Save money, resources, and create beautiful and uniquely wrapped gifts with these upcycled gift wrapping ideas!

One thing you should know about me: I really love wrapping gifts. I love the process of making the finished product look beautiful and lovely for the person receiving it. I feel like it’s act of love to put thought and care into act of wrapping a gift.

Anyone else with me on this?

I know everyone doesn’t feel that way. Lots of people would much rather buy a gift bag at the store, throw the gift inside, and call it a day. I get that. And trust me, sometimes I’m too busy for anything but that.

Whether you’re buying gift bags or wrapping paper, though, wrapping gifts can be wasteful and expensive.

This year I decided to do a solid for Mother Earth (and my wallet!) and come up with some upcycled gift wrapping ideas.

I feel like the results have been just as beautiful as if I would have bought wrapping paper, but much more unique and special.

I reuse ribbons and bows every year, so my out of pocket expenses for gift wrapping this year is very low! Most of what I used was from simply looking around my house and seeing what would work for pretty wrapped gifts.

Let me show you my favorites!

Upcycled Gift Wrapping Ideas

1. Brown Paper Bags 

If you have brown paper grocery bags, they can easily become a pretty gift wrapping paper. You simply need to cut the bag so it’s flat, then wrap your gift.

Brown paper grocery bags are quite thick and stiff, so it’s best to wrap boxes with these. They look great with a classic red plaid ribbon.

2. Old Catalogs or Magazines

Some old catalogs and magazines can make very beautiful and unique gift wrapping paper. Above is a page from the Minted holiday catalog they sent us. I’m going to use the whole thing to wrap gifts because it’s got beautiful colors and the holiday theme is perfect.

It doesn’t matter what the pictures are of as you can’t really tell once it’s wrapped up. Just look for pretty color schemes or patterns.

3. Old Calendars

I used my 2018 calendar for gift wrapping this year. It just happens to be a huge Stendig Wall Calendar. You can use smaller calendars for wrapping smaller gifts. The white with black numbers make a striking gift wrap and you can use any ribbon color you want!

If your calendar has pictures, those would be beautiful for wrapping paper, as well!

4. Newspaper

Newspaper is a classic choice! You can dress up the wrapping so many ways with pretty ribbons or even objects from nature like pine tree branches or flowers in the warmer months. I also love that newspaper is so easy to work with.

5. Use the Same Material you Wrap with to Make Gift Tags

I have a stash of old cards that I used for making the gift tags on all the gifts you see in the pictures. I just used different shapes to cut out the cardboard backing, and then cut the same shape out of the material I used to wrap.

I then glued the material onto the old card, punched a hole, and a new tag was created!

Easy and beautiful!

Do you have any different upcycled gift wrapping ideas? Please share them in the comments!

Are you getting into the Christmas spirit yet? Make sure to check out my post on the best Christmas Cookies (lots of healthier ideas for you!) and my post on Magical Family Christmas Traditions. Both will help get you there if you’re not feeling it yet!

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