Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

Make your own wrapping paper if you run out. It’s easy with a couple of tricks.

Have you ever run out of wrapping paper, and you seriously don’t want to dash out to get more? Happens to me all the time. You need that present wrapped rightnow, so you can cross it off your to-do list.

I’m currently wrapping for a family birthday, but you can see how this “recipe” for homemade wrapping paper would work for any holiday or gift-giving experience you have.

It’s easy to make your own wrapping paper with a couple of hints of what to use that you probably already have on hand. Here are a few ideas to make it easy on you.

1.  Tape together full-page color ads from a magazine.

I generally look for home/design magazines, real estate mags, or those like it, to find beautiful full-color pages suitable for this. Suit yourself though…if you like a lot of type on a page, tear up People magazine and go to town!

Here’s what my taped-together wrapping paper looks like from the front ↓

Here’s what it looks like from the back of the wrapped package ↓

2. Use the Sunday comics from the newspaper

This is a no-brainer, right? These pages are full color, and super fun.

3. Use the newspaper Sports section

Again, often these are in color, so they’re easy to imagine as wrapping paper. If you have a sports fan as a recipient, pick the sport coverage they care about.

And if it’s printed in black and white, how about using a cool black ribbon to tie it up?

4.  Use old maps

One seasoned traveler we know uses maps. “Use the maps stuck inside travel books. We never look at them again,” she says.

5. Use a brown paper grocery bag

Cut it along one side to open it up. With the right ribbon, it can look rustic chic (not simply cheap).

6. Use lightweight old posters

Of course, don’t use the poster that is worth $10,000. But don’t we all have some old posters from college we need to part with?

7. Use CVS receipts!

OK this might have started out as a joke, but think about it…there’s enough paper in the average CVS receipt to wrap a house. Plus, you’ll win the prize for most clever wrapping.

What other ideas do YOU have?
Leave them in the comments below!

Thanks: My thanks to Ken Holme, Nena Lauerman, Trish Brown, Patti Londre and Gerry Furth-Sides for help with the ideas, above!

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Tagged as: diy, gifts, wrapping