17 Ways to Repurpose Leftover Holiday Wrapping Paper

Wrapping 101

If you're new to wrapping gifts and are looking for some tips, just break the process down into step by step instructions. From taping to folding to how to tie a ribbon, you'll get the hang of wrapping in no time!

How To Wrap Tiny Things

For those gifts that are too small for regular boxes, try your hand at making your own box with a piece of paper and some tape. Pretty soon, you'll have enough gift bags for all your tiny trinkets!

How To Wrap Round Gifts

Give round or tubular gifts a festive flair by cutting slits in the wrapping paper. That way you can fold the same sheet in a bunch of different directions without ripping it!

Measure Your Paper Needs Accurately

With all the gifts you have to wrap this holiday season, you definitely don't want to waste paper. This hack will give you an idea of how much you actually need depending on the size of your gift.

DIY Your Own Paper

To make your gifts stand out from the rest, DIY your own paper! Just grab some paint and rollers to turn some plain paper into something beautiful. Not only will everyone will love the design, but also the effort you put into it.

What To Do When You're Out Of Paper

For those instances where you realize you don't have enough paper, never fear. Just turn your gift diagonally, and continue wrapping like normal! You'll end up with a perfect gift without having to use up any unnecessary paper.

How To Make A Paper Bow

If you have some extra paper lying around from previously wrapped gifts, you can turn it into a bow with a little bit of cutting and some hot glue. Tiny, cute, and it matches the rest of the gift perfectly.

Make A Gift Bag Out Of Wrapping Paper

There are tons of gifts that we just jam into boxes because we don't know how else to wrap them, but next time you're in that situation, consider making your own gift bag instead of trying to figure out how to wrap it.

Braid Your Paper

You don't need any extra paper to create this look, all you have to do is fold the paper up the front instead of at the sides. Once you have the braided effect, just stick some festive trinkets into the folds for some extra gifts!

Seal And Stamp Your Gift

We love how this wrapping hack, with a ribbon and wax seal, makes your gift look like a letter. You can mix and match materials to create the perfect color scheme and customize it to your recipient's favorite shades!

Safely Store Your Paper For Next Year

To keep your rolls from ripping or separating, keep the wrapping paper closed with a toilet paper roll. You can hide the cardboard with extra wrapping paper and voilà!

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!