Gifting a little greener.

There is always so much waste associated with gift giving, with all the printed paper glossy bags, and tape. Did you know that 1/2 of the paper used in the US is used to wrap and disguise gifts? Thats some pretty sad info, so here are some ways you can help keep the numbers down and reuse some of the wrap that comes on gifts you receive.

Fabric Wrap
You can use cotton fabric you have laying around the house, or go out and buy christmas printed fabric if you’d prefer. You can get out your hot glue gun and use the fabric the same way you would paper. Substitute paper bows for fabric ribbons and tie your own. When the wrap has served its purpose its easy to remove the hot glue with your fingers and save the fabric and bows for next year. I think at this point in time its late enough in the game that you can get a good discount on holiday cotton prints from a nearby fabric shop.

You can also wrap gifts without glue by rolling and tying both ends so that your gift looks like a hard candy.

Holiday Gift Bags
We all know the glossy holiday gift bags, and I know you have some in that closet upstairs! You can reuse these gift wrap bags every year, and you don’t have to fill then with tissue paper. Instead of tissue, you can use newsprint because the bag is already decorated. Another good alternative is to give gifts in a fabric tote.

Paper wrap
You can use the funnies section of the newspaper, like in the picture above that I got from this blog (http://craftingagreenworld.com/2009/12/13/share-your-recycled-gift-wrapp…). I love how they cut strips of paper and made overlapping loops to form a bow, very cute.

Gift Tags
Dig up those cards from last year and reuse them to make gift tags for this year. You can use rubber cement to evenly coat a plain piece of paper and adhere to the back of you old card ( where the writing is ) and wait for it to dry. You can then cut a shape out and punch a hole where you can string some ribbon or yarn. Write your to and from on the other side and BOOM, you got gift tags.

Recycling
Be careful to save any bows, tags or ribbons you can salvage to reuse next year. Recycle whatever wrap you can, excluding holographic and foil papers from the recycle bin.

Crafting
You can make paper beads from you gift wrap. Here is a great you tube video to get you started. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJKU0L2CKgM)
Reuse your wrapping paper to do paper mache projects. You can make a mache paste by mixing 3 parts flour to 1 part water.

Your old wrapping paper can also be used to collage and decoupage tins or gift boxes to use next year during the holidays.

Here is another blog with some more useful ideas.
http://www.diylife.com/2007/09/10/environmentally-friendly-gift-wrap-opt…