Audra Lowe: Okay it’s time to start wrapping presents but who want to spend a bundle on new wrapping paper. Well, Rhiannon met up with lifestyle expert Mar Jennings and if anybody could show us, he definitely can. He’s showing us how the old can become new again.
Rhiannon: Just in time for the holidays, Mar Jennings is showing us recycled wrapping to turn your ordinary Christmas gift into this. Doesn’t that look great?
Mar: Something really special and it’s very easy to do. Once you start realizing that you have so many resources and they’re in your home already.
Rhiannon: I know and I picked this one up. I love this one. Tell us about this.
Mar: Wall paper and some box with clippings from the garden, a recycled ribbon and you’re good to go.
Rhiannon: Wall paper? But it’s so stiff.
Mar: That’s what makes it so wonderful to work with because it takes a beautiful crease and it’s very pliable for any packages.
Rhiannon: I love that, what do we have next? We have this one.
Mar: More wall paper, but this one has more texture on it. So it’s a little harder to work with, so it’s a little bit more for the advanced person but still, a big impact and absolutely no taping in.
Rhiannon: Now this one is my favorite and my grandmother actually does this, uses newspaper.
Mar: Newspaper but to step it up, all you need to do is just iron it on a low heat that way the ink doesn’t come of on you hands.
Rhiannon: It doesn’t get all over your gift.
Mar: Right and it’s not messy. Now what I want to do is I want to share with you some of my secrets.
Rhiannon: Okay, I want to see these. I’m a horrible wrapper.
Mar: And I’ve been wrapping since I was a little boy and I used to do all the Christmas shopping with my mom and we would come home and we would wrap it wrap it wrap it and be done with it.
So I’ve had a lot of experience and the biggest mistake I find is that when people go for tape, they tend to tape way too much tape and put it on the package and they try to close it.
Rhiannon: Can’t use enough tape.
Mar: Minimal tape, the idea is that you don’t want to see the tape. The tape is just simply to secure so if you notice here it’s a very little strip and I’ve really creased the edges to take the mold. That’s very important, crease the edges once you start folding and the last part is when you fold it over, you don’t necessarily need to apply another piece of tape on the outside. My secret is I used rubber bands because that guarantees that it will stay in place allowing me now to go to the next level and that is accessorizing it.
Rhiannon: I love that.
Mar: And when you accessorize it, you could go into the garden, you could forge, I love using boxwoods but I incorporate it for the holidays with some beautiful holly bulbs as well. I keep it very organic and natural effect because no matter what time of the year it is, you should really make it a special gift and if you’re spending time on buying something special for someone, the wrapping is just as important as the gift itself.
Rhiannon: Wow, so even if you don’t have a high end item you still want to dress that.
Mar: It doesn’t matter whether you spend $2.00 or $2000.00 the idea is basically the same. It makes any gift more expensive looking and it really sets up the overall experience and I like using a nice, fat ribbon.
Rhiannon: And then you just cover it up with rubber band up.
Mar: And know is that I’m going to cut that rubber band allowing it to remove because everything is in place and then I’ll make a really generous bow here. I love recycling bows so if I give you a present with a bow and I see that your throwing it out, I’ll go right into your garbage and pull it right out and you know sometimes I will. So what are you going to do with that and go ahead and recycle it. But as I was mentioning it, I’m just going to stick that right underneath and very quickly, I turn something that was pretty ordinary into something pretty spectacular just by being creative and resourceful in the garden.
Rhiannon: Thank you so much!
Mar: Recycle, reuse, repurpose, remake something imaginable.
Rhiannon: I hope I’m on your gift giving list this year. Thank you so much. Great tips here, recycled wrapping paper.
Mar: And there you have it.
Rhiannon: And you can get more creative ideas from Mar’s book Life on Mars and you can check out his website as well, just head over to BetterTV.com and click on the link.
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