12.19.2011

Gift Wrapping the Eco-Friendly Way

Last year I posted about eco-friendly gift wrapping ideas and this holiday season I'm ready with round two!   These ideas utilize plenty of easily recyclable items making them great on both the environment and your wallet. And there's nothing like wrapping some gifts to get you in the holiday spirit!


From Martha Stewart Whole Living: Use old greeting cards, cardboard boxes, and the like to make gift tags. Personalize your tags with your own messages, stamps, and stickers.


From Martha Stewart Whole Living: Recycle old magazines to make these festive and colorful bows!


From Simple Mom: Bring out your inner artist and decorate simple white paper to wrap up a gift. You can really take this idea in any direction you please, and save yourself some money and paper by skipping the gift tag and including your "To" and "From" right on the wrapping.


From Gaiam Life: Maps make for a unique wrap and one that can be easily personalized as well. Choose a map of one of your recipient's favorite travel destinations or somewhere they'll be heading soon. To make it a perfectly themed present, give your travel-loving-recipient something they can put to good use on their trip, such as a guide book, luggage accessories, or a good book to read en route.


From Eco-Artware.com: Transform old cereal boxes into these adorable cardboard gift boxes by following this simple tutorial from eco-artware.com. These gift boxes look professionally made but are so simple and affordable - and the blank cardboard makes them a great canvas for personalizing too!


From Care2: Cloth makes for one-of-a-kind gift wrap that is an additional present all by itself. Local thrift stores and flea markets are great sources for fancy, colorful scarves and tapestries to use in lieu of wrapping paper. Teach yourself the traditional Japanese wrapping method known as furoshiki and pass the skill along to your recipient so they can reuse the gift wrap fabric for someone on their list. Care2 has a YouTube furoshiki tutorial that is easy to follow and provides beautiful and environmentally-friendly results.


From Martha Stewart Whole Living: The inside of a bag of potato chips rarely sees the light of day. With just a good rinse, however, that bag can become a great material for statement-making gift wrap. Simply wash with soap and water, air dry, and get wrapping! And if you're not a chip-lover but you like this look, recycled aluminum foil is another great material for this project.


From Botanical Paperworks: Purchase your holiday greeting cards from Botanical Paperworks' extensive collection and they'll get a second life once the holidays are over. All of this company's paper products are seeded and ready to plant in the warmer months. From herbs to flowers, these plantable cards can yield a plentiful garden at the end of their run, rather than finding their way into the garbage.

Happy wrapping!

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