Weekend Wrap Up for the Last Minute Shopper

Are you a last Minute Shopper?  Hitting the grocery store gift card section on Christmas Eve?  Here's a way to spruce it up a bit and personalize your gift giving experience.  The best news is that it will cost you nothing to show the thought that you put into your gift.

First grab a magazine that you've already read and find a picture that reflects your gift recipients style, a favorite hobby, etc.  Here's what you'll need:

You'll need to cut four pieces from your magazine; two from the cover or another thick page within the magazine and two more cut from your specially selected page.  For a standard size gift card you'll want to cut your pieces 3" tall and 4 1/4" wide (for other sizes add 1" to the height and width of the gift card).  You'll also need a sewing machine for this one.

Take one of the cover pieces and place it under one of the picture pieces and fold the top edges back  about a 1/4".  Then sew a simple straight stitch across the fold, this will form the clean finished top edge of your gift card holder:

Repeat for the remaining two pieces.  Then place the two joined pieces together with the two cover pieces facing each other and sew them together using the fancy stitch of your choice.  Remember only to sew along the three remaining raw edges:

And viola, now you have a one-of-a-kind gift card holder that you can slip into the branches of the tree, add to existing gift or just give it as is.

Well, that wraps up the Weekend Wrap up for the year.  I hope you enjoyed it and took away an idea or two for trimming the waste from your holiday wrapping.  I'm pleased to say that I didn't purchase a single roll of wrapping paper, bag of bows or box of gift tags this year.  They were all hand made with my gift recipients (and the environment) in mind!

Whatever the holiday you celebrate, may it be all that you dreamed!