Reused Wrapping Paper Wreath

Don't throw out that wrapping paper!
Sure, you might have come up with a great way to wrap your gifts in an environmentally friendly manner, but that doesn't mean that the people giving gifts to you did the same. Here's a way to reuse all that wrapping paper and turn it into a holiday decoration. This is a nice activity to do after the present opening frenzie, and while you wait for dinner. Sure, making x-mas decoration on x-mas seems a little late, but you can keep it up as long as you want, and save it for next year.
Or if you have an early x-mas, like we did, you can make it before x-mas and hang it up.

Step 1: Gather your supplies

Here's what you need:

Wrapping paper from all those great presents, tissue paper works too, and a bow.

Scissors

Wire coat hanger, bent into a circle.

That's all!

Comments

[lagniappe4u]

Hi! Thanks for this idea. We had our gift opening on Christmas eve with the idea of splitting Christmas day for a family trip. After opening our gifts, I sat down, chilled and used our used paper to make one of these - all out of shiny, silvery paper with a few sparkly silver bows undone and twisted in....and it turned out very pretty. Photos attached. Only "new" thing was the big silver bow for the top (which was actually left over from a big gift bag I used years ago....). I put it on the front of our motor home once we were parked on our trip and I had a compliment on it already!! Much prettier in person. You DO twist paper "a million times" but it's a great "sitting and chilling and watching a movie/tv" type of project. Thanks!

[domestic_engineer]

awesome. looks really nice.
thanks for sharing!
merry x-mas!

[lagniappe4u]

Thanks to you, also. In the process of twisting "like a million times" you do wonder: how is this gonna end up looking? Well, just keep at it. As you twist and add and push the twists together and add and add...it's emerges as a great wreath! I plan to do this every year now. I always hated tossing the paper. Also, I took apart 3 or so standard "just stick 'em" bows from the packages, cut them into about 6" chunks and twisted them in and it worked and added some nice additional sparkle. : ) Thanks again!

[coolioabby1121]

This is a really cool project but you shouldn't take Christ out of Christmas.

[lagniappe4u]

There is a common misconception that the word Xmas is a secular attempt to remove the religious tradition from Christmas[3] by taking the "Christ" out of "Christmas".

"Xmas" is a common abbreviation of the word "Christmas". It is sometimes pronounced /ˈɛksməs/, but it, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation /ˈkrɪsməs/. The "-mas" part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for "Mass",[1] while the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as "Christ".[2]

From Wikipedia

Just sayin'  - we're still prayin'  : ) not taking Christ out.

[elphonine]

This is great! :D I love it. Thank you so much.

[shelley echtle]

We did this in 1968, in my brownie troop, using dry-cleaning bags... So you can use those, garbage bags, tissue paper. Thanks for the reflective reminder of times gone by...

[voyage guy]

It's really brillant, I used your idea but I don't have enough instrument. So I used anything I can find to make it happen. Well it looks a little cheazy, but it still adorable. Anyway thank you so much for tell us the idea. You make my Christmas Christmas:)

[junkjunkjunk]

very nice. i tried to make one with used plastic bags. it looks cute, i think..
thanks for the idea!

[kimcheesoup]

this was an awesome idea!!!

i used your idea, but instead of wrapping paper, i used wire ribbon. here's how it came out:

thanks for the great idea!!!!

[domestic_engineer]

very nice.
I had made one before with strips of fabric. I had cut them so they were about 2" by12" with pinking shears.
It's a good way to use up old fabric too.

[kimcheesoup]

hey, yeah, that IS a good idea for old fabric.... thanks!

[dl24601]

Love this idea.

[Napole]

Way COOL! I will be teaching my 10 year old cousin. Thanks!

[twighahn]

i also use wrapping paper to make tiny wrapped boxes for tree decor.i wrap match boxes and hang them on the tree.sometimes i put a gift inside

[twighahn]

now i can take all those ugly wire hangers and turn them into gifts for thanksgiving

[cutee]

Thanks for giving me an idea about how to do the wreath...I'm going to teach this art activity to m student...once again thank you...I love it.

[Una]

So pretty. How do you keep the twisted paper from unraveling?

[domestic_engineer]

it just stays put. magic i guess.

[jenwaag]

Love this idea. My folks always use such pretty wrapping paper. I always felt bad for throwing it away. Now I can do some fun crafty stuff with it before classes start again :D

[CrLz]

Nice! Could be a very cool activity after the presents and dinner.

Thanks for sharing the idea.

[dobbylvr]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! Now I know what to do with all that paper that comes on the gifts my parents give me. I use green wrapping and I force my little sis to do the same, but my parents never seem to grasp the idea...

[cherishedpotato]

this is fantastic! i hate throwing away wrapping paper which serves its purpose for a few days or minutes, and then gets chucked. i try to reuse as much as possible, but it doesn't always loo nice enough to do so. this is also a really nice family/group activity for christmas when there's a lot of paper going around!

[SuzNTX]

I can hardly wait to try this next week! I just posted a plea on Craftster about what to do with my leopard print wrapping paper once we get all the packages opened--this is perfect!

[pacsmom]

I always hate throwing away that paper. I'll be keeping it this year and making a groovy wreath! Thanks.

[otterhopdotcom]

Very clever...Always feel super guilty tossing the sea of wrapping paper now I have a simple craft to do with the kids when the unwrapping is done! Thanks for the great idea.

[How2BRandy]

This is a great green idea for the holidays! I'll try it with shiny paper and try to make it seem thicker, fuller! I never thought of using a coat hanger as the base, that's a great recycling idea. Heck, I'm gonna go grab some playboy magazine and make a wreath that's sure to get people gawking at my door ;)