Last Minute, Eco-Friendly Gift Wrap Ideas

By Melissa Massello, December 21, 2011

Today’s post is a quick DIY idea perfect for holiday procrastinators and green givers alike: gift wrapping you can make in 10 minutes reusing items you already have lying around the house!

Here’s all you need:

Brown paper grocery bags
VHS tapes
Small screwdriver
Scotch tape
Scissors

I’m super psyched I finally got around to trying this, because I’ve been sitting on the idea ever since meeting Danny Seo and receiving his book, Simply Green Giving, back in April 2008 at an event hosted by method & my dear friend Christine. (That’s me in the middle.)

Danny has a new book out this year, Upcycling, a topic also close to my heart, which reminded me about his gorgeous gift wrapping project and I just had to try it out on the gifts I bought for Amy. (I know she’s going to die at the choice of VHS tape I used for the project, too.) Apologies for the photos, taken with my iPhone while I was rushing out the door this morning!

To start, I grabbed a paper bag from my last Whole Foods run and a vintage workout tape, left over from our retro fitness story & photo shoot. (“I’m Eric Niiiiieeees….it’s The Griiiiiiiiiiind…” Holy high school flashbacks, to when MTV actually played music.)

Then, I unlatched the VHS case by removing the two screws with a tiny screwdriver (from my eyeglass repair kit), which was surprisingly a lot easier than I thought it would be (only taking about 2 minutes), leaving me with…

…a spool of shiny, delicate black ribbon for gift wrapping! I cut the ribbon free from the second spool at the transparent line (assuming you enacted the Be Kind, Rewind rule the last time you watched that tape, you should see the same) and you’re ready to wrap. Given how delicate the ribbon is, having a second set of helping hands would have saved a lot of frustration (and wrinkled ribbon) in the wrapping process, but I think the main gift came out OK, don’t you?

With the smaller gifts (and when I do this again), I added some red tissue paper and red raffia to give my (local!) gifts some seasonal flair:

You could also write a gift message directly on the brown paper wrapping with colored calligraphy pens, or use colored stamps/stencils, if you have them, both of which would be adorable and festive.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

~ Melissa