If you need to wrap your gifts this holiday season, there’s still a way to be more eco-conscious. Here are 4 of my favourite eco-friendly DIYs.

Opting for brown paper packaging means you can recycle it. Most wrapping papers contain metallics or plastic fibres so they cannot be recycled. And many are so thin that they contain no valuable paper to be recycled so they are simply landfilled.

DIY 1: Custom Stamped Paper

For this DIY you will need:

• Craft paper
• Lint Roller
• Craft foam
• Baker’s twine
• Skewer stick
• Scissors
• Ink pad
• Optional paint and/or puffy paint

Step 1: Cut the craft foam into 8 pieces approximately 1 x 2.5 inches each.

Step 2: Cut tree shapes out of them. Take the skewer stick and make some tiny holes in the trees. Cut a piece of baker’s twine.

Step 3: Add the foam to the roller: Position the trees so that their stumps point to the handle. Wrap the twine around and through the trees so that it looks like a hillside or a walk.

Step 4: Press the roller onto an ink pad and roll until it is completely covered with green ink.

Step 5: Roll it onto your paper. Let the ink dry.

DIY 2: Draw With Paint

If you’re not a fan of the stamped look, worry not! Pre-wrap your gift in craft paper and get creative with paint, a paint pen, or even puffy paint for a look that you can still recycle!

DIY 3: Paint Chip Garland

If you’re like me you always have paint chips on hand, so why not upcycle them into some unique garland.

For this DIY you will need:

• Paint Chips
• Twine
• Hot Glue
• Light Bulb Stencil
• Craft Paper

Step 1:

• The first thing we are going to do is draw out the light bulb shape – you can use your stencil or freehand if you’re more of an artist – on the paint chips. You can make the shapes larger or shorter based on how many colours you want to incorporate.

Step 2:

• Carefully cut out your shapes.
• Hot glue your twine to the back of each bulb, evenly spaced.

Step 3:

• Wrap the gift with craft paper and then wrap with your DIY garland. You can also use a marker to draw the garland.

DIY 4: Wrapped Shapes!

We have these paper shopping bags that we can use as gift wrap- especially when you have awkwardly shaped items. It’s a starburst wrap!

For this DIY you will need:

• Craft Paper
• Thread
• Sewing Machine or Needle
• Optional Shredded Paper

Step 1: Start by cutting out two identical star shapes from your upcycled shopping bag. Make sure they are big enough to accommodate the size of the gift you’re wrapping.

Step 2: Sew up half your star

Step 3: Add in your gift and your optional shredded paper stuffing if you want a fuller star.

Step 4: Sew up the rest of the gift and add a tag or write the name on the paper.