Phew, how are you getting on with the 12 Days of Giftmas? Hope you’re all happily making some amazing gifts for your loved ones – make sure you comment below with your makes.
It seemed like a good time to look at how we’re going to wrap up our beautiful gifts we’ve lovingly made. I have friends who buy beautiful, expensive gift wrap and bags, much of which cannot be recycled because it contains foil, glitter or plastic so decided to try and make our wrapping as eco- (and wallet!) friendly as possible.
Bag It!
The Lamb had a Disney themed birthday this year and I made some gift bags for her friends, filling them with treats. The children really loved the paper bags and I heard from one mum that her little one had even taken it to bed that night! They were easy to make, non-plastic, and should be easy to recycle so we decided to make more for Christmas.
I attempted a bit of calligraphy on stickers so we knew which bag was for which friend, then the Lamb went to work with some woodland themed stickers. With an added a raffia bow, they were finished! I think they look really effective.
If you’ve seen the cards for sale in my shop, you’ll know I love washi tape and I was excited to buy some Christmas themed tape. Using that, and some of the Lamb’s snowflake stickers, I created a beautiful set featuring a gift bag, gift tag and card. There’s something so elegant about matching ‘sets’ isn’t there? It’s a gift in itself!
Pots Galore!
As part of my Earth Day pledge, I’m always looking for new years to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle so loved the idea of using some empty Play-Doh pots for some fun treats we’ve made the Lamb’s besties. The Lamb LOVED the bubble bath play-doh we made so we whipped up a batch for her friends. I’d also seen shower jellies which looked a lot of fun and I knew the children would find them fun. We tried a couple of different recipes, using different vegetarian jellies, but frustratingly all we were left with was a LOT of slimy bubble bath. It wasn’t the gift I was hoping to give, but the children all loved their slime (and I don’t think there have been any complaints at bathtime!). We popped the bubble bath play-doh and slime into some old play-doh pots which meant they were stored in leak-proof containers but it also fooled the children who thought they’d just been given play-doh as a gift.
You could easily reuse these pots for many different gifts, especially as they come in different sizes and I’ve started using them for storing our craft supplies. I liked that it was a double surprise in that the children thought they had play-doh (yay, we all love play-doh) then discovered it was something else.
That’s a (Gift) Wrap!
I remember when I first started to question if Father Christmas was real: it was the year he’d bought his wrapping paper in the same place as my parents. Since having the Lamb I’ve tried to make an effort to ensure that Father Christmas’ gifts are in totally different wrapping paper, and the rolls are well-hidden so try and keep up the magical illusion. This year, Father Christmas is also about minimal, recyclable wrapping and so is using brown parcel paper, tied with raffia string. He’s not using stickers or labels but is writing on each gift instead, and even doing a little drawing of Rudolph!
I hope you’ve enjoyed the 12 Days of Giftmas as much as we have. Let us know if you tried any of our ideas in the comments below and whilst you’re here, why not pop over to my shop for some handmade gifts?