Wrapping Presents in Newspaper

[Wotsits31]

Hi, I want to be a bit different this year with my gift wrapping and give them that old fashioned look.
So I am planning on wrapping them in newspaper and then tying with old fashioned twine and postal tags. Only thing is I don't want all my family getting their hands covered in newspaper print (although am only going to use The Times!).
Does anybody know of anything that I could spray on the newspaper to preserve the print and stop everyone's hands getting dirty or is this just a really crap idea! :-)
Help!

[excelsior]

it's an excellent idea .. really different and fun. however i'm not aware of anything you can use as a spray to help.

you could try magazines - they are mostly more permanent with their printing . .


good luck

[cazzz1975]

when I was at school , we used to spray fixative onto messy pictures to seal them, a cheaper alternative is hairspray.

[slipnot]

Photocopy a newspaper!

[Jugglering]

I know this doesn't answer your question but one of my former neighbours used to wrap her presents in old fashioned brown paper and twine and then label them with gold and silver coloured glittery gel pens - it was a lovely effect - and might be an alternative or an addition to the newsprint wrappings.

I would think that hairspray should seal the ink on newsprint, but don't use too much or the recipients of your gifts might get sticky fingers instead of inky ones...

[york310]

they would look a lot nicer in just plain brown parcel paper with string/twine rather than newspaper.

[smudge]

york beat me to it. I was going to suggest plain brown parcel paper with rough string/twine. I did this a couple of years ago for the adults & everyone loved the idea!

I also bought some really nice brown/cream tags to go with it. They had pictures of Victorian ladies, men & holly on.

[Reverandfunk]

Sounds like the actions of a gypsy lol

[smudge]

Carefully folded parcel paper, wrapped, strung & tagged, they actually look very nice Rev!

I only go for the classy look....! ;o}

[smudge]

Unless you were referring to fish & chip paper. lol

[derrynoose]

If you are eventually persuaded to wrap in brown paper, try using sealing wax for added effect.
Am I the only one who is old enough to remember the time when almost all parcels through the post were wrapped in brown paper with the knots secured by sealing wax---applied by melting the end of a pencil-like bar of red wax with a match and allowing the hot wax to drip on to the knots.
( Parcels sent by Registered Post had, in addition, bold blue markings spanning their girth.)

[curiosity]

or you could splash some black bin bag with different paint, looks great.

[squarebear]

For a special gift, I made a sheet of A4 in MIcrosoft Word which had a personalised Christmas greeting printed all over it and wrapped a small present in that.

This went down well, especially when they realised the paper had their name all over it.

[Whoever]

Try the Financial Times. Nice pink colour, and very topical at the moment with all the Credit Crunch problems in the news !

[karmabum]

DEFINITELY HAIRSPRAY. Just buy a tin of a supermarket economy/budget brand. But spray and dry the paper before wrapping, or you could end up with hairspray soaking through to the gift, or gluing the paper to it or some such similar disaster! And don't spray it near your christmas tree or you could end up with a fire hazard.... good luck though, a brilliant idea. ;o)

[fletcher.5]

Why the Times?

[vf]

What a silly idea. Nobody ever wrapped presents or parcels in newspaper, so what on earth is old-fashioned about it?

If you want old-fashioned, then try not wrapping at all (too expensive), not giving presents (couldn't afford any), or giving a hand-knitted jersey wrapped in humble ordinary not-very-good-taste paper.

Now that's old-fashioned

[brenda]

I have used a roll of thin, cheap, but pretty wallpaper sometimes. Can look O.K.