Green Gift Wrap for the Holidays
I started this holiday season with the goal of green gift wrap: 100% recycled, eco-friendly, I-can-sleep-at-night, gift wrap. Admittedly, I did not achieve my goal, BUT made strides in the right direction.
A simple google image search served as inspiration. My starting point quickly became: What do I have lying around my house that I can use, or rather, re-use? I hit up every junk drawer and closet looking for items to upcycle. As is often the case, the simplest idea was the best: Newspaper and brown paper bags. I wasn’t able to avoid tape all-together, but did experiement with reuseable materials that could augment its use, such as ribbon and yarn.
Brown Papers Bags:
I had a lot of fun playing around with brown paper bags. The biggest challenge was taping; brown paper bags don’t hold tape well (especially once crinkled) so reinforcing with ribbon or yarn was a must.
The “polka dot presents” on the left were really easy to make. I cut and crinkled a brown paper bag, gathered yarn and old paint swatches lying around the house, and made a garland of sorts. Different shades of red and green against brown look really festive, and I love the idea that it could be re purposed for a tree or other household decoration.
After all the trouble with taping, I wanted to try one present without the crinkles. I used as little tape as possible and reinforced it with a ribbon. (I recommended using a wire ribbon to help keep its shape.) It worked well and held better, plus the final product looks damn classy if you ask me 
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Newspaper:
Newspaper as wrapping paper doesn’t get any easier. Black and white text set against a big, bold, red or green bow does the trick, and the best part is that the ribbon can be reused once opened! I even tried to take newspaper squares and make a bow to give that Anthropologie feel.
My goal for next year is less paper and more fabric. A year or two back, my mom got the idea for fabric gift bags. They’re 100% reusable, and cheap if you skim remnant racks at JoAnn Fabrics right after Christmas.
Not too bad for my first time around with green gift wrap. Fun, easy, cheap and more importantly, eco-friendly. Oh, and my disclaimer is that all opened newspaper and brown paper bags will be recycled.
Happy holidays everyone!
