My last Green Wrapping post is a traditional one – paper and string.
Whether its brown packing paper, craft paper, or coloured, recyclable flower shop paper (just go into your local flower shop and ask to buy a roll. It’s a lot cheaper than wrapping paper, it’s fully recyclable and sometimes comes with cute patterns on), wrapping with paper and string will cost next to nothing, and I think it looks lovely. Especially if you make a feature of the bow with a candy cane, bauble, pinecone or chocolate.
Here’s how:
Just wrap your gift as usual, using the paper:
- Place the gift in the centre of the paper and fold two opposite sides over the gift so they overlap slightly, and tape in place.
- Then focus on one side at a time, where the paper isn’t yet secure. Push the top piece downwards, onto the bottom piece and crease the sides. The sides should now form triangles. Pull them into the middle, so you’re left with one triangle at the bottom.
- Pull the bottom triangle up, over the gift and tape in place. Repeat with the other side.
- All your tape should be on the same side of the gift, so when you turn it over, you have a nice, neat present.
Then it’s time to tie on your string:
- I measure how much I’ll need by wrapping it around the longest/largest part of the gift 2 1/2 – 3 times, depending on how big I want the bow. Then cut the string to length.
- Next, find the centre of your string and place it horizontally, running across the centre of the top of your gift.
- Flip the gift over, holding the string in place so it’s now underneath your gift, with all the taped edges facing up.
- Pull the two ends of the string across the gift so they sit in parallel to each other, then pull the lower string up, and the higher string down, so they wrap around each other, and are now running vertically.
- Flip your gift over again, holding the string in place, and knot the ends of the string tightly together, wherever you want the bow to be.
Once the string is tied securely, then you can get creative and knot it again around candy canes, chocolate figures, baubles, pine cones, or anything else you fancy. Then thread a recycled gift tag through one end of the string and finish it by tying a bow.
If you find you’ve cut the string a bit too short, or whatever you’re adding into the knot wouldn’t look right with a tag in front of it; after you’ve flipped your present over for the final time, just thread one end if the string through the gift tag before you knot it.
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