Down With Gift Wrap

After reading Eco-Craft by Susan Wasinger, the Homemade Mamas have decided to challenge ourselves and our readers to give up store bought wrapping paper. How wasteful to chop down trees for the sole purpose of covering a gift and then to be thrown out. Gift wrapping is such a great opportunity to reduce, reuse and recycle. Over the next few months we plan to start collecting our "new" earth friendly gift wrap.

Here are some of our ideas, please share your recycled gift wrap ideas with us.

Recycled:

• children's art work
• newspaper
• maps
• junk mail
• mailing labels
• decorate brown paper bags
• cut up pretty shopping bags or use them as gift bags
• sheet music
• used gift wrap (our grandma could open a package without a single tear)
• reuse gift bags

Reusable

Make your wrapping part of your gift. Cloth shopping bags, baby blankets, bath and kitchen towel, colanders, laundry baskets, flowerpots, mugs, table cloths all make great "wrapping paper and gift baskets".

Don't forget your trimmings. Forget plastic ribbons. Get creative! Make paper ribbons, cloth ribbons, twine or other ties that can be reused. Tie on pretty flowers, leaves, bottle tops, cinnamon sticks, candy canes, pretty stamps from your mail.

We hope you will take up this challenge with us. We can't wait to hear your great earth friendly gift wrap ideas - send pictures too!