Upcycled Gift Wrapping with Natural Materials

It’s the season of giving and that means lots of gift wrapping. This is a perfect opportunity to get creative with how we can be more sustainable and encourage our family to find joy in working with natural materials.

From shiny coating on paper and bows to glitter and stickers, many gift wrapping materials available in stores use plastic. These materials will not biodegrade, creating more waste for future generations. We can be more mindful about our gifts so that we can enjoy these gifts today and in the future.

First, let’s make good use of the materials readily available in our homes - brown grocery paper bags. I love working with brown paper bags because they are just like kraft paper and they are compostable and sturdy. A brown paper bag, opened up and turned inside out, becomes a blank canvas for many upcycling projects.

In this project, I’m reusing brown paper bags to wrap holiday gifts. Instead of bows, I’m using greenery to spruce up my gifts with a festive flair and wrapping everything with simple twine. Almost any greenery will work for this project, but ones that last well without water are best.

Three simple ways to use natural materials in gift wrapping:

1. Tucking stems into wrapped twine. I used eucalyptus because it lays flat nicely.

2. Making a small wreath by bending a long stem into a circle. Rosemary is great because it looks like a pine wreath.

3. Making pine needle tassels

Watch video below for examples of how to make each accent:

The beauty of this gift wrapping is that once done, you can pull off any tape and put the rest into the compost bin!