Merry Christmas my friend! Its early… very early!  And if you are up right now, you are most likely cooking or wrapping presents! Nothing wrong with gift wrapping at the last minute…however, you might find you don’t have everything needed. Low on tape? Not enough paper on the roll? Ran out of ribbon?

So typically I’m on top of the game. All Christmas presents are purchased and wrapped by beginning of November. Grocery shopping is done within one week of Christmas, & holiday cards are sent out 3 weeks before the day. However this year, the only thing completed on my busy schedule was the cards.

Last week, I bought the tree. ONE week before Christmas, and believe me, its staying up till February! Grocery shopping was completed today amidst the chaos, and just yesterday I finished wrapping presents. When wrapping presents, I find that I run out of ribbon, all the time (I’ll have  6 inches left- which is never enough). So finding myself in this predicament again this year, I decided to look around the house and see what crafty things I could come up with.

As I have seen yarn used in creative/other than knitting ways recently, I decided to go for it and here is what became one of my favorite substitutes to date:

If you want the yarn balls to be more “round/symmetric” just grab your scissors and start trimming even amounts. (remembering to rotate as you trim)

I measured about 12 inches for the tie.(to go around most packages). Some I did more, some less. Its more of a personal preference and depends on the size of gift box.

A few of my gifts under the tree. I love how the yarn looked wrapped several times around the gift, with the ball then tied to center.

As there were a few extras, I decided to use around fireplace mantle