ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

These collages look wonderful hanging in windows, worn as pendants and used as an eco-friendly card + many useful tips for creative eco-friendly gift wrapping. 

Let your imagination run wild and create a range of different craft items including a mobile, cards, etc.  

  Materials

• Clear and coloured contact paper
• An assortment of paper (tissue, construction, mylar, origami, wrapping, newsprint); torn movie, baggage and plane tickets; doilies, etc.
• Array of found objects that can be flattened like leaves, herbs, flowers and ribbon
• String or yarn
• Pair of scissors and/or pinking shears
• Holepuncher
• Crayons

Determine what you want to do and then cut a shape from the clear contact paper. (eg 6" tall and  5" wide at the base and 4" wide at the top.) Peel back a sheet of this shape and lay it sticky-side up on your work surface. Keep the non-sticky back handy because you'll soon need it to "sandwich" your collage.

Colour and draw on, punch holes in, and tear shapes from the array of papers and press them gently onto the peeled-back clear contact. Try layering bits of papers, different colours of tissue on top of each other, or layering leaves or bits of ribbon beneath some newsprint or other paper. When collaging, leave space along the edges of your clear contact paper to create a clear border--the space left can be embellished after the collage is "sandwiched" and sealed.

When you are finished sticking down your materials, reseal your collage with the non-sticky clear contact backing. Create a "sandwich" by covering your collage with the backing, and pressing down firmly so the sticky contact paper re-adheres to its backing along along the edges and in any spaces between your collage.

Punch a hole in the top of your collage and thread a long string or piece of yarn through it to wear as a necklace or a 2-1/2"-4" strand for other uses.

Gift Wrap Ideas

Overlooked Gift Wraps

Consider using blueprints, wallpaper and fabric scraps, brown paper, butchers paper, graph paper, rice paper, children's drawings, A3 or A4 paper (cut out the used print or paint or glue pictures if printed both sides, get your children to draw on one side) for attractive effects. Use ribbon, string, rope instead of stickey tape.

Wrap a gift in a gift. For example, put kitchen utensils inside an attractive tea towel, or give a child a backpack with more treasures inside, decorative tin, wooden box,wrapped in a towel, children's silk / muslin play cloth etc.

Instead of using gift wrap to wrap presents, find a box or cane basket (which are resuable) and decorate. Op shops are great places to look for baskets.

Make your own gift boxes from cereal and tissue boxes.

Results of an Informal Poll on Wrapping Choices

Use wrapping paper and ribbon saved from last year's gifts.
Steve Kane, Management Consultant

Cut a star or Christmas tree from a sponge, dip it in white paint and stamp on brown wrapping paper. Tie with mailing twine or bold ribbon. For gift tags, cut or tear an abstract shape from the back of a greeting card. Outline the edge with a gold pen (optional). Punch a hole in one end, slip in a piece embroidery floss and tie it to the package.
Julia E. Newhouse, Artist

Use colorful or interesting pages from Spanish or Chinese newspapers. Tie with ribbons left over from last year.
Corey Smigliani, Illustrator

Use newspaper with no ribbons.
Boris Bally, Metalsmith

Use tissue paper to wrap the gift. This project is comfortable to do with book-size presents. Lightly draw the outline of a bell or abstract shape in pencil on the package. Using a gold ballpoint pen, write a brief message (e.g., happy holidays) in capital letters-no more than 1/4" high-inside the bell. Stop lettering when you hit the pencil outline, even if you don't finish the word. You may continue lettering that word or begin with the next word when you start the next line. Continue until the entire shape is filled with letters.
Reena Kazmann, designer