Create Your Own Wrapping Paper: 3 Techniques

Nana and Papa are having a great time visiting with the grandchildren (and their parents!) this week.  Since I had actual kids to work with, I decided we needed to do a craft together. The two older kids and I had a grand time making our own wrapping paper.

Here's what we started with:

• Spray bottles (these from the dollar store didn't work that well. You might want to try some that can give you a finer spray and that won't break in use)
• Foam stickers
• Sponge shapes
• Shaped post-it notes
• Acrylic paint
• Shaped cutouts
• Stamps
• Plain wrapping paper or brown craft paper

I got these stamps  at the Dollar Store.  They came with finger paint. Fun, but took a long time to dry.
First we tried those stamps.

We started using more than one color on each stamp and came up with some pretty designs.

Next we used the acrylic paint and sponges.

For our third variety, we used the foam stickers, the post-it-notes, and the cut outs. We used an repositional glue stick on the back of the cutouts so that we could remove the cutouts better when we were finished. If I had been at home, I would have run the cutouts through my Xyron machine and applied temporary adhesive.

Next I poured about half a bottle of paint and some water (about at 2:1 ratio) into the spray bottle and shook it up. We sprayed the paper. Once the paint dried, we removed our shapes. This version didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I also got paint all over Jordan's driveway. Next time, I will try it on a more absorbent paper such as brown craft paper and I will protect my surface!. I think it will be very cute.





Here are some of our finished products.

And here they are in use:

We had lots of fun making the paper-- and that's why we craft, right?