Wrap it up, I'll take it

You've found a perfect, green gift for everyone on your list. Now comes the tricky part -- wrapping it without waste.

Old-fashioned shiny paper and ribbons are landfill-fillers. How can you lighten your eco-footprint while still making the presents presentable?

Wrapping paper with recycled content is more popular and widely available. 42 percent of holiday shoppers say they'll buy recycled gift wrap.

Here are a couple we like. Fish Lips has six modern wintery designs and Green Girl has four classic holiday styles. Seltzer also has several hip holiday paper designs. All are on 100% post-consumer recycled papers, printed with soy- or vegetable-based inks.

Paper gift bags are a handy option because they can easily be reused year after year. These beautiful bags from Gaiam are made of 100% recycled paper by artisans in India. The craftspeople are paid an fair wage, so this gift gives on both sides. Natural Elements has elegant gift bags made from naturally shedding mulberry tree bark, which is harvested without destroying trees.

But the ultimate reusable bag is made of fabric. It can stand up to years of use, and it can either be used as a second gift itself or the recipient can pass it along to others as gift wrap. Fabric gift bags don't become trash.

Fwaps, Greenwraps, Lagniappe, Lucky Crow, Reusable Bags, and Wrapsacks all make fabric bags and envelopes, ranging in price from $3 for one small bag to $20 for a set of four different sizes.

If you're the tiniest bit crafty, you can make your own gift wrap out of recycled stuff around the house. The easiest idea is to simply reuse things like the Sunday funnies or that J. Crew catalog.

With a little bit of glue or tape, you can turn cardboard boxes and paper scraps into flashy (and reusable) gift bags, thanks to this tutorial.

Print your own paper with potatoes. Threadbanger has a video tutorial for making a potato stamp to decorate gift wrap (on a recycled paper bag, of course). This is a fun project for kids to do, plus it's inexpensive.

DIY Life lists some more great tutorials for fancy wrapping. Check out the clever, origami-like boxes you can make from recycled cardboard, and get patterns for sewing your own fabric bags.

And kids will find these projects super-easy. Take interesting magazine pages, comics, and other scraps to design your own gift bags, pocket folders, and fancy envelopes (perfect for holding the always-popular gift cards and cash).

Finally, even if you're not handy with glue or a sewing needle, you can try the Japanese art of furoshiki or fabric gift wrapping. Using knots and folds, you wrap a gift elegantly in a square of pretty fabric. The wrap itself can be part of the gift if you use a silk scarf. Watch some of the how-to videos online or peruse instructions, and give it a try.