Sunday, November 28, 2010

Go Green with Your Gift Wrapping this Christmas




Going green with your gift wrapping this Christmas is easier than you think. One of the things that was important to me when I invented the Fobbie was that I wanted it to fit the reduce, reuse and recycle criteria. Even if you don't use a Fobbie in your gift wrapping, a lot of the ways I wrap with it can be used in your wrapping too.

So many of the gifts we give are beautiful just the way there are. They also present a challenge at times by being irregularly shaped, making it hard to fit in a box or get paper around neatly.

I keep all the ribbons used from previous years. If they aren't long enough to go around my gift I can use them as additional accent ribbons.

I enjoy going to garage sales, and especially estate sales. When reading the sales listings I always look for ones that include sewing and craft supplies. I have acquired quite a collection of material, lace and cloth ribbons. One of the pictures shown here is of a stack of towels I wrapped with cotton lace and accented with shiny ribbon.

Living in the mountains in a cabin I tend to be partial to an earthy look. When I had the idea for the Fobbie, it was due to me trying to figure out how to attach the ornaments I was making from my pine beetle killed trees. It was my way of recycling them. I'd cut a slice of log, sand it, and stamp it with a moose or bear.

The scrapbook I wrapped shown here had a "lodge" look, so I thought raffia and pinecones as an accent would be the perfect.

I also enjoy using tulle instead of ribbon. It's easy to work with, comes in several colors and gives a nice, full, fluffy look. In this example I used shiny accent ribbons too.

I have also gone to thrift stores and bought men's ties, and ladies scarves to use. How cute would a tie wrapped gift look and then use an old alligator type tie clip to attach a gift tag in place. These can then be used by the recipient when they come off their gift, or be reused in their gift wrapping.

If you have someone who likes to sew in your life, it's fun to use material instead of paper and then use a soft measuring tape instead of, or in addition to ribbon as I did in this example.

There are so many possibilities to reuse materials you can find around the house, or purposefully search out at sales or stores. If you are wrapping to someone's interests or hobbies, it's easy to use things related to them.

So be creative and resourceful this year and add some new flare to your gift wrapping!

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