Brown paper packages tied up with string...

I wrapped and packed up the presents for my in-laws in Ohio yesterday. We'll be shipping them off today. I wish I'd have taken pictures of the kids' wrapped up presents before I taped up the packing box (I have pictures of some of the presents themselves, but I know my sister-in-law reads my blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise! Ha!) But I don't feel like ripping off the packing tape off the box so I can just take pictures, so here's a picture of a similar package that I gave away.

And of course a tag. The snowflake is rubber-stamped, but I "cheated" on the words...they're printed from the computer. It was a last minute thing and I didn't want to spend time on stamping all the letters. I'm a big fan of Jute twine (I'm quickly running out!), but I love this ribbon/yarn too. I've been using it a lot this year (you can see the blue version on my last post about the Oyster Crackers). I have 4 different colors of it...green, blue, orange/yellow, and red/pink. I've become a big fan of the "brown paper packages tied up with string" style of wrapping presents. I obtained a bunch of brown paper that was used as padding in the Pampered Chef boxes when the stuff from my party came...and I couldn't bear to throw it out and knew "I'd use it for something" (a phrase I know sadly contributes to the disaster area status of the office/craft room.) But a lot of times I'm glad I didn't throw something out...in this case I got brown wrapping paper for free rather than having to go out and buy it.