Green Giving

Its time for me to sing the praises of green giving again, and this post is part craft economics and part environmental good sense.

First of all most people love to present their gifts as nicely as possible, and some gifts even requrire a certain amount of packaging, the trick is to turn thrift and green living into beautiful gift trimmings.

The photo at top of this post shows a large maxbox that has been turned into a giftbox rather than thrown into recycling.... if I didn't keep my used boxes (whether match, chocolate, or other) I would be running around looking for a store bought one. Store bought gift boxes can be nice, but they are a green nightmare, they have likely been transported vast distances which is a green no-no, they are mass produced so aren't great energy and pollution wise, not forgetting the health and wellbeing of the employees which may be not better than a sweat shop..... and often imported items are doused in chemicals before their journey (Yes you should wash your new clothes, linens, and anything else that you can).

This box has been covered with a simple piece of coloured paper using green friendly paste, and then an offcut of saved ribbon and an iron on transfer star applied around the middle.

Inside my gift box are a pair of earrings I recently made up using vintage lucite sea horses, I like to find and collect vintage pieces as they make the jewelry rarer, and I think it is better than letting the pieces go to waste, and means I am not endorsing more mass produced beads and findings. When I do buy new beads I often purchase from a lovely lady who has her own family business of a small glass studio, a very satisfying experience as I know the circumstances surrounding the production meet my green standards.

I have preached in very early posts, the value of keeping every piece of trim and ribbon that comes your way.... I will rescue any amount of offcut ribbon even wrinkled and creased stock as it is a simple matter of giving them a light iron and they are as new again. I have even taken ribbon with stain on it and covered with embellishments.... I often use embellishments anyway so at least the ribbon isn't going to waste. Above are some of the saved ribbons that fill my ribbon box.

I admit, I love cut flowers, but I detest florist shops.... so much waste, so many flowers imported from great distances because they are out of season or don't suit the climate.... If I can't get to the flower markets I will usually pick fresh flowers from my garden, yes they will die in time, but it helps stimulate new flower production out in the garden. But it is true that one of my favourite green gift tips is to give a stunning photograph of flowers that can be mounted or framed and lasts forever.

It is easy to achieve a lovely close up of flowers - they don't move except in high winds - the camera is point and shoot, I have a macro lens of 1cm which I admit puts me at advantage but I have always managed to get good shots even before my current camera. You can look at my flower pictures via my flickr link on the right of this blog page, and while in flickr why not get even more inspiration from the flickr group 'flower book' these are extremely high quality often professional photographs.

Any way I hope you are finding out, or remembering, how fun it can be to give green friendly gifts, and they are above all gifts from the heart.