The girls and I made some wrapping paper this afternoon. It was so much fun, and a real team effort! We used ordinary brown grocery bags, and cut them to lay flat on the table. First, Clara got to work making “snowflakes” with her finger dipped in white washable paint. She loved it!
Next, the paper was passed along to Emily to stamp snowflakes using a white stamp pad…
…and she drew snowflakes using a white crayon. Later, it was passed along to me and I added a few more stamps as well — just for fun!
We were quite busy making our gift wrap “assembly line” style!!
I think it turned out looking great! When it was all dry…..
I got to work wrapping the gifts (with lots of pride)!
We are counting down the days until Christmas, and wrapping a few gifts with our handmade wrapping paper helped get us into the spirit of the season. Hope you are all getting ready for a fun holiday!!
December 4th, 2009 on 2:03 pm
Dear Valerie,
Did Clara paint her hair at all?
Also, I wonder who that present is for?
Love,
Mark
December 4th, 2009 on 2:07 pm
@ Mark — 1. Not so much the hair, but she did enjoy painting her other hand quite a bit! 2. I'm not telling!
December 4th, 2009 on 4:26 pm
That looks amazing!!!
December 4th, 2009 on 4:32 pm
love the collaborative effort here!
December 4th, 2009 on 4:53 pm
Super cute!
December 4th, 2009 on 5:16 pm
Very beautiful!
December 4th, 2009 on 5:36 pm
wow, this present has a very chic dress! ; )
December 4th, 2009 on 6:40 pm
A fun activity — now I need to go buy stamps and a white stamp pad. By the way, we did your salt snowman project — M loved it! And L went so far as to request some cinnamon to put onto the reindeer he drew (word of advice cinnamon does not work all that well for this project it gets messy, but smells good!).
December 4th, 2009 on 7:18 pm
@ Ivy — I'm so glad you did the salty snowman! I think it's clever to try cinnamon for a reindeer. I would have never thought of it… reminds me, we're going to try cinnamon ornaments again soon! Yay!!
December 4th, 2009 on 8:03 pm
Wow, that present is beautifully wrapped. I love your handmade wrapping paper. I love the assembly line!
December 4th, 2009 on 8:14 pm
I did this with Rebecca when she was little. So beautiful. I still have a couple of sheets somewhere. Maybe I will use them this year. I think she would get a kick out of that!
December 4th, 2009 on 8:23 pm
This is very elegant! I love the bow, takes skills to make presents look that good
December 4th, 2009 on 9:53 pm
I wouldve never thought homemade wrapping paper could turn out so pretty!
December 4th, 2009 on 11:06 pm
Looks like so much fun! Im going to have to try that, with my 3 girls
December 5th, 2009 on 12:38 am
That is super cute!
December 5th, 2009 on 12:47 am
That totally takes me back! My mom used to do that with my sister and I to make wrapping paper. I don't remember ours turning out nearly as pretty as yours though!
December 5th, 2009 on 1:26 am
Aww! We used to do this with my mom.
Love it!
December 5th, 2009 on 1:41 am
Hi Valerie
I love that all the girls contributed to this Christmas paper. This is one of the craft activities on our Christmas list as well.
Thank you for outlining how to make felted ornaments. It was interesting to read through the process and I agree, it is perfect that the ornaments are not breakable and fragile.
So lovely to share a cup of tea with Emily and have a great chat while sipping tea. These are the moments that make happy memories – she will probably do the same with her children.
That snowman teapot is so very sweet.
December 5th, 2009 on 11:11 am
this looks like a great project… it came out really pretty!
December 5th, 2009 on 3:20 pm
That turned out beautifully. It goes to show that re-purposing not only is functional, but lovely as well. Great job assembly line team.
December 5th, 2009 on 8:44 pm
Valerie,
Your handmade paper looks so much better than all the $5 rolls I've seen in stores this year. I only wish i had seen this post BEFORE I went to Michael's today. Still, I need to go grocery shopping soon so I see a ton of homemade paper in our future
December 5th, 2009 on 9:55 pm
Love it!
December 6th, 2009 on 12:56 am
Your paper came out beautiful! I've been trying to recycle the little guy's watercolor paintings/experimentation to wrap small gifts, but something like this looks like a lot of fun too.
December 6th, 2009 on 1:42 am
Wow – the girls did great, and this packages look gorgeous. I am jealous that they are able to stay on the task for long.
December 6th, 2009 on 10:02 pm
So very beautiful Valerie, and I love that you all worked on this together!
December 7th, 2009 on 3:50 am
a lovely post…such fun to create and more special too… we also do this at home.
one year when my girls were smaller they drew Christmas pictures all over brown paper then we used it as gift wrap… the piece my mother's present was wrapped in is still, 4 years, later stuck proudly on the wall in her study.
x
December 10th, 2009 on 11:31 pm
Oh wow it looks so pretty all wrapped up! Brown paper packages never looked so cute!