I’m really excited to be able to share my second project in my recent brand collaboration for Dunelm with you. It’s absolutely brilliant when a creative collaboration is so perfectly aligned with one’s own interests, passions and beliefs. And that’s what happens when we first started talking about their new wrapping paper for 2020.

When I heard the word recyclable, they had me and then when I learned that this was the only type of wrapping paper they were selling, I was super excited to be involved and come up with a styling look to bring some festive but natural bling to create visually tempting parcels and packages that would look perfect in my traditional Edwardian home.

I love thinking about the past and considering how previous generations made things look truly beautiful in the most simple ways. Without the convenient consumer culture we have now they had to dig deeper with their imaginations and find more inventive ways to create beautiful statements when giving gifts. No wonder vintage Christmas styling is so popular it feels so authentic and heartfelt.

So when you get back to the basics of gift wrapping, it’s all about neat and precise cutting and folding, what colours to team together and how to hold the paper in place and adorn it with decorative embellishments. I love how gorgeous eco gift wrapping can transform the simplest, smallest thing into something incredibly thoughtful.

In the past Christmas trimmings were paper and handmade, all sourced from what you had to hand and what you could find in the natural world. So with that in mind, I decided on my colours of recycled paper,  popped my hunter gatherer’s hat on and went out foraging for suitable embellishments.

That was my approach to this quick tutorial for Dunelm on how to get the very best results so here is the step-by-step video on how to make recycled wrapping paper super stylish. You’ll find the whole video and a blog on the project in their Festival of Christmas plus here are a few of my thoughts on what you need for the best results:

Sharp scissors
Recyclable wrapping paper
Recyclable ribbon
Strong ruler
Dried sycamore seed heads
Sprigs of holly
Game bird feathers like pheasant, partridge or duck
Sprigs of fresh fir
Pine cones

To ensure this beautiful paper stays fully recyclable avoid glue, sticky tape, glitter or paint. That way once your gifts are unwrapped, you can reuse it wrap again, maybe for next year’s Alternative Advent Calendar or shred and pop into the compost bin.

If you enjoyed this project please drop a comment below or feel free to share with any of your crafty friends.

Thank you to Dunelm for all the products to make this tutorial and for supporting production costs.