Organic Gift Wrapping and Mason Jar Terrariums: A Crafternoon

This past Saturday, I was invited to do a presentation at Whole Foods Santa Monica on upcycled organic gift wrapping.  Along with Megan (the Whole Foods Marketing Team Leader…and blogger of  The Dinner Party Association), we hosted Whole Foods’ first Crafternoon crafting event!

  

 

Mason Jar Terrariums with Megan:

Megan did a wonderful presentation on how to make really creative & fun gifts using mason jars, a bit of soil and moss, and a succulent of your choice.  Then we got to decorate the mason jars with adorable little ribbons and holiday-themed embellishments.  The result was a fantastic mason jar terrarium that would make the perfect holiday gift!

   

It was an absolutely fantastic presentation, and I really enjoyed learning a new crafting skill!

Upcycled Organic Gift Wrapping with Lucy:

Next was my turn!  Whole Foods just asked that I do some sort of creative gift wrapping presentation, and left the details and theme up to me.  I settled on an upcycled materials theme that focussed on an organic gift wrapping style.  In case I haven’t made it obvious already, this is my utmost favorite style, and also the one I often encourage Fair Ivy‘s monthly featured surprise artists to use!

We started with Whole Foods brown bags, to upcycle into wrapping paper.  We simply cut them open and used the backside, which made for perfect kraft paper that kept with the whole organic gift wrapping vibe.

I put together little boxes full of natural embellishments—leaves, twigs, flowers, berries, and other non-wilting plants that were perfect for embellishments on organic gift wrapping packages. Each Crafternoon participant got their own little box of organic goodies, and were allowed to be as imaginative as they wanted.

    

       

Above are a few of the sample packages I created, all using organic embellishments that I simply found in the garden or outside my house.  The idea was to focus on natural items that don’t need water to remain beautiful—so low-water-needing plants (like succulents, ficus trees, rosemary, Christmas trees), dried plants (like twigs, dead leaves, dried berries) and even little pebbles.  For ribbon we used twine, natural-colored yarn, or raffia (made from the raffia palm—how much more natural can you get?).

I brought a little bottle of white paint as well, which participants used to spice-up some of their kraft paper, with little dabs of their finger.

And look at how perfect the holiday paper bags from Whole Foods are for wrapping paper if you use the outside!  They even have snowflakes!  These dried red berries were also a perfect holiday wrapping paper touch.

 

Thanks to those of you who joined us, and we hope to see many more of you at the next event.  Oh, and….

Happy Holidays!!

Ps. If you need any help or suggestions for upcycled creative gift wrapping ideas, just drop me a line 🙂