Environmentally Friendly Gift Wrap Ideas
You wrap enough presents every year to account for a forest full of trees, but in your eco-friendly heart of hearts, you'd like to be a little more environmentally friendly, not to mention a little more creative. So before you run out for another glossy roll of gift wrap, check out these cool environmentally friendly (and great-looking!) wrapping ideas that use things you already have around the house. You'll feel good knowing you're being good to mama earth!
- A recycled brown paper bag. Cut it open, wrap your present and then have the kids snazz it up with some stickers, markers, jewels, stamps or glitter glue.
- Wallpaper scraps or samples. When you're done redecorating, don't toss the scraps! Use 'em to wrap small gifts.
- Newspaper, magazine pages, junk mail, the Sunday comics or old catalogs. Finally, a legit use for all those endless piles of paper that clog your mailbox!
- Old maps. Perfect wrapping for the guys in your fam.
- Fabric remnants like old T-shirts, pillowcases, cloth napkins, dishtowels or fabric scraps.
- Photos taped together. If you're the mushy sentimental type, this is the gift wrap for you!
- Recycled tissue paper from your last shopping spree. A great excuse to shop till you drop (not that you need one!).
- Your kid's drawings and paintings. Ever wonder what to do with those stacks and stacks (and stacks!) of paintings your kid brings home from preschool? The environmentally friendly thing to do is use 'em as homemade giftwrap and tie with a matching bow!
- Last year's calendar pages. Just have the side with the pretty pictures facing up. No one needs to get a gift wrapped in your insane schedule!
- Recycled photocopies. Have your kid color them in, sprinkle them with glitter or add stickers to jazz them up.
- Old posters. Kid totally over Hannah Montana? Great! Tear the poster down and use it as wrapping paper!
- Torn book pages. Rip pages out of your old, disintegrating novels or use pages from books your kid destroyed as a "literary" gift wrap. High brow, we know!
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