Don’t Just Recycle It! Here Are 30 Creative Ideas for Reusing Old Gift Wrap

Whether you’re celebrating a birthday or meandering through the wintertime holiday season, if you’re surprising loved ones or friends with gifts, then your shopping list most likely includes gift wrap.

That may beg the question: how can you reuse gift wrap? Why would you even want to reuse gift wrap?

Think of it this way: in addition to being expensive (you can easily spend up to $10 per roll these days for fancy wrapping paper), wrapping paper also consumes a lot of natural resources, including trees and water, which are used in the manufacturing process.

So, it makes sense then that reusing wrapping paper would be a wonderful way to both help reduce our impact on the environment and also to stretch the most benefit from the resources that we’ve already used.

 

30 Fun Ways To Reuse Gift Wrap

Grab a pair of scissors, some tape and glue, and get started on any of these fun ideas to reuse gift wrap:

1. – Use small rectangular or square cuttings from the wrapping paper as gift tags
2. – Incorporate gift wrap into decorations
3. – Use the white side of the gift wrap as scratch paper
4. – Save remnants of the gift paper to wrap small gifts for the next holiday
5. – Use the paper to wrap delicate ornaments before putting them in storage
6. – Make framed holiday wall art
7. – Use the paper to line the insides of drawers or tops of shelves
8. – Decorate the outside of cans to make festive office supply holders
9. – Shred old gift wrap and use the shredded gift wrap to stuff gift bags and boxes
10. – Use the gift wrap as scrapbooking material
11. – Create a holiday-themed book cover
12. – Craft the scraps into little bows to decorate the outside of gift-wrapped boxes
13. – Make holiday-themed bookmarks
14. – Assemble the scraps into a cool paper wreath made entirely out of gift wrap
15. – Make paper chains or bunting banners out of the gift wrap
16. – Make envelopes from the gift wrap to send next holiday’s cards
17. – Reuse gift wrap for paper-mache projects
18. – Create a collage from your old gift wrap
19. – Make origami creations from wrapping paper
20. – Use crumpled-up gift wrap in boxes that are used to ship holiday gifts
21. – Make holiday-themed coasters
22. – Use gift wrap as a mat for framed art
23. – Cut wrapping paper to make holiday doll clothing
24. – Use gift wrap to line holiday envelopes
25. – Use larger wrapping paper scraps to cover shoe boxes, making a themed storage box for ornaments and other holiday items
26. – Create holiday-bedazzled snowflakes
27. – Make gift box cummerbunds from old gift wrap
28. – Decoupage the gift wrap on cardboard or hobby wood (balsa or luan) to make ornaments and other fun holiday crafts
29. – Make holiday-themed pom poms from long shreds of old gift wrap
30. – Fashion festive party hats from old gift wrap (simply make a cone, tape the seam, and size the bottom to the user’s head circumference)

We have lots more Fun Wrapping Paper Ideas and an awesome Pinterest board filled with DIY Gift Wrap Organizers & Storage Ideas.