November 24th, 2007
I’ve been thinking about this one quite a bit. I really love a cute gift bag, and just saw some old-fashioned Christmas bags made of kraft paper at Target. However, they weren’t made from recycled materials.
There’s always wrapsacs.com, subject of a post back in September. But how do you know the bag will really be passed on and not tossed? Plus, you are still buying something new just to cover a gift.
What about the days before wrapping paper? An architect I spoke with recently reminded me that we all used to be much more green by nature. We naturally made buildings more efficient before air conditioning and we used local building materials before FedEx, but that’s another story . . . .
When you look around at the things you throw away, or the things you recycle, how many of these items could help cover and decorate a gift?
One interesting idea is to use old maps (reuse!). If you don’t have any just sitting around, you can buy some reclaimed maps from Forest Saver Designs. It’s called MapWrap.
And, of course, you can use the comics if you get a Sunday paper. What about pages from a used 2007 calendar? A fashion collage made of catalog photos?
Don’t worry about how it will look. Just try it and you might be impressed and have a good time!
Also, there are all sorts of things in nature you can uses as tie-ons. A nice pine cone (without bugs). A spring from a cedar tree. Or maybe you want to pass on an ornament from your existing collection.
I don’t have any gifts to wrap yet, but when I try this, I will post a photo. Feel free to share any ideas you have.
And don’t forget to save delivery boxes for wrapping gifts!
Filed under Green Choices | Comments (4)
Not long after Miss Mama and I moved to Mississippi it was Christmas and somehow we ended up with no wrapping paper at all. We decided to use what we had in the house and it worked out so well that we’ve done it ever since.
We used comics and regular newspaper on things that the ink wouldn’t rub off on. We used fabric that we had on hand for sewing/craft projects, and real ribbon too. I made gift boxes out of fabric and quilt batting and fitted cardboard inside to make them stiffer. I aim to make some of those for Mama this year, actually.
Mom even used an empty pickle jar that she’d soaked the label off of to hold a small gift for me. She painted the lid with some old red nail polish since we didn’t have any spray paint and glued some rhinestones from some remnants of costume jewelry on the lid too to make it sparkly. That actually ended up to be two gifts in one!
How’s that?
Great ideas Virginia!
I think I might actually have some fabric around from when I had some pillows made, but I don’t sew myself.
you could also find a printer with a web press & ask for a handful of ‘make ready’ sheets. a 16 page signature would be a nice size for wrapping..
Good idea m!
In case others don’t know, make-ready sheets are not used in the final pieces. They are sort of experiments to make sure the ink, etc. is looking good.