How To Make Homemade Christmas Wrapping Paper

It's that time of year again. Christmas trees are lit up, jingle bells cast over the radio, and you've hopefully finished the most of your Christmas shopping. Maybe it's Christmas eve and you've realized that you're out of Christmas wrapping paper, or you just want to make your own. This hub gives instruction on how to make a great and easy project holiday Christmas wrapping paper craft to do alone, or with kids of all ages.

What you will need:

• Paper bags
• Poster paints and trays (any type of paint will do)
• Scissors
• A potato or two (depending on how many stamps you want)
• A knife
• A trash bag or an old news paper

These two first steps should be done by an adult.

Carefully peel apart the folded part of the bottom of the bag, and the seam along the side of the bag. If done carefully, they usually can come apart without ripping, but if it's too difficult, you can just cut this part out with your scissors to open the paper bag out into one large piece of paper. Lay all of your pieces out stacked on top of each other.

Next, take a medium sized potato, and slice it in half. Use your knife to cut a stamp out of it. I used a star and a candy cane, but you can put anything you like into it, like a gingerbread man, a Christmas ball, holly, a bell, a snowman, an angel; Anything goes. Just try to keep it simple enough of a shape to cut into the potato.

Now the kids can join in!

You can lay pages of newspaper on the floor for your working area. The paint can sometimes bleed through the paper and get on your floor, so you'll want to cover it up with newspaper. You can also use a trash bag. Just be sure to use something big enough to cover the surface of the paper you're working with.

Pour different colors of paint into your trays. Try to put just a couple of millimeters of paint in the tray. You don't want too much in there because when you dip your stamp into it, you just want it to coat the surface of the stamp, not the base of the stamp.

Place your paper over your work space and stamp your paper with the desired stamps. You can follow a pattern, or just stamp anywhere you like. Use a single stamp over the whole page, or alternate them. It's completely up to you. Be sure to press firmly enough on the stamp so that the paint transfers over, but not too hard to break the smaller parts of the stamp off.

Once you've finished stamping the paper, put it aside to dry, and continue a new sheet of paper. If you're using poster paints, it might be dry by the time you've finished stamping your next sheet and you can stack them up. Now you're ready to wrap your gifts!

A great thing about this project is that you are recycling. I keep and set aside any clean paper bags I get from take-out foods or groceries that came in paper bags. It's a good lesson for kids in re-using what you have around the house too. They will love taking part in a project like this, and feel good about helping the environment too. They will also take pride in making their own, unique wrapping paper. This craft doesn't have to be just for Christmas. It can be used for any occasion. Be creative!

This project could also be a fundraising opportunity for older kids. If everyone brought in paper like this and prepared the wrap, then offered to wrap presents for people in school or in a mall, this could be done for donations. The paper is free, and it will have that hand-made touch that people love. It's offering a service that some people might not have time for, and they can feel good about helping out a good cause.

I hope everyone has fun with this craft, and Merry Christmas & happy holidays to everyone out there!