Gift Wrap That Even Santas Elves Would Be Jelly Of
Every year, my mom and I go head-to-head in a “gift wrap aesthetic” competition and it is one of my favorite holiday traditions! I pretty much start planning my theme on the 26th of December and basically spend the entire year mapping out how I will take my mother down and make her cry on Christmas morning. No, not with my super sentimental and thoughtful gifts! Oh hell naw! I’m talking tears of a loser who has had their dreams of gift wrap aesthetic competition victory crushed to smithereens. That’s what the holidays are all about right!? Wholesome family traditions <3 I wanted to share my theme for this year and let y’all know how you can create this yourself using things you probably have laying around your home!
If you’re anything like me, you have a linen closet filled with extra paper bags from your Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s runs. In stead of buying new wrapping paper this year, I wanted to take a low waste and more sustainable approach. I cut off the bottoms of the bags, and cut up one of the sides so that the paper would lay completely flat. Then I flip it over so that the blank side is exposed. I used white construction paper and ended up crinkling it up to add some texture and hide the seams of the construction paper (I ended up needing to tape some pieces together to ensure they were large enough for certain boxes). I really love how it turned out! If you struggle with your wrapping skills, try this crinkle trick! It hides little boo boos but still looks intentional.
By this point you know I am a smoothie queen. And one of my favorite ingredients to throw in my smoothies is orange and fresh squeezed orange juice. So luckily for me, I had a bag of oranges on hand. To create these dried oranges, you simply cut your orange into thin (but not too thin, otherwise they’ll turn brown around the edges) slices and then pat your slices dry with a paper towel. With your oven set at 250 degrees, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place your orange slices on the parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for two hours. I checked every 20 or so minutes and rotated when needed so that they all dried evenly. I then allowed them to cool and sit out for a day so that they were as stiff as possible. The “meat” part is still soft enough to poke a toothpick through in order to slide twine and ribbon through.
I tucked in some little pops of greenery to the boxes with some excess garland I had laying around. I did end up needing to purchase sheer organza ribbon, twine and this terracotta chiffon ribbon but I am pretty pumped that I was able to make the rest happen with items I already had at home!
I hope this cute and easy gift wrap idea gives you some inspiration for how you can wrap your gifts more sustainably this year! If any of you try out my paper or orange slice trick, take a picture and tag me on Instagram at @homebodyjane! Happy Holidays :)
LYTBAP,