iCount Youth Account





Active Gift Wrap

Cutting down on the use of wrapping paper or using recycled items to wrap gifts is good for the environment and shows the gift receiver that you spent some time thinking up a creative presentation!

If you want to try to build a papier-mâché container, use 1 part flour to 2 parts water. Try and stir out all the lumps and add a sprinkle of cinnamon if you don’t like the smell of wet newspaper!  Of course, just as a reminder, papier-mâché is when you take strips of newspaper, dip it into the flour and water mixture and lay it out in a shape. As it dries, it hardens and can be very useful. You could make a piñata this way if you kept it fairly thin. Round shapes are created with balloons, but you can do hearts and boxes, dreidels and more!

If you want to wrap a gift in paper, but want to use alternatives to gift wrap, try:

- Comics from the Sunday paper
- Old calendars (thick and glossy)
- Magazine pages
- Old maps or marine charts
- Plain paper stamped or stickered

Here are some other ideas:

1. If you know how to sew, make a homemade gift bag out of fabric.
2. Wrap the gift in something that forms PART of the gift.  Try using a winter or fashion scarf. Tie it around the gift and leave it just like that.  Or use a towel or pillowcase.
3. Hide something in the bottom of a clay flowerpot and cover it with shredded tissue to make it look like soil.
4. Use a recycled jar. Wrap the inside or outside with paper so you can’t see in.
5. Bake a loaf of banana bread, cut it in half, hollow out the inside and place your gift inside. Then wrap the whole loaf!