Eco-Project: Brown Paper Wrapping

Less is more. That's my view on things. So when you have a great wrapping accessory, like a garland or a gorgeous bow, you need not use outlandish paper--you also shouldn't have to spend a ton of money. That's why brown paper makes such an attractive and useful wrap; it draws more attention to the accessories, you'll often have it on hand, and it's a great way to recycle.

For small gifts, a plain old paper shopping bag works just fine. For larger gifts, a big roll of sturdy, brown paper costs about 15 bucks and lasts forever. I always steal some from my mom when I'm home; my brother is still in high school and they make him use it to cover his text books (and you thought wrapping a gift was pointless). Packaging tape works best for this because regular Scotch tape wasn't designed to handle heavy-duty materials.

On the particular gift pictured, the brown paper gave me an opportunity to use the garland I bought from Pier One's awesome Christmas clearance sale. It's a funky gold-colored wire looped around itself and adorned with purple beads and stars. Once again, I apologize for the iPhone photo; in person it looked spectacular, especially against my floral bed sheets. I could not resist.

Using brown paper is possibly my favorite way to wrap. Instead of going out and buying different paper for every occasion, it's just so easy to have the single roll of brown paper on hand, and then to buy the awesome accessories, which usually hit the sales rack for cents apiece pretty quickly. I know, it sounds lazy, but the final product ends up looking so chic.

But yes. It is the perfect solution if you happen to be lazy.

Eco Project: Home Made Envelopes

I had a pen pal when I was a kid, and I always made my own envelopes out of old calendar pictures. I wanted to see if this would translate well into adulthood. Here's how it's done.

Like I said, I used to use old calendar photos. For this project I classed it up a bit using a black and white ad featured in W Magazine, but obviously you can use essentially any paper you want. Unfold an envelope of your choice and trace it onto the paper like this:



Then, fold and glue your new envelope together in the same way the envelope template was constructed.


As you can see from the photo above, I love plain, white note cards without lines. They're great for academic stuff, but I also love writing little notes and cards on them with a black pen.



Because my envelope was black, I addressed it with a silver pen. By the way, it's perfectly fine to send these through the mail; these envelopes would be a great excuse to send a good, old fashioned letter for no real reason at all. I hear people used to love that.

So I don't know, this might not be a grownup project but it's definitely fun for kids, and a good way to fake a decorative card last minute. Also, sorry for the poor quality photos, they were done on my iPhone. Let me know what you think!

Eco Project: Paper Strips

If you have a small gift to wrap, you don't need any conventional accessories to wrap it in a fun way. To cover this small box, I just used a plain sheet of printer paper. To create ribbons, I took a few scraps of colored construction paper and cut them into long, thin strips. Then I gathered a few and held them together in a row with a piece of tape at the end. I taped that end to the bottom of the gift and wrapped the rest around, taping the other side. I repeated for another, overlapping strand. The gift looked nice after this stage, but I decided to add a little extra by wrapping thicker, shorter strips of paper around a pencil and then sliding the edges underneath the thiner, taped strips. They look like whimsical antlers to me.

What's great about this project is that you can use old magazines, calendars, or other re-purposed paper and it will look good. It's also useful if you only have a tiny swatch of your favorite gift wrap left but you don't want to toss it. Just cut it into strips and tape it everywhere, that's what I always say.

Happy weekend! More gift wrapping ideas next week.

Fabric Wrapping: I'm Not Sold

As I mentioned last week, one of the ways people are wrapping greener these days is by using fabric in place of paper; unlike things made of trees, fabric doesn't rip easily and thus, is often reusable. It's a good idea. Fabric allows us to incorporate more texture into gift wrapping. I mean, if I could, I would wrap everything in velvet, lace and cashmere. And yes, cloth is sustainable. You reuse it as a headband or a nice kitchen towel.

Somehow though, I'm not a fan of these:


I seem to keep finding these *cough* REALLY FREAKIN UGLY *cough* gift wrap sacks all over the web. And I'm not gonna lie, internetz, these are not cute. Plus, I think there's something to putting just a little effort into wrapping a gift. So it doesn't look like you totally forgot the birthday of the recipient and had to quickly throw something into the tea cozy you found in your mother-in-law's cabinet. The one time I would advocate for wrap sacks is if you're wrapping a gift for a little kid who isn't going give a crap about what's on the outside. Plus, it's less stray paper for that parent to clean up.

Still, I KNOW there is a better way to wrap with fabric. I discovered Furochic gift wrap when I was browsing elephant prints for a theme wrap-up, and I came across this:
Not perfect, but a vast improvement on astronaut monkeys, wouldn't you say? Jennifer Playford founded the whole Furochic line, and she even has a book on the art of fabric wrapping called Wrapagami. I'm still not obsessed with the gift on the cover of this book--I think I'm just too attracted to the sartorial folds of paper-wrapped presents. But I'm getting used to the idea. I mean, how awesome would it look to wrap a gift origami-style and then stick a big, fresh flower on top? SO GREEN!

I'm not completely sold on this whole thing, but perhaps getting there.

Theme Wrap-Up: Eco Friendly Papers

Happy March, everyone! Leading in to this new month, I wanted to share a bunch of great gift prints I've found in the past couple weeks. The theme: green.

Did you know that most gift wrap is not recyclable? I know, it's a depressing prospect for print lovers like us. Some companies do offer some eco-friendly options with paper made of recycled/recyclable materials and soy-based inks. And surprisingly, they're pretty nice looking, so you don't have to trade style to be environmentally sound.

The above prints come from Greenfield Papers. Kind of juvenile, but undeniably cute. Definitely appropriate for wrapping gifts for little girls. Oh heck, grown ladies would love these. How adorable are those birds?? You might know by now I'm quite the bird fan. Both prints are made of 100% recycled material.

I thought these two prints above were a nice, more sophisticated take on flowers/birds respectively. Green Paper Studio makes both and yet again, you can recycle them (although they're so pretty, why wouldn't you save them forever??)


Whimsy Press is really into eco-friendly products, and in my opinion, they do it in a really pretty way. The three prints above are a part of their 100% recycled-made line of gift wrap. Gorgeous prints for sure, but I'm a little bugged that all the prints from this line were green or nature-themed. I mean, I get the point but does it really need to be that literal?

I really prefer the papers from their 30% recycle-made line, although if we opt for these we leave a slightly larger carbon footprint:


Ah, I would wallpaper my home with the bottom two prints. Like I always say, this is the sign of a truly tasteful gift wrap. Which print is your favorite? I showed a lot this week, because I wanted to show how many options we really have to wrap in a manner that still allows us to be tree-huggers.