Buying gift wrap and accessories to dress up your holiday gifts can put a dent in your Christmas budget. Here are some ideas from Scripps Howard News Service on some fun and inexpensive ways to wrap those presents:

¢ Personalize each present for its recipient by creating your own gift tags. Gift tags are quick to make and can be simple (stamped only), elaborate (stamped, embossed, colored and glittered) or anything in between.

¢ Gather the kids and make wrapping paper by hand. Buy a long roll of any solid colored paper and put out plenty of crayons, markers, paints, stickers and stamps to make your paper beautiful.

¢ If you’re short on time, place your present in a decorative tin.

¢ Save Christmas cards and turn them into wrapping paper. Tear or cut off the front of the cards and glue them to gift bags, or tape them together to wrap your presents.

¢ If the gift paper is running out and there’s not a whole piece large enough to wrap a present, make a “quilt” from leftover scraps of paper. Cut the different patterns into squares or fun shapes and piece them together by taping them on the back.

¢ Using fusible web and ribbons, create an inexpensive gift wrap by weaving ribbon in a basket pattern. After fusing both with an iron, glue the piece onto a gift box and set your gift inside.