Are they still called blueprints? I was looking for the old fashioned blueprint paper when I asked a friendly architecture firm for old plans I could use — but these worked perfectly.
I wrapped my presents like this last year and took this picture after reading about the idea on Danny Seo's blog a few years ago. It's definitely one of those ideas that can be used each year cause you will never get the same blueprint twice!
Image: Sparrow King
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Very cool! I use a lot of old aviation sectional charts myself, but I think I like this better.
yeah, i could try that....except the drawings i would bring home from work would be covered in markups and highlighters. not as purty as above. that, plus i don't think any of my family wants an image of the hospital i'm working on. but i like the thought.
I did this a couple of years ago! Mine were covered in markups and highlighters too, but in the weeks before Xmas, I used green highlighter over the red mark-ups. My family loved it!
this is such a clever idea...just don't tell the boss (client confidentiality!)
That's so cool!!!
Did we also see something here last holiday season about using old maps as wrapping paper too?
I use anything I can find...plans, surveys, trader joes bags. Anything is better than buying and wasting more paper.
I used old subway and bus maps.
But it depends on what the plans are for. The house on the plans in the photo is horrible!
That's a nice re-use of plans - pretty much anyone involved in the design and construction industry has tons and tons of extra plans that just get thrown away (or, we hope, recycled). People I work with who have small children take them home for drawing on the backs, but this is a good grown-up use. And I mark mine up with red pen, which would go great with your ribbon!
(And no, they're not called blueprints anymore!)
blueprint refers to a type of print that is (was) done on photosensitive paper that you had to run through this machine thing (i cant remember that far back as to what it was called). usually done on vellum.
but now you just print drawings right onto paper. we call them plots at my office. basically if it was done digitally, its not a blueprint.
i like the idea, but usually the drawings are a lot more technical, and not just a pretty picture.
McMansion: The Wrapping Paper.
(Sorry, great idea! If I was doing it it would be lines drawings of ships!)
great idea...i used to use sunday comics as wrapping paper..cheap and colorful!
I've done this before, and it works great. It's very unlikely that you would find blueprints (though if you asked for blueprints, I'm sure just about any firm would give you plans just like this one did). It's like asking for copies from a mimeograph machine. Firms don't use them any more because it's rediculous with current technology. My understanding is that ammonia was used in the development process for blueprints, and I'm sure that a lot of people are glad their offices don't smell strongly of ammonia anymore.
I love using National Geographic maps!
Be careful with the blueprints though, they can be highly toxic because of the printing process. I hated it when we got fresh blueprints at the office. There was never one copy always 40, oh it smelt horrid!
I've done this for the past 7 years or so.
FYI - Blueprint copy machines still exist, but they are waaay out of date. Most offices have high-end plotters that can spew out drawings in a fraction of the time it use to take, so no need for copies. And certainly people don't hand draft anymore, which was the cause for the original blueprint machine.