Simply "Cycle" Saturday

I know, it is Sunday but this post is Simply "Cycle" SATURDAY. I had the opportunity to hang out with my best friend last night so I decided I would just put this post off until today. When you have a great friend that life prevents you from seeing a lot, you treasure the time you get with her!

This week, I thought we would talk about what to do with old wrapping paper. Since Christmas is this week, I thought this would be the best time to post this.

Here are a few things you can use old wrapping paper for:

1. When you receive a gift, open the package carefully as to not tear the paper too badly. If you are able to salvage it, wrap it back onto a roll and reuse it for future gifts. All you need to do is cut off the part of the paper that either ripped or has tape stuck on it. You will probably have to use it to wrap a slightly smaller gift next time.
2. Use it as a dust cover for your favorite book. If you have a book that you are reading or love and you would like to protect the cover a bit, just take your old wrapping paper, fold, cut and tape it to fit your book. Now you have a beautiful dust cover for your book. I used an old paper shopping bag for this book. I crinkled the paper a bit for a textured affect.
3. Make paper mache ornaments with it. If you like to have new ornaments for your tree every year like I do, this is the perfect idea. All you need to get is some Modge Podge or school glue, which only costs a couple bucks, cut your old wrapping paper into pieces and affix it to a plain ball ornament. This is great to do if you have a lot of small scraps of wrapping paper that are too small to wrap another gift with. I used school glue for this ornament & scraps of snowman paper. I finished off the re"cycled" look by using a twist tie for the hanger. It is still wet so it isn't on the tree yet!
4. Use it on a scrapbook page. If you have a picture of the gift you received in that wrapping paper, or the person who gave you the gift, it will make the memory all the more special.
5. Shred it in a paper shredder and use it for packing material. It is beautiful to use colored paper shreds if you are making a gift basket. It brings some color and festivity to the gift. When it is shredded, you will not be able to tell if it is holiday wrap or not!
6. Use it to label Cookie Jars for gifts. If you use jars like, empty spaghetti jars to fill with your cookie mix, this is a great way to cover the old labels without having to take the time to peel and scrap. It is very creative and leaves a bit of a personal touch. For this I used old Apple Sauce and Smuckers Preserves containers. I used a little ribbon on the Smuckers jar with the wrapping paper to cover the Smuckers logo on the lid.

I would like to hear some of your ideas. If you have used your old wrapping paper for anything else, leave a comment here and let everyone know your creative idea!