How to Wrap a Gift With Magazine or Newspaper

You've spent money on the card, the gift, and the shipping. Already over budget? No need to splurge on the gift wrap! It's already at your fingertips.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Decide the overall tone you want when giving the gift. Is it a serious sentimental gift, or a silly white elephant-style surprise?

2. Gather old newspaper, magazines, and scrap paper from around your home or workplace. If you are lucky enough to work in an office setting, the magazines in the lobby are often the best for gift wrapping.

3. Scour the newspaper for the best headlines and separate the chosen section to be used as the wrapping paper. Be careful not to choose headlines that may be inappropriate. For example, it would be a bad idea to gift wrap with the headlines, "More Teenagers Getting STDs" or "Two Murders in Small Town". This seems obvious, but it's quite easy to quickly grab a section of the paper and pay little attention to what your gift wrap says!

4. Choose appropriate pages if utilizing magazines for gift wrapping. What was said of newspaper gift wrap in Step 3 can also be applied to magazine gift wrap. Select pages with bright colors, fun designs and minimal text. A boring advertisement for a new drug will be met with little excitement from your gift recipient.

5. Make a mystery out of your newspaper/magazine gift wrap. Try to use the gift wrap as a clue. If you are using newspaper as gift wrap, find a story or picture that gives a hint as to what might be inside. If you are giving someone a movie, for example, it is fun to wrap the gift in magazine tear-outs of an actor or actress who stars in that movie.

6. Use as many different pages as you want when wrapping. If you choose magazine pages to wrap your gift, keep in mind that one page will probably not cover the whole gift (unless it's small, like a CD). This is a good thing! Mismatched magazine and newspaper pages can add to the pleasing aesthetics of your gift wrap. A bright red page on one side and a blue-and-yellow design on the other side is very hip and will be well-received. Everyone is used to conventional wrapping paper; a recipient will be happy to get something a little different.

Tips & Warnings

• Adding a ribbon or bow to your newspaper or magazine gift wrap can really spice up the present. Not only is it one more thing your recipient gets to tackle, but the contradiction of traditional wrapping methods with new, artsy forms of gift wrap (magazine pages) is very contemporary.

• Using magazines and newspaper is cost efficient and eco-friendly! Every time you use these methods instead of buying gift wrap, you are not only saving money, but you are saving trees as well!

• Ink heavy pages of newspaper can be messy! Try to avoid newspaper pages that have been recently printed or that have an exorbitant amount of text or advertising. The last thing you want is for your recipient to have ink-stained hands from opening your gift.