Re-wrap: Repurpose and Recycle Wrapping Ideas

This is a post I first wrote a few years ago. But it's one I love to rerun during the holidays because so much of what I said in 2009 is still true today... 

Did you know that most wrapping paper can't be recycled? Many communities require you to just throw it away. Especially if the paper is metallic or glittered.

Many years ago I did a few workshops about recycled, repurposed gift wrapping and each time people were surprised by how great the finished gifts looked. I think people generally have this idea that it won't look as good as conventional wrapping paper, but I think it actually looks better.

Now I'm not going to lie- it does take some extra time. And I'd love to say that I don't use any store-bought wrapping paper- but that's just not true either. But I figure, if at the very least I've cut down on what we would normally use then that's something. I also buy paper that can be recycled whenever I can. The other really wonderful thing about repurposed wrapping paper it that it's an inexpensive.

You can use some really common materials to wrap gifts. Here I've used just a brown paper grocery bag. I glued some paper punched snowflakes on it after I wrapped the box, and tied it with a scrap of red ribbon. Would you ever guess this was a grocery bag!

You could also use the scraps of paper you have left after using the paper punch as a stencil. I painted some flakes onto another grocery bag- which was certainly faster than gluing the individual punched flakes onto the bag.

This one is very quick and easy. I covered the outside and lid of a mason jar with leftover pieces of scrapbook paper. They are great for holding things like tee shirts, scarves, mittens, hats, cookies and candies. And the jars do double the work because they can be reused from year to year.

Upcycled mailing tubes also make great containers for more than just posters. Clothes, candy, even knitting needles fit perfectly into these tubes. I used a sharpie to color red lines- but you could also use paint, ribbon or stickers to decorate it. Or cover the entire tube with a pretty scrapbook paper.

Making your own gift tags is also a great way to reuse materials and they can be recycled once the holiday is over. 

Holiday ReWrap Rerun

I first posted this last year, but thought it would make a good rerun for this holiday season. Each year I try to reduce the amount of wrapping paper we use because it can't be recycled, and hey- it's always good to have a reason to craft right!. I hope you enjoy.

Re-wrap: Reuse and Recycle Wrapping Ideas

Did you know that the average wrapping paper can't be recycled? Most communities require you to just throw it away.

According to bright hub.com it's estimated that in the US 50,000 cubic yards of wrapping paper is thrown away every year after the holidays. For those of you who are like me and have no idea how much that is but think it sounds like a lot I've put it into context. I googled what the average dump truck holds and got 5 cubic yards. So it would take 10,000 dump trucks to hall away all that wrapping paper!

I've done a few re-wrap workshops before and every time people were surprised by how great the finished gifts looked. I think people generally have this idea that it won't look as good as conventional wrapping paper but I think it actually looks better.

Now I'm not going to lie- it does take some extra time. And I'd love to say that I don't use any store bought wrapping paper- but that's just not true either. But I figure if at the very least I've cut down on what we would normally use- that's something. I also buy paper that can be recycled whenever I can.

You can use some really common things like brown paper grocery bags to wrap gifts. That's what I've used here. I glued some paper punched snowflakes on this after I wrapped it and tied it with a scrap of red ribbon. Would you ever guess this was a grocery bag!

You could also use the scraps of paper you have left after using the paper punch as a stencil. I painted some flakes onto another grocery bag- which was certainly faster than gluing individual punched flakes onto the bag.

This one is very quick and easy. I covered the outside and lid of a mason jar with leftover pieces of scrapbook paper. They are great for holding things like tee shirts, scarves, mittens, hats, cookies and candies. And they can be reused from year to year.

Reused mailing tubes also make great containers for more than just posters. Clothes or candy- even knitting needles fit great into these tubes. I used a sharpie to color red lines- but you could also use paint or ribbon. You could even cover the entire tube with a pretty scrapbook paper.

I know the holidays are crazy- but there's still time to make your own wrapping paper! It's a fun project the kids can help with, it's also easier if you wrap a little at a time. (I'm totally guilty of saving all the gifts to wrap at once, but it's easier to wrap as you shop.) It saves a little money and best of all it's a great way to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Wrapping Paper Frame

Before the holidays I had a few ideas for recycled and reuse gift wrapping- but because I know almost all of us (me included) still use conventional wrapping paper (which can't be recycled) I thought I'd try a few ideas to reuse some of our paper from this year.

Idea number 1 is this frame. I saved a piece of this pretty silver snowflake paper ( I just love this pattern).

And I found a plain wooden frame at the craft store (for only 1 dollar).

First thing I did was trace the frame and all the edges. After I traced the basic frame I turned it onto each side so I could trace those then I estimated the depth of the inner edge and drew that onto the paper.

Sorry for the darkness in these photos- it was so gray outside there was no getting good light no matter how many lamps I turned on. And the reverse side of this wrapping paper is very beige!

I did trace this a little more accurately than it looks- the pen I used didn't like the waxy surface of the paper very much and half the time it only made an impression in the paper instead of actually inking it. It was fine for tracing... just didn't show up on camera.

You'll see here I labeled each of the areas.

Next I cut a 45 degree angle at the each corner of both the outer and inner edge.

Then I coated the entire front of frame with Mod Podge.

I realized that when I this the inner edge would have a bit of wood exposed on each corner. To fix that I put a small strip on wrapping paper on each of the corners before I placed the frame onto the large sheet of paper. Sorry but I forgot to take a picture of that- It was an on the fly adjustment.

After that little adjustment I placed the entire frame onto the large piece of wrapping paper. Lining it up to my tracing as best as I could. I found putting the frame onto the paper was easier than trying to place the paper onto the frame. For one reason the paper wants to curl up and having the paper weighted down flat produced less wrinkles overall.

Then I coated and wrapped the edges one at a time. First I did the short sides of the outer edge, then the long sides. Don't be afraid to pull the paper tight to get a nice smooth corner.

After the entire outer edge was covered I did the inner edge working in the same order- short sides to long sides.

The last step was to seal the entire thing with another coat of Mod Podge. Let it dry for about a half hour and you've got a beautiful frame.

You could do the same thing with paper for other occasions. I think a birthday frame with pictures from the party would be adorable. And one done with paper leftover from a wedding gift would probably be lovely.

Re-wrap: Reuse and Recycle Wrapping Ideas

Did you know that the average wrapping paper can't be recycled? Most communities require you to just throw it away.

According to bright hub.com it's estimated that in the US 50,000 cubic yards of wrapping paper is thrown away every year after the holidays. For those of you who are like my and have no idea how much that is but think it sounds like a lot I've put it into context. I googled what the average dump truck holds and got 5 cubic yards. So it would take 10,000 dump trucks to hall away all that wrapping paper!

I've done a few re-wrap workshops before and every time people were surprised by how great the finished gifts looked. I think people generally have this idea that it won't look as good as conventional wrapping paper but I think it actually looks better.

Now I'm not going to lie- it does take some extra time. And I'd love to say that I don't use any store bought wrapping paper- but that's just not true either. But I figure if at the very least I've cut down on what we would normally use- that's something. I also buy paper that can be recycled whenever I can.

You can use some really common things like brown paper grocery bags to wrap gifts. That's what I've used here. I glued some paper punched snowflakes on this after I wrapped it and tied it with a scrap of red ribbon. Would you ever guess this was a grocery bag!

You could also use the scraps of paper you have left after using the paper punch as a stencil. I painted some flakes onto another grocery bag- which was certainly faster than gluing the individual punched flakes onto the bag.

This one is very quick and easy. I covered the outside and lid of a mason jar with leftover pieces of scrapbook paper. They are great for holding things like tee shirts, scarves, mittens, hats, cookies and candies. And they can be reused from year to year.

Reused mailing tubes also make great containers for more than just posters. Clothes or candy- even knitting needles fit great into these tubes. I used a sharpie to color red lines- but you could also use paint, ribbon or cover the entire tube with a pretty scrapbook paper.

Making your own gift tags is also a great way to reuse materials and they can be recycled once the holiday is over. Check out Joanne at Ready, Set, Craft! who made some cute tags from old holiday cards. She also has a great idea for origami gift boxes using scrapbook paper.

And check out this post from How about orange to learn how to make your own gift bows using magazine pages- or really any paper.

Recycled Gift Bags

After my husband's birthday this weekend we had a bunch of leftover wrapping materials. I just hate throwing this stuff away and thought I could certainly make use of the gift bags again.

The formerly plain blue bags are now cute rubber ducky and elephant gift bags.

I used a leftover birthday card envelope for the yellow duck and cut the edge of a shopping bag into a wave to make the water.

The same envelope I used for the duck also made the sun and another used envelope is now an elephant.

I'm going to pack these away until I have the perfect gift to go inside!

MSCE April- Gift Tags

I love, love, love to wrap presents. I'm one of those odd people who actually enjoys having a mountain of boxes to wrap at Christmas.

In fact on a complete side note- There are quite a few things I really love to do that I think most people don't enjoy in the least.

• Wrapping presents
  
• Counting and rolling change
  
• Stuffing envelopes
  

The list goes on (really, it does) but I'll return to the topic at hand- Gift wrapping or gift tagging I guess.

I don't actually have anything to wrap at the moment but Mother's Day is soon and I've been thinking about birthdays a lot recently- hubby's is coming up (and note to hubby- yes, not having anything to wrap yet means that your gift isn't here yet). Mom's birthday is soon too. All of a sudden there is also a plethora of babies waiting to be born around me and I've been wondering when they will arrive and what to get the new parents.

All of this has me really wishing I had a gifts to wrap- so I've done the next best thing (in my mind) and made some gift tags! Now I fully admit- these tags may not be useful for any of the gift giving occasions I've listed- but it was fun and I'll use them for something.

For this one I used a bit of tye-dye coffee filter between a solid tag and one that I've punched a flower out of.

This tag didn't turn out well at all- 

That silver pattern I drew just doesn't look right- but I wanted to show this close-up because I mod podged over the coffee filter which gave this a totally different look. It brought out depth in the color and made the filter look like a really cool handmade paper instead of the cheap filter it really is. (I'm definitely going to experiment with this more.)

And I couldn't resist this. 

I'm still obsessed with this cupcake paper punch. This time I put some yellow cardstock through a paper crimper, then punched out the bottom "wrapper". (Are you tired of seeing the cupcake yet?)

 

This little bit of dimension really makes the punch stand out.

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Here's an older post you might enjoy- Getting To Know You.