaking of the lovely, sturdy brown paper bags that you can find at places like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or even a few mainstream grocery stores.

And it doesn’t take much to beautify a brown paper bag, honestly. In fact, all you have to do is cut it apart and wrap it with the outside facing in. Does that make sense to anyone here? No? OK, I’ll try again.

Step by step transformation of a grocery bag into wrapping paper:

1. Remove the handles. Just pull ‘em off!
2. Cut straight down along one corner of the bag, all the way to the bottom.
3. From there, cut off the bottom of the bag.
4. Lay the bag out flat, with the designs from the outside facing up.
5. Lay your gift on top of the bag and wrap as you would any present.

• a collection of salt dough ornaments
• homemade jam or other canned goods
• a selection of homemade chocolates and truffles (you can find some great recipes in our HealthyHolidays free eBook!)
• themed gifts such as a spaghetti dinner (with noodles and sauce), ice cream fixings, or movie night

And of course, it’s limited only by your creativity! Whatever you need to wrap up can be wrapped in this style. Furthermore you can dress it up in a lot of different ways. I had some fun when I was wrapping presents the other night for my family, coming up with some different ways to dress up the paper bag.

Use fancy or plain string and tie it in the old-fashioned way with a big ol' bow on top.

The easiest way to dress up brown paper: pretty fabric ribbon in any design or color. You can also write directly on the package in a coordinating marker or pen.

Cut apart old Christmas cards, and punch holes into them. Tie them onto the package for instant - and free - decoration.

Add natural elements - either real or fake - like cinnamon sticks, poinsiettas or sprigs of pine boughs.

Tie on a candy cane for embellishment. Other ideas: trinkets and small ornaments.

Check out the fun print from the side panel of the Trader Joe's bag!

Homebaked goodies are a delicious frugal gift this time of year (that everyone loves, even if they groan at the thought of one more sweet treat), but there’s always the dilemma of how to present them. You saved all that money by making the gifts yourself, only to go and spend a fortune on the packaging? Doesn’t make sense, does it? That’s why I’ve learned to put together some pretty creative - and even elegant - packaging without spending a dime. I just scrounge around my house and come up with junk that does a decent job of containing my kitchen creations, and then dress it up a bit for the occasion.

It looks a lot better than it sounds, I promise.

Last week, I showed you how to make a cute little muffin (or truffle) holder using a humble egg carton. This week, we’re going to take a plain old can to new heights of fashion it never even dreamed existed.

And it doesn’t matter what kind of can. Ideally, it should be large enough to hold approximately a dozen cookies (although vegetable cans would make cute little mini-gifts, too), so we’re thinking more along the lines of a canister. For example:

• coffee tin
• oatmeal container
• formula can
• large can of pumpkin puree

my naked can

• Make a focal point out of the blank space by using some complementary paper to fill it in. You can even write a greeting here or use it as a gift tag, or use it as a backdrop for a big dramatic bow.
• Cut another strip of the same paper and glue it over the gap for a more seamless look.
• Find a larger piece of paper that will fit all the way around.

I went with option #1, as you can see. If you want to do the same, here’s how:

Yes, I know, I should have chosen papers that complemented the lid color!

Voila!

My approach to crafting is much the same as my approach to food (and life in general): quick, easy, and cheap. Might as well throw healthy in there, too, except that health doesn’t often get involved, unless it counts that I attempt not to glue myself with the hot glue gun or stab myself with the scissors.

So if I ever offer a craft of any sort on this blog, you can rest assured that it is neither time-consuming nor difficult, and most certainly not expensive. Probably not especially creative either, but that’s where other people (and Pinterest!) come in. If I had to rely on my own ingenuity for crafts, the end result would be nothing to blog home about.

When gifting from the kitchen - my favorite way to give at the holidays - I try not to spend too much on the gift presentation. After all, part of the purpose of gifting from the kitchen in the first place is to save money, and it would be silly to then spend waste money on mere packaging. I am therefore always on the lookout for new and creative ways to re-use and upcycle various containers around my home with which to gift my baked goods. Throughout the holiday season, I’ll be sharing you how to make some creative gift packaging for your home-baked goodies without wasting a precious dime. (Positive side effect: you will be very trendy, and all of your friends will be amazed and delighted by your ability to repurpose and upcycle with the best of them! Be sure to throw around those words, too; they just make you sound totally cool.)

This particular project was one of the gems I came across on Pinterest, and have kept it in waiting for the perfect occasion. Now the perfect occasion (otherwise known as Christmas) has arrived, and I have wasted no time trying it out.

The container for this gift is the humble egg carton. Think about those little sockets that formerly held elliptical orbs of goodness. What else can fit in there? I came up with the following shortlist, and I’m sure you creative people out there can think of even more:

1. mini muffins
2. donut holes
3. cake balls (no stick needed)
4. truffles
5. no-bake cookies
6. any round cookie

I chose mini muffins, simply because they were the quickest and that was my pressing need at the time. That was also the original suggestion on the tutorial by Fiskars that I more or less followed for this project.

I promise you - and I can’t repeat it often enough - this is a craft for non-crafty people. I know because I am one! Seriously. I used a glue stick, OK? Does that tell you anything? (Now, if you have one of those fancy rolling adhesive tapey thingies, than by all means, use it! But if you don’t, a glue stick works just fine.) I also rounded my corners with good old-fashioned scissors because I don’t have one of those totally cool paper punches. Good for you if you have one, but in case you don’t… it’s totally not necessary for this little craft.

To make this Mini Muffin Egg Carton, you will need:

• an empty and clean (i.e., no dried egg goo) egg carton
• 2 pieces complementary scrapbook paper
• a length of coordinating ribbon
• a brown paper lunch bag (optional)

So here’s how it’s done. Keep in mind that egg cartons vary slightly in shape, size and style, so all measurements are approximations at best. (OK, they were the measurements I used, so they’ll be perfect for you if you have the exact same egg carton.) Also keep in mind that this little project is totally customizable to what you have on hand.

First of all, if your egg carton is like mine, and has a piece in the top that inserts into the bottom, you’ll have to cut it out. I just used my scissors (an exacto knife would work better if you have one, but I didn’t feel like getting mine out of the hall closet.) to cut out the whole rectangle so that the surface would be flat for the paper to adhere. Leave the middle piece intact or your whole carton will fall apart.

If you have one flat solid surface on the top of your egg carton, you can of course skip that step, and then cut out 2 10.5″ by 3″ rectangles. If you have the ridged kind of egg carton, you’ll need two smaller rectangles for the inside, so in that case cut out 1 10.5″ by 3″ rectangle, and then 2 4.75″ by 3.25″ rectangles. Round the corners with your scissors or a paper punch.

Glue the rectangles carefully to the outer and inner surfaces of the carton lid, smoothing out any wrinkles. For the inside of the lid, cut out two 3″ by 2″ rectangles from the complementary paper and glue them onto the first paper, centering carefully. (If you have one long surface unhindered by the ridge in the middle, you can just make one big rectangle, or you can go ahead and use the 2 smaller rectangles.)

Cut out 2 3″ by 2″ rectangles from the top of your paper bag (or from a solid color paper). Use a coordinating marker to write your greeting on the paper (Merry Christmas, for example). Glue the greeting onto the paper you already have in place.

Now, if you want to make a tag, simply cut off the bottom of your paper lunch bag, and glue all the open ends together. Fold it in half like a book and firmly crease the edge. Use your remaining scrapbook paper to cut rectangles to fit on the front “cover” and in the middle of the open “book”. Use remaining scraps from the lunch bag to cut smaller rectangles where you can write a greeting or short note. Glue them into the center of the front and the middle. Punch a hole in the corner of the little booklet.

Fill your egg carton with muffins or whatever goodie you’ve chosen, and then wrap the ribbon around it, being sure to secure your tag.

I kept getting interrupted by one thing or another, but all in all, this was a relatively QUICK project. and now that I’ve made one, I can whip out several more in probably the same amount of time. I probably also wont’ make the tag every time. It’s cute and all, but it takes a little too much time!

It’s very EASY, or I wouldn’t have done it! Most of you have been cutting and pasting since kindergarten, so I think you can handle it.

Super CHEAP! I paid almost nothing for this particular one. Of course, the egg carton was free (a bonus for buying eggs!), the paper was on clearance at Hobby Lobby, the lunch bag was dug out of the bottom of my pantry, and the ribbon was 70% off at Michaels on Black Friday.

Um, HEALTHY? Well, I didn’t notch any fingers or glue myself to the table this time, so I guess one can consider it healthy.

Sharing at Handmade Christmas Gift Carnival