Greening your gift wrap

I know. Seven is an odd (literally) number to use here. Well, I have seven ideas to share, did you want me to leave out a couple to make it a more sensible-sounding five? Just skip two when you get bored.

So, here are seven, count them, ideas for how you can minimise expense and waste when wrapping your presents this Christmas…

1 Wrap your present in a present

There are some staples in life that you can never have enough of, tea towels being one of them. Wrap up a gift in a fetching tea towel so your giftee gets not one but two presents! And there’s no waste leftover.

If you want to steer clear of possible washing-up faux pas, wrap your present in a handkerchief (clean, please), scarf or even an item of clothing. The person who receives this unconventionally wrapped present will love the concept of bonus wrapping.

2 Make a wallpaper gift bag

Look at a gift bag and you’ll see how simply it is made. It’s a bit like you started wrapping up a box but stopped after you sealed one end. Punch holes in the other end (which has become your bag opening) and thread through some ribbon or string to make handles or to close the bag. The great thing about using wallpaper is that it’s super sturdy so won’t collapse under the weight of a hefty gift and will probably be reusable.

(There is a great tutorial on making gift bags as part of the 12 Days workshop)

3 Keep it simple

You can’t go wrong with brown paper tied up with string. If it’s good enough for Julie Andrews, it’s good enough for everyone.

4 Get your pens out

But if you think that’s too plain-looking, after you’ve wrapped your prize, decorate it. You can go old school (ie act like you’re six again) and go crazy with the glitter glue and poster paints. Or, go for a simple motif like spots. One or two colours dotted all over the parcel will look simple but effective. And it’s not because I, er you, can’t draw.

5 Fox them

No, not some elaborate fox fur wrapping, how wrong that would be! No, confuse the lucky gift recipient by wrapping their treasure in a box wholly unrelated to it. For example, put a book or a DVD in a cereal box, stuffed with old newspaper to stop it rattling around. A word of warning though, don’t put your gift in a box that housed something more expensive as you don’t want to see disappointment on your loved one’s face. I’m speaking from experience, in my teenage, more materialistic days, I received a cuddly toy in a Converse Allstars box…

6 Make it Look Good Naked

Not you, the present. I'm not going totally Gok Wan on you but if your present is already a v pretty thing, don't cover it up. Tie a ribbon around it with a gift tag cut from an old Christmas card and give it as it is. Works great on plants, not so great on socks. Unless they're gorgeous-looking socks of course.

7 Not seriously though…

I don’t really advocate this unless you reuse the wrapping, but you could always try kitchen foil. It’s cheap, it requires only tearing not cutting and no sticky tape as you can scrunch the ends. And the idea came from Gavin and Stacey’s Christmas Special last year so I can’t claim the credit! Just reuse the foil on your turkey later, please…

If you have more genius, or just quietly useful, green wrapping ideas please share them here. Happy wrapping…!

Comments

[Clair]

Love the idea of using wallpaper as a gift bag - everyone has a bit of it lying around after decorating and plain brown paper looks amazing with a bit of baker's twine!

Great tips x

[Julie]

Great ideas :) I've stamped on brown paper with Banana Frog stamps: http://bananafrog.typepad.com/bananafrogblog/2009/05/draft-for-may-14_julie_potd-.html

:D

[Mrs Green]

Great ideas - personally I love presents tied with brown paper and string; this is what I have done for Mr G this year. The wallpaper bag is beautiful - did you make that?

Thanks for sharing all these ideas.

[the green gal]

Thanks for your lovely comments, people, looks like the wallpaper bag is a hit! I did indeed make it, Mrs Green and have plenty more to make before Christmas Day. A work colleague has kindly given me a leftover roll of wallpaper – v pretty yellow checks – so that will keep me going well into gift-giving occasions next year...

[Tara]

Thanks for your comment on my wrapping post! Love your ideas too. :)

[Kirsty]

All so clever and pretty, as well as earth-preserving. Brown paper is, by choice, one of my favourite wrappings, especially mixed with pretty tags and ribbon or bows.

If you try the foil-wrapping option but can't re-use it for food later on, you can always scrunch it up and use as a shaper/former for papier maché projects instead (does that make it too obvious that I'm a better paste-and-paper-er than I am a cook?!)

Still super-smitten with your wallpaper gift bags, too.

:)