Looking for holiday gift wrap with smiling cacti and cartoon dogs? Here's how to get it

Looking for holiday wrapping paper that skips the typical snowman, Santa and poinsettia patterns?

The Curbside Chronicle's Wrap Up Homelessness program this year features colorful sheets covered in smiling cacti, meme-famous cartoon dogs and fashionable folks with gifts for heads.

"I would say that none of them are cookie-cutter designs ... but one of them is literally cookies," said Nathan Poppe, editor-in-chief of the Curbside Chronicle.

A program of the nonprofit Homeless Alliance, the Curbside Chronicle is Oklahoma’s first and only street paper. It provides a voice and an opportunity to earn money for people experiencing or at risk for homelessness. The magazine gives its vendors a product to sell at events and in public spaces instead of panhandling.

Through its ninth annual Wrap Up Homelessness initiative, Poppe and his colleagues have teamed with Oklahoma artists who design holiday gift wrap for vendors to sell in addition to the magazine. All proceeds from wrapping paper sales support the paper and its mission to employ and empower people transitioning out of homelessness in Oklahoma City.

Where can people buy Curbside Chronicle gift wrap this year?

In OKC, holiday celebrants can purchase packages of Wrap Up Homelessness wrapping paper for $10 cash directly from Curbside Chronicle vendors across town.

The packages can be bought with cash or credit card for $12 at Curbside Flowers, 522 N Classen Blvd., Suite 100, in downtown, or at the Holiday Pop-Up Shops, 399 NW 10 in Midtown. 

The paper also can be bought for $12 per package at https://wrapuphomelessness.org. Online orders made on or after Dec. 15 cannot be guaranteed to arrive before Christmas.

This year, buyers can choose from two different packages, with each one featuring five sheets of wrapping paper designed by Oklahoma artists and printed in OKC at family-owned Paragon Press on paper made in the United States.

Which Oklahoma artists have designed wrapping paper for this year's Wrap Up Homelessness?

Prominent local artists who have designed wrapping paper for Wrap Up Homelessness in past years include Ebony Iman Dallas, Joshua Boydston, Gayle Curry, Sean Vali, Jack Fowler, Steven Paul Judd, Tiffany McKnight and Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne.

This year, 10 eclectic Oklahoma artists devised holiday patterns for the program.

The artists who designed the sheets in Package 1 are Camden Cleveland, a bespoke cookie and cake decorator born and raised in Norman; Kara Mitchell, an OKC author, illustrator and member of the Cherokee Nation; Karson Brooks, aka Plight, an OKC illustrator and designer; KC Green, an Oklahoma-born and bred cartoonist based in western Massachusetts; and Reshon Shirley, a self-taught Yukon artist.

The gift wrap sheets in Package 2 were devised by Daniel Sutliff, a Tulsa musician and visual artist; Jose Scott, a Hispanic OKC graffiti artist; Todd E. Clark, an OKC artist, freelance graphic designer and illustrator; Two Eagles Norberto, an OKC tattoo artist and member of the Comanche and Navajo nations; and Lacie Wallace, an OKC artist and Curbside Chronicle vendor.

Poppe chatted with The Oklahoman about collaborating with local artists, growing Wrap Up Homelessness organically and more:

Q: What is the process of working with the artists?

Thankfully, we live in Oklahoma, and it's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to talented artists. We narrow it down, stare at Instagram for forever, and just pick some people that we think would be a good fit.

Throughout the year, we just slowly chip away. When you see them all wrapped up in the packages, it's so nice and neat, and it seems so simple. But it's really a process, because most of these people aren't designing wallpaper or wrapping paper every day.

So, you have to think in patterns, because you could just draw or paint a huge picture of Santa's face. But when you actually wrap that down, it might just be his nose on the box. ... You actually have to pay attention to how you pattern and build your design.

Q: One of your artists this year is a Curbside vendor. How did you discover and help develop her artistic talents?

The art program ... Fresh stART, which happens every week at the Homeless Alliance, is open to any clients. And it just so happened that this year, Lacie, one of our Curbside vendors, frequents it. We asked if she was interested, and she jumped on the opportunity.

Lacie did an acrylic pour that looks like a psychedelic melted candy cane, and it's really just a testament to her creative abilities. So many of our vendors have hobbies and interests that you would have never thought of just on the surface. But Lacie's been a part of Fresh stART for years, and this was just the year that it worked out that she had time, energy and availability to make that for us. And I'm really glad that she did.

Q: What is the impact of the holiday program over the years? 

At the holidays, traditionally, magazine sales for Curbside slow down. The weather gets tricky; we're starting to get cold, which makes it harder on folks to sell. And that's really where this was all born, just to create another opportunity, another way, for people to make a little bit of money to help get themselves through the holidays. ... And it has just grown organically.

Q: What kind of feedback do you get from the community about Wrap Up Homelessness?

My favorite part of the entire project — besides seeing what the artists come up with — is that it's so cool to make a new tradition. ... Some of the most amazing feedback that you could get from someone is when they share their wrapped gifts with you, and it's like, 'Oh, wow, this little project is in your living room. It's being shared with your friends and family.'

That's not lost on me at all. ... There are a billion other wrapping paper options, and that people not only take the time to pick this up, but actually wrap their gifts with it and love it and share it blows my mind every year.

At the end of the day, we want our vendors to be proud of what they're selling ... and just as excited as the customers are, because it's about creating all these little conversations and moments that might not have happened otherwise.

WRAP UP HOMELESSNESS

Wrapping paper designed by Oklahoma artists can be bought directly from Curbside Chronicle vendors, at Curbside Flowers, at the Midtown Holiday Pop-Up Shops or online at https://wrapuphomelessness.org. Proceeds support the Curbside Chronicle and its mission to employ and empower people transitioning out of homelessness in OKC.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC's Wrap Up Homelessness program features unique wrapping paper