November, 2021
I love to reimagine things. I'm always trying to dream up a new ideas and ways to make life a little prettier and a little easier on the environment.
Homemade ribbons are super simple and require not much effort. You can use just about any fabric you have on hand that was going to be tossed. Give it a good wash, and then cut a small slit and tear the fabric off in to strips and viola, a super stylish and beautiful homemade ribbon to wrap your gifts with. You can get creative with the old fabric and use a bleach pen, markers, or even flowers to dye the fabric before or after you tear the strips. Not every piece of fabric you dye with flowers needs to be properly treated, sometimes just the act of creating with what you have on hand will lead to something beautiful, and a story to tell.
Instead of purchasing new gift wrap try options like old paper bags, newspaper (especially the funnies!) , magazine pages, and even printable pages to help reduce the amount of new waste that is being created.
You can purchase a gift tag maker and cut your own gift tags out of literally anything! From old art, vintage ephemera, photographs, music sheets, just about anything you can think of.
Beautiful gift wrap doesn't need to be for only one season, these options can be used for any special gift giving event and will make a beautiful statement every time. Not to mention- depending on what you use to wrap your gift in, it can become an additional gift for the recipient, like a flour sack towel.
Thoughtful gift wrapping, with beautiful handmade ribbons and tags make it more special and more cherished. These little pieces are more likely to be saved by the recipient rather than tossed. They make us think a little harder before we simply throw it away. The little pieces can also be used in journals or in creative projects long after the gift was given.