Housely
After the holidays are over, many people have extra wrapping paper. Some people will put it in storage for use during the next holiday season. If you would rather get rid of your wrapping paper in unique and creative ways, you should read on. There are plenty of uses for unused wrapping paper that you may have never even thought of.
New Year’s Eve Confetti
If you are planning to have a New Year’s Eve party, you are going to need confetti. You can spread some around the table and you can keep some set aside to throw at midnight. Rather than going to the store and buying confetti, you can use your holiday wrapping paper. You would simply need to shred the wrapping paper into tiny pieces and keep it in a zip lock bag, a box, or a bag. When you are getting the party set up, you will have your confetti already made and it didn’t cost you a dime.
Paper Garland
This is another way to re-purpose your holiday wrapping paper for your New Year’s Eve party. If you have leftover gold, silver, red, blue, or sparkly wrapping paper, you can cut it into different size rectangles. Make some of them long and thin and make others short and fat. You can hang each one in the shape of a U, as though it is hanging on a dipping string. It is a great way to decorate for your New Year’s Eve party without needing to spend any extra money.
Tray Liners
If you are planning a cocktail party and your plan to serve hor d’oeuvres, you can line your plain old trays with your leftover holiday wrapping paper. This will work with many patterns, however, if you have gift wrap with Santa, reindeer, or Christmas trees for the pattern, this isn’t the best option for you. If you have wrapping paper that is a solid color, you can brighten up your boring trays with your unused wrapping paper.
Book Covers
Most schools require students to cover their books. If you child is using plain old paper bags, you can give them your leftover wrapping paper. Solid colors work best, however, stripes and snowflake patterns will also be great for your book covers. Recycling your gift wrap to make book covers are much more fun than a paper bag.
Napkin Rings
If you are planning a dinner party where you will be using your fancy cloth napkins, you can use your leftover wrapping paper to make napkin rings. Simply cut a small, thin piece so that it wraps around the rolled up napkin at least once. Use a glue stick to seal the ends together. Napkin rings can dress up any dinner table. If your unused wrapping paper has Christmas trees, wreaths, or Santa on it, making napkin rings might not be the best choice.
Medicine Cabinet Liner
If you open your medicine cabinet each day only to see a plain white background, you can liven it up with your unused wrapping paper. Not only can you line each shelf with the wrapping paper, you can also line the back of the medicine cabinet. This will brighten up the cabinet it a bit. Even though others don’t see your medicine cabinet, it doesn’t matter because you can. Also, you can change the paper liner each year when you have unused wrapping paper with a different pattern. When you use wrapping paper for this, you will never get bored with your medicine cabinet.
Origami
If you enjoy sitting down and making origami objects, you can use your extra wrapping paper. Why waste good pieces of computer paper when you have rolls of extra wrapping paper. Not only is this less wasteful, you will end up with very decorative origami designs.
Photo Area Background
People love to have their photos taken at parties. If you are planning a New Year’s Eve party or a party during any time of the year, your unused wrapping paper can come in handy. You can create a backdrop in a certain area of the house. This is where your guests can stand when they have their pictures taken. It is a festive and fun idea for your next party. If the leftover wrapping paper that you have is a solid color, you can decorate it yourself. You can include the date on the backdrop or write Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, etc. Just because you aren’t going to have a photo booth at your party, it can still look like you do.
Create a Photo Box
If you have photos or mementos that you want to keep together, you can use your unused wrapping paper to make a cute memory box. You will need an empty shoe box, and cover it with the unused wrapping paper. Be sure to wrap the cover and the bottom of the box separately. After you have covered the box, you can add additional decorations, such as stenciled letters, pom-poms, or any other decoration that you can find at your local craft store. When your box is made, you can fill it up with the mementos that you want to keep safe.
Store Fragile Decorations
When Christmas has passed, it is time to take down the tree and the decorations and store them until the next holiday season. Many people have decorations that are breakable. You can use your unused wrapping paper to protect your fragile ornaments and decorations. Simply wrap these items with the wrapping paper, and you can be sure that they will be safe and in one piece when you take them from the box next year. If you are planning to move after the holidays, your unused wrapping paper will be great to pack up your dishes and other breakable items. There will be no need to buy bubble wrap or any other type of packing material. Your leftover wrapping paper should be all that you need.
Just because the holidays are over, it doesn’t mean that you need to throw your unused wrapping paper away. There are plenty of ways that you can use the paper without needing to throw it away and without needing to store it until next season.
Image via Family Sponge
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