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If you wrap a lot of gifts, you probably have a wrapping paper organizer in your home filled with rolls of many different patterns... and lots of mid-sized scraps of paper from those same rolls. Instead of waiting for precisely the right stocking stuffer-sized gift to come along, learning how to make a bag out of wrapping paper is an easy way to put all of your leftover pieces to good use.

Making your own gift bag out of wrapping paper is a smart solution for packaging small, oddly shaped gift objects (like beauty products, mini toys, or bags of candy) that are tricky to wrap the traditional way. Forget sticking them in a storebought gift bag with tissue paper — this method uses what you already have on hand and results in a single-use (hopefully recyclable!) gift package that doesn't leave your recipient with a tiny, hard-to-repurpose bag that they'll end up regifting to someone else.

You can be flexible with your measurements here to make paper bags of many different sizes. We've tested this technique with varying rectangular paper ratios and found the most success with the standard copy paper ratio (1:1.414), but you can follow this method even if your wrapping paper isn't sized to this exact ratio.

The paper we used in our video tutorial below was 9.5x11.5 inches and was measured to fit the pickleball kit that we were wrapping. To cut your paper to size to fit a specific item, make sure it can wrap completely around the width of the gift object while allowing 2-3 inches of extra headroom, lengthwise.

How to Make a Bag With Wrapping Paper

Supplies:

• Rectangular piece of wrapping paper

• Tape

• Accent sticker (optional)

Instructions:

1. Position your paper horizontally in front of you with the design facing down. Fold the short ends of the paper inward until they just overlap. Flatten down the paper and tape these ends together from top to bottom.

2. With the folded paper now positioned vertically, fold up the bottom section in an amount approximately 1/3 the width of the vertically folded paper. Take the corners of this fold, press them inward to create a diamond shape, then press it flat. (Note: It's OK if there's a small gap in the center of the diamond, but if the two sides overlap or if the gap is so wide that the shape isn't diamond-like, re-fold the bottom section to an adjusted length.)

3. After you've flattened out your diamond shape, fold the bottom corner to the middle, then fold the top corner down so that it overlaps on top of it and tape it in place. This completes the bottom of the bag.

4. Turning the bag horizontally, fold both of the long sides inward to just 1/6 the width of the design, and crease the paper. Unfold these edges. (Note: Doing this helps give your bag a rounded, smoother shape when your gift is inside of it.)

5. Open up the bag from the inside, gently unfolding the creases and smoothing out the bottom.

6. If you have a gift ready, you can place it in the bag, fold over the top, and seal it with a sticker or piece of tape. Depending on how heavy the object is, you may want to reinforce the bottom of the bag with an extra piece of tape.

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