This year I decided to make my own gift wrap (inspiration can be found here) as opposed to using store bought wrapping paper and plastic ribbon because DIY gift wrap is more eco friendly and better for our beautiful Earth, more fun for the receiver to unwrap, creative, pretty, and easily recyclable!
For all my gifts I used the inside of brown paper grocery bags (which are made from recycled paper and easily recyclable themselves and we all have them!) and bok choy as a stamping tool. I love the way the bok choy creates a "rose-like" design! It's purdy! To individualize and jazz things up a bit for each gift, I used glitter, yarn, pom pom balls, twine, diy snowflakes, and paint pens.
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| [decorating paper grocery bags with bok choy "stamps"] |
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| [embellishing brown grocery bag made gift tags using martha stewart brand glue pen and glitter] |
You will need:
- brown paper bags
- scissors
- tape
- paint
- art tray for the paint (I used the lid of a coffee container)
- bok choy or celery stock base (You will need to have cut this as smoothly as possible to leave a nice straight stamping surface)
- yarn, twine, or ribbon if you have it already (non-plastic)
- glue pen (for gift tags)
- fork (to make mini pom pom balls). Tutorial for the pom pom balls can be found here
- glitter
- hole punch
Do it!:
1. Cut open a brown paper bag so that it lays relatively flat.
2. Put paint (I used red but use any color you want) onto your tray (you may need to brush it around so that it's not all in one lump). Take your prepared bok choy or celery stamp and dip it into your paint. Check and be sure that it's fully coated.
3. Carefully press your stamp down onto your paper with steady even pressure.
4. Repeat as desired all over the paper.
5. After the "roses" dry you may want to free hand paint on green leaves to complete the "rose" look. I did this only on a few stamps.
6. Allow paper to dry completely and then wrap up your gifts.
7. Embellish as you like!
Do you make your own gift wrap?! Do you use a theme when wrapping gifts?
