3 WAYS TO ENHANCE ECOFRIENDLY GIFT WRAP

3 Ways to Enhance Eco-friendly Gift Wrap

by Gina Castro

Did you know that each year, the U.S. spends $12.7 billion on gift wrap? That’s a lot to spend on something that is going to be torn up and tossed in the trash in 60 seconds. The majority of wrapping paper, tissue paper, bows and ribbons are not recyclable. Most gift wrap is so thin and inky it’s too difficult to extract the fibers. There are quite a few alternatives to gift wrap paper such as newspaper, fabric, cardboard boxes and brown kraft paper. However, some of these alternatives lack the pizzazz of festive gift wrapping paper. To save you the trouble of having to think outside of the box and to help make the holidays just a little bit greener, we found three ways you can make your alternative gift wrap festive.

Gift Wrap with Greenery This gift wrap tutorial is super easy and resourceful. All you’ll need is a few of your Christmas tree’s clippings, string and a star. If you don’t have a real

Directions

Place the greenery tree, you can always use faux greenery.

in a festive shape and hot glue in place. I made it in the shape of a star.

Once the greenery is secure, tie or glue the string decoratively on the greenery. I glued mine at the center of the gift box.

Lastly, place your star decoratively. I placed mine in the center of my makeshift star.

Yarn Trees If you are a fellow knitter, then you are bound to have access to a bunch of yarn. I, for instance, have a whole box of yarn just waiting to be used. All you need for this final tutorial is a few pieces of yarn in the color of your choice, some snowflakes or other small decorative pieces and a hot glue gun.

Add Some Flare One of the ways you can make anything stand out is by adding some color. So for this tutorial I found a few craft paints I had at home and painted a string of colorful lights on the box. You can paint this abstractly or as detailed as you wish. I chose to go the abstract route because I like to keep things simple.

Directions

Measure a few strings of yarn starting from the middle top half of your gift box to the two bottom corners of the box and a few in the middle of the box. The goal is to form a tree shape.

Next secure those strings to the box with glue.

Once the strings are secured and dry, place your snowflakes in a few spots on the tree and glue into place.

Directions

Use a marker to draw the cord for the lights.

U se your colored paints or markers to draw the light bulbs.

Let dry. Add a gift tag.