Anna Ranson
For some family members and close friends at Christmas it can be really special to add the extra personal touch by making your own wrapping paper and gift tags. There are plenty of ways to do this, but to be able to involve even the youngest family members there is a really easy, fool proof method!
You will need:
A shallow dish or tray
Large sheets of paper or, ideally, brown parcel packaging on a roll
Cookie cutters of any shape or design (We chose hearts and stars)
Thick ready mix paint or metallic acrylic paint
How to create your own wrapping paper:
1. Roll out a huge sheet of paper and choose your cookie cutters and paints.
2. Squirt paint into the shallow dish or tray and spread it out so that it can be dipped in by the cutters.
Anna Ranson
3. Let your little ones dip the cutters into the paint and firmly print straight onto the paper. Lift the cutter off carefully so as not to smear (although the magic of using a cutter is that they are easy to grip and have a tiny surface area, so this should be easy to avoid!) Dip back into the paint after each print and repeat. You can also try this using sponge shapes, although these can be harder to control for younger children.
Anna Ranson
4. Cover as much as the paper as desired, either sticking to just one shape and colour or mixing it up! Space out the shapes or overlap, depending on the desired artistic effect.
5. Finished! Older children may wish to colour in some of the shapes using metallic colouring pencils to really finish it off beautifully, but it should already look simple and effective just as it is.
How to create your own gift tags:
1. To make some gift tags from the same printed paper, allow the prints to dry and then cut around some of the individual prints, leaving a little edge.
2. Stick these onto a contrasting colour paper or card, and cut around again, leaving a similar sized border.
3. Punch with a hole and thread through thin ribbon or raffia and use to write labels and attach to parcels!
Extremely simple, achievable and effective, and all contributing to the homemade family traditions of Christmas time!
Have you seen Anna's charming and easy to make Christmas tree decorations here.