If you have been making an effort to be more eco-friendly this year, why should Christmas be any different?
It is possible to wrap your gifts beautifully without adding more waste to our planet. Try these ideas out for size this year and see if you can start an earth-friendly trend with your friends and family.
1. If you have several tubes of wrapping paper on hand already, you can be eco-friendly without having to buy anything new. You can simply make a point to save the paper after everyone unwraps their presents and re-use it again next year. Of course, this isn't always possible with kids who like to tear open packages. After the present opening madness is through, find large sections of paper and save them for smaller gifts next year. Store the paper in a flat, dry place and you can use the same piece for several years in a row.
2. Try using gift bags instead of paper. This isn't practical with all gifts but if you can place something in a bag with tissue paper, you should. Both the tissue paper and the bag can be re-used for later Christmases (or other year-round uses.)
3. Another idea that is gaining popularity is using recyclable cloth gift bags for family presents. You can make your own from velour or another elegant material. Make small, medium and large sizes. Children love seeing custom sewn gift bags with their names on them. The best part is that you can use these year after year and make them part of your holiday tradition.
4. If you need to buy wrapping material, there are several different ways you can go. There are eco-friendly, recycled wrapping papers available online. These can be very elegant, but you're often paying a high price for being environmentally friendly.
5. You can make your own recycled paper by using newsprint, magazine pages and catalog pages to wrap your gifts. These colorful pages normally go to waste anyway and they make great wrapping paper. Newspaper works best if there are color pictures on the pages. For a different look, try finding foreign papers. Chinese, Russian or Farsi papers add interest to your gifts with their different looking characters.
6. Coordinate magazine or catalog pages with your presents. If you're giving a book, wrap the present in a picture of bookcases from a home store catalog. Or find the Christmas tree or Christmas decoration pages in home décor catalogs and use these as wrapping.
7. You can also create your own recycled patterned paper. Find a supplier of rolls of recycled brown paper, such as the kind used for mailing packages. Roll out sections of the paper and use paint, stamps and other craft tools to decorate the pages. You can custom decorate each package or do the whole roll in the same pattern.
Creating paper this way is fun and economical. You can decorate the plain paper for a variety of other gift giving occasions, too.
Kitchenaid 9 Speed Mixer Buy Now
No comments:
Post a Comment