The 4 R's of Gift Wrapping - Wrap Gifts The Recycled Way

The 4 R's of Gift Wrapping

One way to have a greener holiday is to wrap all your gifts in a greener way! All you have to do is think out of the BOX and onto the wrap to find new ways to use old materials to bring new life to your gifts.

It's a great family project and one that will put a special meaning to home made and add extra love to your holiday giving. And remember, you can taylor make the wrap to the gift or to the person, such as maps for men or antique scarfs for antique lovers.

Earthman says be green with your gift wrap!

The 4 R's of Gift Wrapping:

Reduce, reuse, recycle, renew are terms we now know well. How do we apply them to packaging and giftwrap?
Here are some inventive and unique ideas for either creating your own wrapping papers or using materials you have on hand to decorate presents and wrap up the holiday season in new ways:

• Use fabric and fabric scraps as you would paper.
• Wrap a gift in a poster or full-page magazine photo. 
• Wallpaper makes a unique and sturdy gift wrap. 
• Use old sheet music or old calendar pages as wrapping paper. 
• Use kids' drawings or coloring book pages to wrap smaller gifts.
• Wrap gifts for family in your kids schoolwork... particularly those A's!
• Scarves, tea towels, napkins, or handkerchiefs also make wonderful fabric wraps. The wrap becomes a gift, too! 
• If you are giving an antique or vintage gift-use a vintage box, towel or scarf to wrap it!
• Use colorful but outdated maps as wrapping paper. 
• Newspaper is great for larger gifts and comic pages are colorful!
• Use your practice paintings as wrap!  Particularly calligraphy, handwriting or watercolor looks nice.

• Cut out colorful magazine pictures and glue them on plain papers with craft glue, or make cutouts and glue them on.

• Reuse paper from last year...cover boxes with it!
• Use handmade papers made from paper scraps-see: Make Your Own Paper Instructions
• Plain brown paper becomes an excellent base for any number of homemade paper techniques. 
• Plain white paper on rolls (butcher's wrap works well) can become a great base for decorative techniques
• Use coffee cans, oatmeal boxes, kleenex boxes, chinese food containers, tin cans or cereal boxes covered creatively.
• Make boxes from cereal, food boxes, paper and cardboard. Instructions to make boxes
• Use store shopping bags and add drawings or decoration.
• Stamp plain paper with colored ink or scribble and draw with paint pens 

Comic Strip Gift Wrap.  Reuse the News.

• Decorate with used holiday stamps and greeting cards!
• Instead of bows decorate with natural items such as pine cones and pine sprigs.
• Instead of trimmings use buttons and beads.
• Use an ornament or toy instead of a bow.
• Instead of ribbon use twine.
• Fold an origami object instead of a bow--such as an origami star
• Make your own name gift tags with old cards or scraps of wrap. 

Lastly why not try this great idea at your next gift giving event!  Wrap a big box in tap and empty the wrappings into it...then it's ready to go to the recycle or trash.