Make Your Own Wrapping Paper: 4 Ideas for Rolling Pin Printing

Making your own wrapping paper is an easy way for kids to get involved in gift giving at this time of year.  Children of all ages can easily be involved with creating wrapping paper. From abstract toddler paintings to hand stamped designs by older children, you can use many different artistic ideas and techniques to create one of a kind wrapping paper that will make your gifts look extra special.

This year we decided to try some rolling pin printing!

Four Ideas for Rolling Pin Printing

You will need

• Large sheets of paper
• Rolling pins
• Paint
• Paint trays
• Brushes (optional)
• Various textured items to attach to rolling pins

To make

We bought rolls of plain white wrapping paper to make our custom wrapping paper but you could use sheets of painting paper or any other paper you have that is large enough to wrap your gifts in.

We raided the kitchen drawer and play dough accessories for rolling pins and hunted around for different items we could attach to our rolling pins that would leave an interesting pattern when printed. You need things that have a distinct texture and that can easily be attached to the rolling pin. We came up with the following items…

• Jumbo bubble wrap (regular sized bubble wrap would be great too) which we attached with double sided tape
• Rubber bands that fit neatly over the rolling pin, spaced out evenly
• A piece of plastic mesh bag that the oranges came in that we attached with double sided tape
• Blobs of plasticine that stuck nicely to the plastic rolling pin. You’ll need to roll this rolling pin on a nice hard surface to flatten the blobs evenly before you add paint

We chose Christmassy coloured paints and used old container lids as our paint trays but we soon discovered it was often easier to get the paint onto the rolling pins with nice fat brushes, rather than trying to roll them on the trays.

So now all you need to do is cover your textured rolling pins with paint and roll your way across your paper to see what patterns you can make!

Will you be making your own gift wrap this Christmas? What techniques do you like to use with kids?

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