Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap Made Easy

Why buy fancy paper (often bleached and printed with toxic inks) and synthetic ribbons simply to throw them all away once presents have been opened? With the holidays approaching, try some of these earthwise ideas for making your presents look beautiful.

From scrap to wrap. Do you have some extra fabric scraps lying around? Trim them to size with pinking shears and use them as you would gift wrap. Instead of tape, try natural twine or reusable ribbon from the fabric store. Wrapping your gifts in pretty fabric is an especially nice gesture for quilters, crafters, or other creative types who can find a ready use for the cloth.

Make your own. Try decorating your own paper. This is an especially fun project with kids. Cut up a brown paper grocery bag or get a roll of unbleached brown paper (available in the shipping supplies section of office stores), and let your creativity take over. Stamps make this process easy and fun, but you can use paint, markers or anything else that comes to mind.

Second life for artwork. If you have little ones running around the house, chances are that you have more finger paintings than you can count. Grandparents love this colorful, hand painted gift wrap.

Keep those gift bags. If someone gives you a gift in a disposable gift bag, save it! They are often sturdy enough to use over and over again. If you can't find a use for an old gift bag, they work wonderfully for carrying book donations to the library or clothing donations to the thrift store.

Choose reusable ribbon from the fabric store. At first glance, this might seem like an added expense, but you can actually spend less than you would on disposable ribbons when you buy whole spools and shop the sales immediately after holidays. You also have the advantage of a fantastic variety of colors and patterns from which to choose.

Make a bag part of the gift. There are so many different kinds of tote bags available at reasonable prices. Buy one the recipient would like and tie the handles together with pretty ribbon. Feeling creative? Buy a plain bag from a craft shop and paint it yourself.

Think of the various kinds of bags that might be useful to the recipient. Lunch bag? Gym bag? Cosmetic bag?

Try unusual materials. Multiple layers of bubble wrap obscure the view of the gift enough to make guessing fun. Chances are you already have bubble wrap lying around the house, and if you're not going to give it to the kids for rainy day fun, you can reuse it again and again.

Grab the foil from the kitchen for a shiny look, and have the kids decorate it with markers for more fun.

Go for the nostalgia. Remember wrapping your friends' birthday gifts in the funnies? Siblings and friends often appreciate nostalgic touches like this.

Buy it ready-made. Wrapsacks come in a variety of colors and sizes: http://www.wrapsack.com . Try beautiful recycled or tree-free papers from http://www.fishlipspaperdesigns.com/ or http://www.papermojo.com/ .

Happy wrapping!