Homemade for the Holidays: Wrapping Paper

We've been having some fun around here making gifts, decorations, and goodies for Christmas and thought we'd share some of the fun stuff we're doing this year. Most of it is kid-friendly, but I might just throw in some "How-To's" of a few of things I've been working on.

Up first: Wrapping Paper

My kids are still a bit too young to make a gift (without mom ending up doing most of it), but we still wanted an element of "made with love, from the kids" for some of our gifts this year. So, they decorated their own wrapping paper instead.

Really for simplicity you could just use the wrong (white) side of existing wrapping paper and give the kids some crayons and markers and have them color away, like we often do. But if you want something with little more flare and more fun for the kids, here's an idea:
Materials:

- Paint
-Christmas stamps (cookie cutters could work well too)
-Butcher paper or freezer paper
- Glitter (optional)
-a willing child or two (or more :))
-Christmas music

How we did it:

Since we are lacking in the stamp department we first made potato stamps by cutting potatoes in half (red potatoes in our case). Draw out the pattern/shape you want and cut it about 1/4 inch deep. Then carefully cut out around your pattern to form stamp. If you have time and aren't lazy like we are, allow potato to dry out. If I had them on hand, I think I would have preferred making sponges into stamps.

K, then get the kiddies ready. Smocks/grubby T's on and put on some Christmas music.
Roll out how much paper you have ambitions to decorate. If your using Freezer paper, make sure you have the waxy side down and work on the other side.
Prepare paint on paper plates. Hand off stamps to the kids and go to town. If you are really begging for a mess like we were, sprinkle glitter over the paper while paint is still wet. Shake off excess.
Clean up and allow paint to thoroughly dry (overnight) and its ready to use for wrapping.

~Merry Christmas~