Last week, I celebrated a birthday (and no … I’m not saying how old I am … those of you who know … “mums” the word). I woke up to beautifully wrapped gifts … so beautiful, in fact, that I’ve put the wrapping paper on the wall. And that brings me to today’s idea:
Get creative when wrapping and giving gifts. The person I live with is very creative. He can create something beautiful from the most ordinary items. We create a lot of blueprints in our business. They are printed on huge, sturdy pieces of paper. Instead of just tossing them, he finds creative ways to reuse them. In this case, he glued two pieces together to form a good, heavy canvas and then … he painted a beautiful picture. The painting included some of my favorite things … flowers, the mountains, critters … and when he was done, he used the painting to wrap my gift. The result was a beautiful, colorful and very personal gift wrap. And, not that the gift itself wasn’t wonderful, but … I’m sure that years from now, what I’ll remember the most is the very special gift wrapping, made with love … just for me.
There are all kinds of ways to give gifts without adding to the surplus of stuff that gets sent to a landfill. The gift, itself, can be something you make with recycled materials. Rather than use a cardboard box to wrap a gift, use something creative and useful such as a flower pot, bowl, casserole dish or keepsake box … make the container part of the gift. Wrapping paper can be something as special as my “painting” or as simple as a towel that can be reused. And imagine how beautiful a package becomes if you use a bouquet of flowers on top instead of a bow.
So the next time that you have a gift to give, get creative … you’ll not only show kindness to the earth, you’ll thrill the person who opens the package.