Interiors

DIY Design: Creative Ways to Repurpose Wrapping Paper

byTeam GM

5 years ago

Psst… holiday gift wrap has officially hit the GM shop for the season, and we couldn’t be more excited about it. We love wrapping our gifts in GM prints year after year, but we have to admit that it breaks our heart a little bit inside every time we have to trash those leftover wrapping paper scraps. (Let’s be honest… who would want to waste such a pretty print?!) If you’re in the same boat as us, then we think you’re going to like what we have in store today… Keep scrolling, because we’re sharing our top five creative ways to reuse wrapping paper after those gifts are neatly wrapped and tucked under the tree. Are any of these ideas new to you? Find out below…

1. Shred to use as padding for fragile holiday gifts.

If you have lots of leftover paper that is much too small for wrapping, one of the easiest ways to repurpose your gift wrap is to introduce it to the shredder! These small pieces of wrapping paper make perfect padding for all of your more fragile holiday gifts. Just ask our new monkey ornament you may recognize from Gray Malin at the Parker… (Coming next week!)

2. Create a festive holiday banner.

With the holidays just around the corner, chances are you’ll be needing a bit of holiday décor hanging around (literally). Whether you’re throwing a holiday party or just want to do a little DIY to brighten up your bar cart or fireplace mantel, this uber easy gift wrap banner is sure to do the trick. To make this banner, all we did was fold our leftover wrapping paper in half length-wise, and cut into triangles along the fold. Hang your triangles over a ribbon or string, and use a glue stick to adhere the two sides of your cut triangles together. Finish by drawing any phrase of your choice on your banner, and hang. Voila!

3. Top your presents with a bow.

No gift is complete without a bow, right? Even if you don’t have ribbon on hand, it’s surprisingly easy to whip up your own elaborate bow right out of your leftover wrapping paper. Start by cutting your paper into eight separate strips, each about ¾ of an inch wide. Leave three of your strips long (the longer the strips, the larger the bow). Then, cut two strips about an inch and a half shorter than your long strips, and two more strips another inch shorter than the previous. Cut your last strip to half the size of your shortest strips. Loop each strip of paper into a figure eight and tape to secure. Layer your pieces from largest (at the bottom) to smallest (at the top) to create your bow, taping together as you go.

4. Turn into hanging holiday streamers.

Remember what we said about DIY holiday décor? Here’s another idea coming at you… These hanging gift wrap streamers are so festive and easy-as-can-be. To make them, all you need to do is cut out circles of three graduated sizes from your leftover wrapping paper, and tape them from largest to smallest along a string or ribbon. Before you know it, you’ll have the cutest holiday party décor on the block.

5. Use as holiday party confetti.

Another way to repurpose your leftover gift wrap is to cut it into confetti. We simply ran ours through a shredder, and sprinkled around festive libations for a party-ready setup that will make any guests feel welcome and ready to celebrate the season.

Do you think you’ll use any of these ideas with your leftover wrapping paper this season?

We certainly will be. After all, we can’t bear to waste an inch of this beautiful gift wrap! Can you blame us?

Don’t forget to shop all new holiday gift wrap before you go, and happy (early) holidays…

Xx Team GM
Photos: Jessi Burrone for GrayMalin.com