Tiny Choices Q&A: Gift Wrap?
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | August 15, 2007
Welcome to Tiny Choices Q&A, where we open the floor for discussion on questions which ya’ll have submitted (read the first list of questions here).
Stacey asks:
What about gift wrapping - especially for showers when presentation counts for alot.
I love this question, because I think there are so many crafty answers to it. When I was a wee tiny-choicemaker I used to carefully rip out beautiful ads from glossy magazines and tape the images together to create custom gift wrap for each recipient. Who’s got that kind of time now?
- You could go the quick route and buy recycled gift-wrap, including some made with hemp and printed with soy-based inks.
- Make gift boxes from old cereal boxes (though personally I’d keep the printed side facing out for decorative purposes.)
- Here’s a whole list of good alternative-wrapping ideas
- Crochet or knit a hat or a scarf, and use it to wrap a secondary gift.
- Don’t forget the tissue paper- recycled and non-chlorine bleached
- Buy pretty square scarves, linen hankies, or lacy doilies at a thrift shop- place your small gift in the center of the fabric, gather the sides of the fabric at the top, and tie this with a ribbon. I did this last winter using large pieces of excess fabric I had, cutting contrasting ribbons from another fabric with pinking shears. [[Make like they do in Japan and call it a furoshiki! Folding instructions from the Japanese Ministry of Environment here. -K]]
- Sew simple fabric gift bags, which the recipient can use over and over again.
- For small, flat-ish gifts: take two pieces of paper and sew around the edges of three sides of the paper, to make a pouch. Put your gift inside the pouch and sew up the fourth edge of the paper. Zig-zag stitches look extra cool here!
- I am not above using newspaper as wrapping paper. Choose carefully- use pages which have good typography, images, or are perhaps in another language. Wrap the gifts especially neatly, and use a pretty bow- red looks beautiful against newsprint- to make it extra klassy. [[when I was a wee tot, presents -- especially large boxes -- wrapped in the sunday funny pages were de rigeur. Fancy bought paper was only for small gifts! -K]]
Updated to add: Fishlips has gorgeous gift-wrap, produced on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and printed with soy inks. Go Fishlips!
What are your ideas?
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Topics: Crafts/DIY, Q&A, Waste | 6 Comments »
6 Comments
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If you have a child, her or his artwork makes a great, personalized alternative to traditional wrapping paper as well, especially for a shower or family event.
And don’t overlook giving children’s (nicely framed) artwork as gifts themselves- I’ve got a masterpiece hanging in my living room from some little people I love dearly.
yay for recycled gift wrap!
i often use taped together magazine or newspaper pages and then i sew on them to make them cooler. also, you can decontrust a paper bag and stamp or block print on them.
a few years ago i bought all these rolls of cool old ’60s wrapping paper on ebay! it was super-exciting.
I recently wrapped some gifts in new flour sack kitchen towels similar to these-
http://www.amazon.com/Now-Designs-Floursack-Towels-White/dp/B000AQESNY/ref=pd_sim_k_2/102-8384807-7465733
They are so big you can even fold one diagonally and wear it as an apron.
[...] were encouraged to use “creative” wrapping techniques to avoid all that wrapping paper. Gifts arrived wrapped in dish towels secured with bungee cords, newspaper, reusable shopping bags, [...]
[...] Furoshiki, old lace hankies or cloth napkins, maps, comics, paper bags or boxes… the list of ideas goes on and on. By wrapping your thoughtful present in thoughtful wrapping, you’re automatically doubling [...]