On wrapping creatively

18 Dec 2006

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

Due to my procrastinating nature, I once again find myself in the position of having to wrap what seems like hundreds of gifts in wasteful wrapping paper, only to have it torn apart and thrown away the very next day. I'm a proponent of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" philosophy, but during the holidays, wrapping my gifts in the Sunday comics doesn't say "mindful conservationist" so much as it says "I'm too lazy and cheap to use store-bought wrapping paper." Do you have any suggestions on what I can use to show my holiday spirit without using a small forest worth of candy-cane-print wrapping?

Johnny M.
Euclid, Ohio

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Dearest Johnny M.,

A revisitation of this topic in time to save procrastinators like us is apt, I believe.

'Tis a gift to be simple.

Photo: iStockphoto

In a previous look at recycled wrapping paper, I breezed over creative ways to cover presents. Today I will give a few very specific instructions on scrounging/creating wrapping paper from stuff around the house. Remember, the prophylactic step is to create a repository for all the wrapping paper you receive. Open gifts, shove the paper into a box, a bag, the closet, or the basement. Look to the future.

Newspapers and magazines are probably the simplest, best paper already lying around the house. The trick of making decent wrapping out of newspaper or magazines is in the choice of photo or section. I learned this from an actual Artist who wraps his gifts this way, I promise. A newspaper will yield interesting photos, or advertisements, perhaps even germane text, that will look slick and nice on presents if the following conditions are met: the attractive part of the photo is centered on the top of the gift in plain view, the paper is carefully wrapped (see below), there is a separate gift tag, and bonus points for some ribbon-type of finish. An example would be a photo of a nice mountain pass from the travel section, with the top of the mountains and the sky centered atop the gift. I think this looks clever -- not cheap, and not lazy.

If the paper you have at home is mainly paper bags or once-used office paper, either you can carefully wrap this plain stuff about a present and top it off with an attractive garnish (again, see below) or, if you have time, you can first decorate the plain paper. Who knows what you already have that could be used? Maybe you can draw well, and make little personal illustrations on each packet. Maybe you have a glitter collection, or pile of stickers -- even file-folder stickers can be made into something interesting. Maybe you can collage snippets from magazines into clever sayings or images related to the recipient or enclosed gift (requires glue or tape, and scissors).

Perhaps you have the supplies to do very basic printmaking. For example, if you have paint, a knife, and a potato, cut the potato in half to get a flat surface. Carve a simple image from the flat surface so that the extraneous potato bits are stripped away from whatever festive design you want to portray -- a tree, a star, a circle -- like a sculpture birthed from rock, spread some paint onto a yogurt lid, dip the potato into the paint and stamp the potato stamp all over the plain paper.

Now for the "(see below)" part: Found paper, or crafty paper, will work best if the gift is well wrapped. To me, and I think to most of us, it is not the paper itself so much as the crisp folds and ribbon that give me the little shock of excitement before gift unveiling. Here are a few basic instructions, but they don't mention what I have noticed as key to the project: Wrap the gift as tightly as possible, and crease every fold, not just the ends. Run two fingers along and make all edges look sharp and purposeful. Then, add the garnish. It could be a ribbon, or a string, or twine, or a series of stickers, or whatever, but because you are using found paper, you need some type of garnish to make the package jump. Otherwise you run the risk of the package looking like a pile of lunchmeats. Which is what I'm trying to save you from.

Leave enough time to wrap with care. Good luck, and happy New Year.

Givingly,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (8 comments)

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fabric

For presents that are going to be opened at home, we always wrap in pieces of cloth. It looks nice, it's easy to remove, and it can be reused next year, none the worse for the wear. Gift bags have similar virtues.

You can, of course, wrap presents to be given away in this fashion, but you'll want to make sure your recipient will either keep the cloth for future use, or return it to you.

by GreenEngineer at 12:40 PM on 18 Dec 2006

Maps!

Outdated maps make great giftwrap, too; chances are, your local public transport system changes every so often (and what are the chances of your going to Vienna again before the system changes?). I once wrapped a present for my Dad in part of an old Chicago el map, which delighted him since he grew up there.

by Professor H at 12:50 PM on 18 Dec 2006

appropriate wrapping

I generally have a hard time feeling like people won't think I'm some kind of crackpot dirty hippie if I wrap a gift in recycled or alternative material, but this year I gave some horsie gifts to my barn friends (solar-powered electric fence chargers, because I knew they'd never shell out the 100% extra for the non-plugin ones on their own, so it was really a disguised environmental contribution, and I got to get credit for generosity too!).

Seeing as how it's a barn, we have tons of stuff laying around from feed sacks and baling twine. I cut up feed sacks for wrapping paper, with a bunch of strips looped and taped together for a bow, and the one other gift I got (a hay cart, and yes, horsepeople are weird, but useful gifts are always the best) ended up with a big baling twine bow on the handle.

Speaking of feed sacks, I generally use them for trash, but when I have too many, which I usually do, I don't know what to do with them. They're multi-layer paper sacks, and for most grain products the horses eat, the inner layer is plasticized (like dog food bags, basically). The few that are all brown paper--like beet pulp bags--I think can probably be recycled or composted, but what the heck should I do with the others? It's only two or three a month, but I thought maybe if I save them up I could use them for mulch the way people use newspaper, if the plastic wouldnt' hurt the plants. The bag says "printed with soy-based ink," so I'm not all that worried about the inks, I don't think (should I be?).

Not that this is anyone's biggest eco-problem.

by willa at 3:55 PM on 18 Dec 2006

plastic in soil

Since many kinds of potting soil contain little styrofoam bits, I can't see as how the plastic would be all that bad, provided it was chopped up well enough.

by Professor H at 7:43 AM on 19 Dec 2006

farm grain bags

I typically separate the layers and then dispose of them accordingly. The layer with the plastic goes in the trash, and the others get composted or burned.

by Pandu at 8:21 AM on 19 Dec 2006

Children's Book Covers, Old Calendars

Two items I've happily used to wrap gift in are the beautiful covers to children's books, and the old calendars I have trouble bringing myself to throw away. They also could be used to decorate the top of a gift wrapped in plain brown or white paper.

by tlowe at 8:43 AM on 19 Dec 2006

Homemade Tags

And, the perfect source for recycled gift tags are last year's Christmas cards cut up into little rectangles & folded. Sometimes you can get really lucky and cut out a piece that will fold properly with the pretty picture right on top of the tag, and no writing on the back. Other times you just have to make it an abstract design out of snowy, wintry colors. But I learned this trick about 20 years ago from a housemate, and have hardly ever bought gift tags since.

by tlowe at 8:47 AM on 19 Dec 2006

Wrap it Up

I've found quite nice stuff at Paporganics. The paper is high quality and holds a crease very nicely and they even have natural ribbon.

For special gifts, I bought some sheets from Recycled Paper Stationery. I like the marbled papers the best - absolutely gorgeous, and so heavy that I know my Mom & I will be trading them back & forth on gifts for the next 10 years.

I do reuse paper & ribbon all the time (kept in two big under-bed boxes year round). I will use the shopping bags you get from a store often, as paper wrap, but also as a gift bag - with inventive ribbon, people are always impressed. Also, I use a lot of natural elements, especially at Christmas - a brown paper grocery bag used as wrapping paper looks a bit tacky with a shiny, pre-made bow, but if you wrap it with some raffia or twine, a twig of pine or holly, a pine cone... it looks beautiful.

Merry merry!
Kaela

by kmp at 2:04 PM on 19 Dec 2006

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Wrapper's Delight