patience made | diy holiday wrapping paper

ever wanted to make your own wrapping paper? me too. that's why when i was younger my mother would let us dip sliced potatoes into paint and apply it to brown parcel paper. i'm a bit beyond potatoes now (except when it comes to dinner, because they're my favourite dish!). i have such a fun collection of stamps - but if you don't, i encourage you to buy one special image, or carve a design into lino, an eraser, or even yes, a potato.

it's easy to pull out some paper and print images abstractly - but since i'm such a perfectionist, i've developed a more geometric way of imprinting my wrap. follow below to make your own "perfectly placed" holiday paper.

tools and supplies:
kraft paper
newsprint
masking tape
scissors
thick black marker
pen
ruler
stamp
ink or paint

step one: roll out some white or kraft parcel paper (these rolls are very inexpensive at office depot stores. i've had mine for years and it cost me twelve dollars). cut off a strip that is four inches wider then the width of the roll itself (scroll to look at the last images if this doesn't make sense).

step two: starting at the very edge of the paper, mark one inch measurements down both alternating sides.

step three: draw lines with a thick black marker from every fourth inch mark to the same mark on the other side (to clarify, this means the lines are four inches apart).

steps four and five: do the same one inch marks down the remaining alternating sides. do the same black marker lines at every fourth inch mark.

steps six and seven: to ensure my grid is straight, i fold one line over the edge of the table and tape both sides down using washi or masking tape (when pulled gently, both come off without harming your surface or your paper so you can use the grid again and again.)

step eight: lay your paper roll over the grid as straight as possible (i don't cut it off the roll until i'm done printing). now look closely to see your marker lines underneath. stamp your images like bricks. alternate between every other intersection on each row like below.

you can use the same image, or switch it up. the point it that when you are done, your images will be perfectly spaced and lined - like professionally printed paper, but with much more charm.

* you may have noticed that the one inch marks are not entirely necessary. you could totally just make one mark every four inches. but i don't because later i'm going to make lines with a thin sharpie marker and print my own tissue paper :) (go ahead and try! they sell rolls of sketchbook paper at art stores, or you can stamp on thick party tissue paper.

when moving on to a new section, pull your paper down just far enough that the last row of stamps lines up with the last row of intersecting lines.

seems like too much work? - that's okay, you can buy some right here.

another idea