5 Uses for Leftover Wrapping Paper

The holidays are over, so over in fact. Even though there are some people on your block with inflatable snowmen on their lawn or lights on their roof and Christmas trees visible through their window on the street — the holidays are over. So why do you have hoards of wrapping paper laying around in that bag in your basement?

Well, you saved a few of the larger pieces that came off easily for future presents, reduce, reuse, recycle, I get it, I do the same thing but there comes a point where you must part with some of your used wrapping paper because there’s enough for the three next holiday seasons. Wrapping paper is fabulous for a number of other projects so here are some uses for leftover wrapping paper:

1. Packing Material

Send your old wrapping paper through the shredder and make beautiful packing material. It’s great for sticking at the bottom of gift bags, or baskets.

2. Origami

Origami is a great activity for kids and it requires a fair amount of concentration. Your kids will love steadily progressing with different animals and you’ll love it because you already have all the materials. There are tons of tutorials like this one online.

3. Drawer Lining

The possibilities for lining your drawers are endless for kids and adults – you might even love how simple and beautiful a lined drawer is so much that you go out and buy MORE paper to line the rest of your drawers! Check out this fabulous tutorial on how to line drawers.

4. Make Ribbons

Yes, ribbons! Fabulous, right? It’s a super easy project.

Cut the wrapping paper into thin strips (use a cutting board and box cutter and ruler to cut thin, even strips, or send the paper through the shredder)
Curl the thin strips like you would regular ribbon and voila!

5. Gift Tags

These are great. You can cut them into different shapes like circles, stars or use the traditional gift tag shape. Punch a hole in the top of the tag and string it onto your gift. It’s that simple. If your wrapping paper is heavy on the patter or a darker color, paste a small white piece of paper in the center and write on there.