Here are just a few of the ways you can wrap a present without tape:
1. Use a glue stick. These are usually easy enough to find around your home, and are actually the choice of many pro-wrappers, as the use of glue eliminates those ghastly tape marks that show with regular tape.
2. Use regular glue. This works too, but you need to make sure you don't ruin the present you are trying to wrap.
3. Paint with nail polish. Seriously, polish works as well as glue and looks nice too if you use a glittery shade.
4. Tape with sticky ribbon. If you have this from other art projects it works great because it is pretty-much just tape with ribbon stuck on top. An expensive alternative, but again, at least your finished product will be beautiful.
5. Tape with anything that could possibly be considered tape, even if it's not what you think of when you think of present-wrapping-tape. Packing tape. Electrician's tape. My personal favorites: spike tape and Duck Tape -- just present the final project as chic-and-edgy and totally on purpose. Recently I got so desperate I even used medical dressing tape, and I'm happy to report it worked just fine.
6. Apply stickers. I use this option sometimes even when I can find the tape. Looks adorable, uses up some of the 1,893 stickers lying in, on and around every surface of my home, and best of all if you have kids they can help wrap the present without driving you completely bonkers.
7. Tie-up the present with a big piece of ribbon. If you have scissors (again, I usually don't and work with the crease-and-fold cutting system for the wrapping paper) this is even easier because you can cut the ribbon into two, or even several, pieces, and then tie a succession of knotted and bowed strings to keep the wrapping paper in place. This alternative is both easier to do and better looking than it sounds. Trust me.
Do you know other non-tape alternatives that work? Leave a comment below and share your favorite way to wrap a gift when there just isn't any tape.