Every year we save the best shoe, shirt and jewelry boxes from the holidays and recycle them to hold craft supplies, store photos or use as gift boxes for the next giving season. Our stockpiles were getting unruly, as were our drawers full of scrap ribbon and wrapping paper, so we came up with a recycled-wrapping project that can be reused itself. We used the prettiest boxes we had, and many of them needed little more than a ribbon adornment. Good-sized, sturdy boxes with surfaces we didn’t love were covered with scraps of wrapping or kraft paper. Our mom has always kept tags, ribbons, wrapping paper and boxes to be reused the next year, and in keeping with her recycled gift wrap, these boxes can be used again and again. We might keep a few of these on hand for those last-minute gifts that need wrapping in a hurry. — bbbcraft sisters

Read the full how-to after the jump!

Materials

• a variety of boxes with lids
• scissors
• glue
• scrap wrapping paper and ribbon
• labels, stickers and/or rubber stamps

 

Instructions

1. Select which boxes will be left uncovered and which will need covering. Cut a piece of paper for the lid and/or bottom of the box as though you were wrapping the individual pieces of the box.

2. Fold the paper over the edges and trim just along the inside of the box. Glue the paper down along the inside edge.

3. To wrap boxes with ribbon, cut the ribbon so that it folds just over edge of the lid, and glue the inside pieces of ribbon to the box.

4. Use cut-out images or photos and glue them to the boxes, or try rubber stamps. The decorating possibilities with these boxes are endless, and we were inclined to spend more time on each, knowing that it would be used and appreciated longer than a gift wrapped and unwrapped only once.

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