Phone Book Wrapping Paper for Gifts
DIY Gift Ideas, Parties & Birthdays, Recycled Crafts, Under 1 Hour, Vintage Inspired
AT&T delivered piles of telephone books to my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago. Not needing ours but cringing at tossing the stack into the trash I decided to find some crafty uses for them. So I wrapped my sister Karin’s birthday gifts with birthday-themed yellow pages.
Supplies:
- Telephone book (preferably yellow pages)
- Tape
- Scissors
- Ribbon
or bow for garnish
Flip through the phone book to find a suitable topic. For Karin’s birthday I chose ‘Bakery,’ ‘Balloons,’ ‘Gifts,’ ‘Flowers,’ and ‘Cake.’ Run one side of your scissors down the spine or tear out to remove the page. For smaller boxes like the jewelry box above you can just cut to size and wrap. Add a ribbon, bow or other garnish; I used a fuschia, sheer, shiny metallic ribbon that picked up the pink in the Sweet Cakes logo.
For larger boxes, tape pages together from the backside to create one large sheet, then wrap. For my sister’s larger box I used 12 pages.
I like this idea because it’s simple, whimsical and green for the reduce-reuse-recycle minded. Here are some occasions and suggested phone book themes to try:
Birthday = Balloons, Bakery, Cake, Candy, Liquor
Bachelorette/Bachelor Party = Bars, Liquor, Entertainment, Escorts, Limousine
Baby = Child, Schools, Diaper Service, Nannies, Furniture – Children’s, Clowns
New Home = Moving, Painting
Engagement or Wedding Shower = Bridal, Diamonds, Jewelry, Wedding, Banquet, Bakers, Caterers
Other fun topics for the right recipient: Travel, Aquariums, Body Piercings, Bowling, Costumes, Golf, Tattooing, Pawnbrokers. Let me know what you come up with!
December 25th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Great idea! I had also recently tripped over this video for making a secret book compartment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8W58xK5zFg) but was iffy on the idea of ruining a perfectly good book even for a cute project. Your idea got me thinking that a telephone book might do too…
Thanks!
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
This is SUCH a good idea. Brilliant, actually. Now, I won’t just toss the phone books in the garbage when they arrive on our doorstep!
The real question, however, is *why* do they show up on everyone’s doorsteps in the first place? Such a waste of time and trees, IMO. ;)
December 19th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Kathy – great site. Glad your mom shared the link. And i just have to say that we’ve wrapped many a gift in Sunday comics. No theme there, but it is very colorful…and available!
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
Well the phone book companies aren’t going to be too happy about this…but I have to admit that these kinds of things are going to happen and frankly you’ve done a good job on this…
April 20th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Thanks, guys!! Glad you like this one…
April 17th, 2008 at 1:14 am
I happened to just come across your site. You are very talented! I love this idea and so simple!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
That is hilarious. Maybe I should have saved the other 8 phonebooks I tossed? :-(
April 15th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Genius. Geez. You are so good.