Tag Archives: furoshiki

top ten eco friendly gift wrap ideas

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wrapping with cloth- cityhippyfarmgirlmap-wrapping- cityhippyfarmgirl

I watched an ad recently where the recipient ripped open their carefully wrapped present to get to the item underneath. I winced, I really did. It seems crazy in todays day, that so many people are still doing this at gift giving time. Sigh… what an incredible waste of paper.

I’ve written about this once or twice before, but here are some wrapping ideas for the festive time of year, (or any old time of year.)

Top 10 eco friendly gift wrap ideas

old maps– I would imagine with technology jumping ahead maps might be a thing of the past in times to come. (I’m still using my old atlas that I saved from the rain on the side of the road.)

newspaper– be selective on your pages used, you can make it look good!

children’s art– if you have a little one at pre-school or just a pint sized Picasso, you may be swimming in craft and paintings- share the love, the grandparents will adore it.

fabric– retro fabrics, tea towels, scarves… the choices are endless. The art of wrapping with fabric goes by the lovely name of furoshiki and you can learn how to do it with these step by step instructions here.

old movie or music posters

how about crocheting a gift bag

chocolate wrappers– yep chocolate wrappers.

maybe a recycled box

or ditch the wrapping altogether and just go with a lovely reusable ribbon and handmade card.

There is no need for sticky tape for any of these options. Wool makes a great pull-it-together-and-make-it-look-pretty gift giving addition if you need to hold things in.

chocolate wrapping paper- cityhippyfarmgirl

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* for more furoshiki instructions, see here.

How about you? Any green tinged wrapping ideas to share?

eight eco friendly Christmas gift ideas

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local honey– use as a face wash and natural exfoliant, stirred into your morning chai, or drizzled over toast

box of homemade biscuits (recipe below)

gift tag card made up from a dried pressed flower

lunch date voucher- favourite packed picnic lunch

giant gingerbread person in a crocheted pocket

jar of homemade almond pesto

gift wrapping- I’ve talked about using old maps as wrapping paper before. This particular one was gold, as I had found an unwanted old atlas on the street that someone had lazily put out there. At first I was dismayed at the thought of it sitting out there unwanted and unloved, getting rain damaged. We certainly didn’t need another atlas… then I remembered wrapping paper. Sure it was a bit sad that I was cutting into this large beautiful book, but I was certainly better than just going in the recycling bin which is where it was headed. Team it up with some wool to hold the folding in place, and no tape is necessary.

For more wrapping ideas, have a look at this rather awesome site on furoshiki, other wise known as the Japanese art of fabric gift wrapping.

(For last years 12 eco friendly Christmas gift ideas, see here.)

Coconut Strawberry Hearts

250g softened butter

1 cup (220g) sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp coconut essence

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

3 1/2 cups (525g) plain flour

strawberry jam

Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer until pale. Add vanilla, coconut essence and egg, then mix through rest of ingredients. Lightly knead biscuit dough and roll between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm. Pop into the fridge for an hour or so until firm, and cut out to shapes. If the dough comes back to room temperature while you are still cutting, being tricky to handle, just pop it back into the fridge for a bit.

Bake at 170C for approximately 15-20 mins, a very light golden colour. Allow to cool and then add half a teaspoon of strawberry jam in between the two biscuits.

Eat two immediately to see if they are ok to gift. Yep? Ok, should be good to go.

For a similar recipe see Coconut Jam Drops.