I am proud to announce that I have not purchased holiday wrapping paper in about seven years. The idea of wrapping gifts was founded by your well-known friend, Hallmark, back in 1918. Today, the US experiences an additional 25 million tons of waste during the holidays. To boot, some gift wrap is not recyclable due to the dyes and coating that are used in manufacturing.
While my family may not follow suit to recycle gift wrap and their respective decorative parts, I make the announcement that I will take home anything that is redeemable for reuse. They may find this behavior ludicrous, but I enjoy reusing perfectly good holiday items, as well as using simple everyday items to make packages look enticing.
Here are a few (Cheapskate) tips in utilizing recycled materials as holiday gift wrap. I hope you appreciate the fun behind upcycling. It is ultimately a creative process to turn trash into treasure. It is also cheap!
Make your own wrapping paper by taking a paper shopping bag and stamping the blank backside with a holiday rubber stamp. The rubber stamp can also be used to make gift tags and holiday cards.
Speaking of shopping bags--they come in all forms! In these two instances, I have collected small paper shopping bags and glued/taped miscellaneous holiday items to the bags to cover up the company name and logo. The first photo is of an Anthropologie shopping bag. The glitter snowflake covered up the brand name perfectly. The second bag came from an Aveda store and the paper trees took care of the disguise!
This gift was an awkward shape and difficult to wrap or place in a gift bag. I used a Trader Joe's paper grocery bag, which had the holiday theme already going on here. It was easy to wrap--place the items in the bottom of the bag, then fold or wrap the top portion of the bag around the items and tape on the underside. Garnish with scrap ribbon--this is your chance to get creative.
Remember the previous blog post, How Wreath It Is (Part 2)? I upcycled this lost maple leaf twice by using it as wreath decor for Thanksgiving, and again as Christmas gift decoration! Wrap with colorful vintage gift wrap and any other baubles. I glued on the felt gingerbread men, which can be saved for other holiday decor purposes.
We bought our niece an odd-shaped cute little stuffed felt crocodile, which was not easy to wrap. I found this handmade burlap sack at our local thrift store. Ding! (Done!)
Also, hubby works for the city municipality and brought home some old arial city maps that were destined for the trash. We were able to wrap several gifts with just one map; see background at right.
(All images via Art & Facts)
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