Giftwrapping With a Brown Paper Grocery Bag

Save money, entertain the kids, and recycle a common item by using a brown paper bag to create unique wrapping paper.

For similar Instructables, check out:
Green Gift Wrapping
Re-Wrap
How to Wrap a Gift

Gather the following:

• 1 paper grocery bag
• scissors
• clear tape
• crayons, markers, etc
• gift to be wrapped (pictured is the dutch oven for my mother's birthday)
• optional: children to do the decorating (this adds to the cuteness, especially for relatives of said children)

Find the seam on the back of the bag and cut along it until you reach the bottom fold.

Turn and cut around the bottom to remove the folded and glued portion; set aside or discard (i was glad i saved mine...see step 4)

Place the gift in the center of the paper: printed side of the paper up, top side of the gift down.

Fold up ends to cover and tape down.

Fold loose sides of paper to cover the sides of the gift; tape. Turn and repeat on the opposite end.

Sometimes your gift is too large for one shopping bag. Feel free to tape together two or more bags at step 2 to make a larger piece.

If you have a small gap, use the leftovers from the bottom of the shopping bag in Step 2.

Tear carefully to unfold and remove excess layers of paper and glue. Cut the needed amount and tape down; small loops of clear tape will help disguise the patch.

My four-year-old even invented a use for this little pocket--to hold a secret note for Nana!

This is the fun part. Decorate as desired.

I let the kids go crazy with crayons. They chose to portray the upcoming party scene.

If you have any leftover paper, feel free to decorate with it! The final result looks nicer than it sounds.

I repeated step 2 and then cut the paper lengthwise to make a banner. I cut small squares of the second half for coasters. Be creative and you suddenly have a brown-paper themed party!