Green or Recycled gift wrap

angelpye

Hi to all - I haven't posted on this board before but here goes...

After feeling disgusted about the amount of wrapping paper used that can't go in the recycling this xmas myself, my OH and his parents agreed next year we will only use what can be recycled to wrap our presents - think his dad is thinking brown paper and string ( I really like the sentiment!).

I have given some more thought to it and have decided to try to reuse things for wrapping and so have kept the more obvious things like gift bags and cards to use for tags etc and some other less obvious like little boxes to be painted or decorated somehow.

My question is what do people out there do? I would love to hear people's ideas - obviously so I can pinch them but also to keep the thoughts open to more ideas.

My aim is that every present this year will be wrapped with something reused and hopefully can be used again or recycled!

So far I have:

Used gift bags
Little plain brown card board boxes (from lush gifts)
Tissue paper from gift bags that got torn
Used gift box

Thought will try to collect interesting newspaper articles/pictures that are appropriate to the person - like a full page pic of a footballer or beautiful view from the travel section.

Let me know your thoughts please

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415SanFran

I would never have thought of using travel pics, or pop star, what a good idea,
Do you have young children? I once got a pressie wrapped in paper that a child had made hand and foot prints on, that was cute, and knowing the child I'm sure he had a wonderful time doing it

Nickitree30

Hi, check out Sheherazade Goldsmith's "The Christmas book" you should be able to get it from the library, it's got loads of great ideas. This year I used a combination of reuseable gift boxes,real ribbon, Santa sacks and brown paper lunch sacks decorated with dried slices of orange, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves. The lunch sacks were used for the weirdly shaped pressies, like homemade bath salts (really easy to make) in Kilner jars, and bags of homemade coconut ice and homemade chocolate buttons (was supposed to be a chocolate Santa but had plastic Santa mould issues, a lot of melted chocolate and a brainwave involving grease proof paper). If you can sew maybe make and personalise drawstring bags, then you can reuse them again and again.

Nickitree30

Forgot to mention 'furoshiki' the Japanese art of gift wrapping with cloth, ie scarfs tea towels etc they can be part of the gift too.

pink_numbers

You can use unwanted scarves as wrapping, then the scarf also becomes a gift.

Or you could make some "christmas present bags" like the one santa carries, out of old sheets, put people's names on it and agree to swap presents using those bags from now on.

crutches

I buy cloth bags or canvas bags cheaply in charity shops or sales and they become part of the present.Lots of people donate those little bags that pyjamas come in or the gold purses /cages etc that xmas cards come in.Often only 25-50p.I often use material too for odd shaped gifts.

foxgloves

My Mum does loads of craft, so I sometimes wrap her presents in a piece of fabric she can use for a sewing project, then that's like a little extra present.

angelpye

415SanFran wrote: »

I would never have thought of using travel pics, or pop star, what a good idea,
Do you have young children? I once got a pressie wrapped in paper that a child had made hand and foot prints on, that was cute, and knowing the child I'm sure he had a wonderful time doing it

How cute! Could definately do that for the gifts from the girls!

angelpye

Nickitree30 wrote: »

brown paper lunch sacks decorated with dried slices of orange, cinnamon sticks and bay leaves... pressies, like homemade bath salts (really easy to make) in Kilner jars, and bags of homemade coconut ice and homemade chocolate buttons ... If you can sew maybe make and personalise drawstring bags, then you can reuse them again and again.

Love these!:D

angelpye

Nickitree30 wrote: »

Forgot to mention 'furoshiki' the Japanese art of gift wrapping with cloth, ie scarfs tea towels etc they can be part of the gift too.

Doh! I got one of these for xmas! It was done by lush - my favourite shop!

izzydogsam

A few year ago, I used brown garden twine and brown paper to wrap my presents. I stamped the brown paper using a rubber Christmas tree stamp I already had too. Everyone loved the paper! It's quite cheap if you buy a roll of brown paper.

This year I got some pretty recycled card boxes with santas and stripes etc on from Home Bargains and tied them with ribbon, fastening the gift tag to the ribbon. These were popular too and reusable. I have some left for next year too, assuming I can find them in the house again when December 2010 rolls around! :rotfl: