We were picking up a few things from Hobby Lobby when Ryan brought three rolls of black and white print wrapping paper. He was surprised when he saw I already had two rolls of wrapping paper: plain black and solid white. I let him get one of the patterned rolls ;).
I knew mine wouldn't stay solid or plain. I just wanted blank canvases for my wrapping plans: nothing expensive or difficult to find, just a few on-hand supplies and an evening with the kids in bed.
o1 The Bow-less Ribbon Wrap: simply tape each end of strips of ribbon on the back for a simple, different ribbon wrap.
o2 The Brick Layer: using plain white label stickers, create your own pattern.
o3 The Leftover Wrap: paper punch several shapes out of that strip of leftover wrapping paper and glue with rubber cement. Don't feel like you need to place them perfectly.
o4 The Sticker Paper Wrap: those blank label stickers left me with several pieces of waxy white paper. I punched them all [I know, I'm so violent] with my square and did a simple checkerboard pattern.
o5 Mister Mustache: wrap some crochet twine [or whatever else you have on hand] around your hand several times. Tie in the middle and cut open the loops.
Punch [or draw] two eyes for a mysterious wrapping job.
o6 The Go Crazy with that Twine!: tape one end on of the string on the back and quickly wrap around and around and around until you're happy with the result.
Look around to see what you have on hand and how you can creatively use it. Gift wrapping is fun because it's a small space to work with and doesn't have to be perfect because it's just going to be thrown away!