Free Rolls of Paper

photos courtesy of Memory Makers Magazine

You can pick of end rolls of paper at your Newspaper office for free or a small fee. Just call ahead to check if they have them and the price.
When the boys were little I cut off pieces for them to draw on.
Ideas for using newspaper print:
1. Have the lie down on the newsprint and draw an outline of their body. Let them draw and color or paint their on features and clothes.Cut them out and hang them up.
2. Use for wrapping paper. You can stamp designs on, wrap red ribbon on in diagonal like candy canes, stencil it, wrap your gift in the paper and then wrap a pretty strip of printed gift wrap or scrapbook paper then wrap a band of ribbon. Wrap a small gift and tie with red and white butchers twine.
3. In a pinch you can cut out and make "tissue paper" flames to top off a gift bag.

photo courtesy of Retail Packaging.
Another cool site "The Simple Dollar" has a list of 15 uses for newspaper rolls. One I hadn't thought of was making paper seedling pots Here is another tutorial for paper seedling pots This one is made like a paper cootie catcher. LOL cool hey?

photos of the Cootie Catcher seedling pots courtesy of spring up dundee

More tutorials and ideas

Repurpose White Waste Paper Into Doves For A Beautifully Wrapped Wedding Gift
DIY Gift Wrap by Grey Likes Weddings
life size ghost
Make Gift Wrapping Paper With Kids
Gold Gift Wrap
Pink and White Book/DVD Gift Wrap using a pencil

Another gift idea for Brownies

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with BROWNIES lately. Really I don't bake them that much. But these ideas just keep popping up in my brain!
Again I found this idea at Dollar Tree.
A square cake pan 7 1/2" is perfect for baking a batch of brownies in. Cooling. A dusting of confectioners sugar or spreading on homemade fudge icing. I'll post an easy fudge icing soon. Wrap in cellophane and tie a bow in a wired ribbon and add a cute label.

Pretty Paper Bowls

Yesterday I was looking for ideas for gifting brownies. Wilton has a kit that comes with window boxes, tissue, and sticker 6/$2.99. I'll wait until Hobby Lobby has their 40% off coupon and buy some.
Another idea I found from Martha Stewart. I subscribe to "craft of the day" and in today's mail there was an idea for making pretty paper bowls. I thought now this would be an inexpensive alternative and you could use the colors of your choice!
Martha used white paper plates and bright colored rubber bands. You could make these from the white or your theme color. Add several square sheets of tissue paper or a doily. Lay your brownie in the bowl and wrap with cellophane or plastic wrap and tie a bow from colored twine, ribbon, or string and tie on or sticker label. In place of the colored rubber bands you could use plain rubber band or just use a glue stick to put the bowl together and tie a ribbon around the bowl or leave plain since you're going to wrap it in cellophane or plastic wrap.

Homemade Bath Salts

Homemade Bath Salts

This has several bath salts recipes/formulas.

http://www.favecrafts.com/Gifts-in-a-Jar/Homemade-Bath-Salts/ct/1

I have tureen jars left over from my soy candle making. They would make pretty gifts by adding a round label from Avery on top and tying a hemp string around neck and tying coin charms like they sell at Hobby Lobby to the ends of the string. You can buy waterproof labels but you usually have to order them online so I just spray several light coats of polyurethane spray or even hairspray on your labels before you attach them to your jars.
Avery has a template you can download. If you have problems using a circle template or even finding circle labels you can use square ones.

I found an Avery Design & Print Online. It's free