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Creative Green Gift Wrapping

When you choose someone a gift, the wrapping is an integral part of it and we all want our gifts to look as beautiful on the outside as they do on the inside. Choose a green gift wrapping option and you will be saving the world at the same time!

Green gift wrapping options sometimes seems like a poorer choice, but using a few creative ideas, your green wrapping can become not only acceptable, but actually desirable!

FABRIC

Fabric can be used to great effect for wrapping presents. Use a natural fabric that is totally biodegradable if possible. You can use any fabric that you have to hand to wrap gifts, but it is best if you can match the fabric to the present itself.

For a natual look, use hessian. Fray the edges and use colored raffia to tie it up. Make a hand-made tag.

Gifts for ladies can be wrapped in silk scarves. Vintage scarves can be picked up at thrift shops and come in a wonderful range of colors. Match the ribbon you choose to the scarf by picking out one or more colors and matching them.

Voile is a wonderful fabric and makes a superb romantic gift wrap. You might have to use several layers, or interlay it with another (colored) fabric. Tie with pastel-colored ribbon and some dried flowers.

PAPER

Paper is 100% biodegradable and makes the best wrapping. Don't forget that you can re-use wrapping paper. If you are given a large gift, take off the paper carefully and cut out the un-creased parts to use again later. It's not parsimonious, it's green! At Christmas, you can use saved wrapping paper for the children's stocking presents and they won't even notice as they rip it off!

Think about other types of paper you could use as wrapping. For a special occasion, you could use a newspaper of the day (iron it first to fix the ink). For a small present you can use pages from a magazine a fashion magazine for a gift of makeup, for example.

Think about different types of paper you can use. Tissue paper makes a great wrapping, as it comes in all sorts of colors.

HANDMADE

Handmade paper is a wonderful medium, and is often pliable enough to be re-used by the recipient. Why not try making your own paper? See the various Helium articles and online tutorials to find out how.

HAND DECORATED

Plain paper can be made into something magincal with a little thought and time. Plain brown paper can be stamped with motifs, painted, or printed with potatos. Make matching tags.

Leaves make wonderful prints. Choose some leaves with raised veins and use them to print onto plain paper. Use one color or a mixture of colors. Several shades of the same color look great. Overlap the leaf prints for the best effect. Outline a dried leaf in gold pen and use it as a tag.

Tisue paper gifts look great decorated in gold pen. Just write messages all over the paper before wrapping and tie with gold thread.

BOXES

Decorated boxes make great wrappings for gifts. You can decorate them to suit the occasion or tto suit the gift inside. For example, a Christmas gift of chocolates could be decorated with decoupage pictures of Christmas taken from magazines or with pictures of chocolates.

Postage stamps are great for decoupage. They come in all colors and themes, and look so great that the box will become part of the gift as well!

Tie your box with a re-usable piece of ribbon.

TINS

Tins can also be used to hold presents, especially lots of little presents. Choose a vintage tin with a vintage design or a modern quirky print.

When choosing wrapping paper, it is easy to choose a green option. just remember to choose a material that is recylclable or resusable.

Learn more about this author, Susan Hibberd.
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