I love a beautifully wrapped package. In fact, I can often be way more interested in how the present is wrapped than what is actually inside.
Several years ago, I started gathering up wrapping paper, bags and ribbon for presents. I have always attempted to buy wrapping paper that could be used for any occasion, staying away from those that have Merry Christmas all over them since they can only really be used at one time of year. In order to save money, I was always one of those people who went to the craft stores right before and right after Christmas. Their Christmas decorations and wrapping items usually go on sale before Christmas. I have built up a stash large enough that it will take me several more years to use it all up and I haven’t bought anything new in over two years!
Although I love beautiful bows and ribbons and artfully wrapped boxes, I am conflicted due to the heavy environmental toll that wrapping paper can take on our environment. I do love our family, however, they are extremely generous. There are so many presents every Christmas that the packages take over half of the modestly-sized living room! At the end of the marathon opening session, there are at least 2, and sometimes more, large black garbage bags filled with nothing but wrapping paper, ribbons and boxes. For several years, I have done what I can to salvage the shirt boxes, gift boxes, bags and fabric ribbons as much as possible. Thanks to this, I haven’t had to buy any new shirt boxes for several years.
Reusing wrapping paper helps not only the environment, but the bottom line of our checking account as well! We all spend enough money on presents and shipping as it is, there’s no need to deplete our accounts further by buying new wrapping items every year.
With that all noted. I have a very easy recycled wrapping paper idea I wanted to share!
First, when I’ve gone shopping at those stores which use paper bags with handles, I typically save them in my wrapping supplies. Stores that will often have these types of bags include Bath & Body Works, Sephora, Banana Republic and other similar places. The best ones to save are those that only have writing on one side of the bag.
Second, when I get Christmas cards each year, I find it hard to throw them into the recycling bin at the end of the season. I’m not even sure if those with glitter or foil on them can be recycled. So I cut the front parts from the back and sometimes the interior saying if it’s something I really like. I have used these previously as gift tags the next Christmas. Some of the larger ones though, work really well with those bags I saved from stores.
To reuse these together, find a bag and card that appear to work together in both size and color. I happened to have a nice medium sized bag in my favorite kraft colored paper and the logo (which I really like) was only printed on one side.
Then I had one of my bigger, saved Christmas cards that almost covered the whole logo. Note that horizontal cards may work better for this over vertical ones. In this particular case, the little bit of logo that wasn’t covered up, actually worked really well with the card.
To spice it up a bit, I used one of my scrapbooking corner punches just to add a little detail to the corner of the card, then I used a plain glue stick to glue it on to the bag over the logo.
As noted, I save ribbon when possible and I had a very short piece of red ribbon that worked well with the colors in this card. I used a regular single hole punch to punch through the bag and card together and threaded the ribbon through. It was a little short to make a regular bow, so I cut a short section of curling ribbon and created the center of the bow with that.
Done! It took me about 8 minutes to finish this from start to finish, and that included snapping a couple of photos for this post!
This same thing could be done with birthday cards for birthday wrapping and Valentine’s or Easter packaging.
I have also covered these saved store bags with regular newspaper, just gluing it to the exterior and wrapping it over about 1” into the interior. I have also used scrapbooking paper to just cut a nice square to go over exterior logos.
I know that this doesn’t ultimately save items from finding their way into a landfill. Also, the paper bags that I use could potentially be recycled by themselves. The addition of the glittery Christmas cards may make that more difficult and ultimately I’m not sure which is better, recycling it directly or reusing it several more times. By using them more than once, I feel like I’m using a little less raw material and that’s what this section of my weblet is all about – a little less consumerism.
