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Are you ready for the season of gift-wrapping?
There’s no need to have your stress levels skyrocket this holiday season. With a little help, you can master how to create unique and unusual gift wraps in no time.
But that’s not all.
You can learn how to use recycled materials and make beautiful and elegant decorations, and when you add a little personal touch to it, what’s outside will be equally beautiful and attractive as what’s inside.
Above all, our goal is to learn how not to find gift wrapping time-consuming, difficult or frustrating, but inspirational.
But before we start, make yourself comfortable and prepare all the necessary tools you will need – scissors, ribbons, and tape. Once you have it, let’s dig deeper into ways you can create amazing and eco-friendly gift wraps.
Recycle and reuse
I know it’s easier to go to a shop and fill two needs with one deed, but you can gain more if you learn how to be eco-friendly. Plus, you can have fun!
When it comes to using reusable materials for wrapping presents, you can start searching all-around your home. Look for fabric, wrapping paper, newspapers and magazines, jars, lunch box paper bags, card boxes, and so on.
Fabric
Why fabric? Because it comes in lots of different colors and patterns. When I say fabric, I usually mean sheets, festive pillowcases, and tablecloths. But if you let your creative side out, you can even use socks.
In some countries, fabric wrapping is an art form. In Japan, a practice called furoshiki is well known in Japan and was used to transport clothes, gifts and other goods.
You can use different materials like silk, cotton, nylon and synthetic. The best is that you can simply knot, pin or tie a ribbon and have your gift ready in minutes.
But how to use furoshiki? Depending on your present size and shape, you can do a basic furoshiki or learn different styles. See this illustrated guide on how to use the furoshiki technique.
Boring brown paper and newspapers
If you happen to have a lot of boring brown paper, you can use it to create attractive personalized gifts. It’s the neutral color that makes it a perfect base. You can draw pretty much anything you like – from dots and geometric figures to complex illustrations. You can add stickers, dry flowers, and plants, small toys and items – making it a good color contrast. Sometimes even using nail polish or lipsticks can add a little extra shine and glitter to it.
In the end, you can leave it as it is and add a surprise moment with fruity postcards. The one thing you need to keep in mind is that while the brown paper is an excellent working base, keep it minimalistic and don’t go overboard with different colors or shapes.
If you get the newspapers delivered to your house every day, it’s even better. I like using newspapers to wrap gifts because I can be very creative with personalized cards. Moreover, it can save you a lot of time if you decide to go with one design. It’s even more interesting if you can create a collage or use foreign-language newspapers. Think Arabic or Japanese.
To go a bit further, print out puzzles or word searches on a plain paper, and use a marker to send out a message. All in all, this will cost you little or nothing and you can give newspapers a new purpose because you would otherwise throw it away.
Maps are also excellent reusable materials because they are commonly printed on sturdy paper, which makes them a solid base and they are colorful, right? You can create not only an attractive but also an educational wrapping for your presents.
Go to the kitchen
Magic does happen in kitchens! And I am not just talking about the enjoyable time we spend making and eating delicious food. If you think you cannot be creative, I am determined to prove you wrong.
Why? Think JARS. Glass is elegant, and jars are fantastic because a person can use it again next year, thus apart from the present, one can reuse jars as well. There’s no way you cannot think of a great way to use jars for a gift, regardless of the gift.
The easiest way is to place the gifts in the jar, stuff in some tissue paper, or fabric, and tie it with a bow. There you go! Your gifts are perfectly wrapped! But this is where you can be more creative, with gifts cards, stickers, and personalized tags and labels. Check out this amazing mason jars ideas and find your inspiration.
While you are in the kitchen, search for plain, unwrapped boxes. Boxes come in various colors, and they are rather simple, and when something is simple, you can be very creative with details.
Turn to nature for inspiration
When you use the natural material it feels as if you are taking and giving back to Mother Earth. Head outside and look for fresh leaves, pine cones, cypress, berries, star anise, birch barks, feathers, anything that inspires your imagination. Pine cores are practically everywhere this time of year.
If you cannot find them in your backyard, take a walk and scour around the neighborhood, or look in the Asian markets.
Visit Instructables because this is a place where people share their crafting skills and you can find instruction on pretty much anything you want.
Your eco-friendly gift wraps ideas
With a little time and inspiration, you can make your wrapping as special as the gifts.
I have listed some of the great eco-friendly gifts wraps ideas that will help your dearest feel special. But, if you have taken the time to wrap the gifts with love, the simplest handmade gift wraps will be the best one. Above all, gift wrapping does not have to be hard, but fun!
It would be great of you can share with us a few tricks and tips. What is your gift wrapping ideas for this holiday season?
Image credit: depositphotos.com
Last article update: 12/01/2019
