Making Personalized Gift Wrap

To make personalized gift wrap for moms, dads, and grandparents use a common brown grocery bag. Cut along one side in the corner crease to the bottom of the bag, then turn and finish cutting out the bottom of the bag leaving a nice rectangular sheet of paper. Take the paper and wad into a ball and keep working the paper opening it and re-wadding it until it becomes soft and pliable.

Lay the paper out with the plain side up. Use newspapers to cover the table or counter for ease in cleaning up.

Using tempera paints or any paint with water clean up, mix colors into saved Cool Whip bowls, pie tins, or any container that you prefer. If the container is too small use a foam paint brush and paint the palms and fingers with the colors you desire.

Using your painted hands start using them as a stamp and let them go wild making hand prints all over the softened grocery bag. If you are daring you can do their little feet too, but make sure you have a bucket of water to clean them up or the floors will be painted as well.

After the paper has dried, wad it up again a few times then proceed to wrap your gift. Tie it off with ribbon scraps, yarn, or raffia.

This makes a great gift for the new parents or grandparents especially if Grandma and Grandpa live a distance away and do not get to see the family often, as this makes a great keep-sake as well. This can be done in colors to match the holiday as well.

A great gift idea is to wrap a picture frame to hold a cutting of the same paper as a mat and put a picture of the child on it framed. Two gift's in one!

Using the paper plain and tied with raffia and a pine cone or two tied into the raffia makes a great wrap for men also!

Source: I came up with this when I was broke and needed to give a gift, but had no money to buy one.

By Beau from Vancouver, WA