Slow Your Christmas: Hand-Printed Wrapping Paper
Every year I wrap our Christmas presents in the same old wrapping: plain brown paper with red and white baker's twine and maybe a paper pompom to pretty it up. I don't mind so much because it's cheap, easy to find and easy to recycle. (One year I actually wrapped all our presents in newspaper, but I felt a mixture of clever, frugal and stingy so I'm not sure about repeating that...)But this year I'm on the lookout for fun Christmassy projects to do with Isla, so I thought we'd give potato stamping a go.Disclaimer: I did the one in the photo when Isla was asleep. She and I are going to make our own next week. (I didn't want to pretend that I had the neatest 2-year-old in the world!)It's really easy, relatively quick, messy and satisfying because you get an immediate payoff. Great for me, and most likely great for kids too!
You'll need:
some potatoes (soft/green/sprouty - great reuse project!)plastic platesroll of brown paperacrylic paints
1. Cut your potato in half and, using a sharp knife, carve out a simple shape. Just a tip: keep the face of the stamp nice and flat, so it will print evenly.
Simple shapes are the easiest. You could try:
- Christmas tree- star- circle- stocking- heart
2. Squirt some paint into a plastic plate and lightly dip the stamp into it. You don't need too much paint, as it will ooze and make your shapes look blobby.
3. Stamp away!
You can double up patterns with different colours, stagger them all over the page, or just go wild. A nice, fun touch could be to stamp the back of some paper tags (you can pick them up at newsagents for really cheap) and use them as gift tags. Then tie the whole lot up with baker's twine, wool or embroidery thread. Whatever you have on hand!In other, random news, I've nearly finished Christmas shopping/making, we visited a kinesiologist last week and she officially blew my mind, and I'm spending all my spare time getting ready for a huge garage sale we're holding next weekend. The monster declutter project is paying off and it's so exciting! There's still a loooong way to go, but already I feel lighter, better, freer. Can't wait to share some more of it with you!