For several years now I’ve made my own gift wrapping paper. Whatever the occasion, I simply stamp what I need to coordinate with the card I make. What’s more, I love that unlike much of the commercially produced gift wrap, mine is completely recyclable. The base is a sheet of white packing paper (bought from my local U-Haul depot – a moving company here in Canada). Then using the Leaves of Holly Stamp Set, ink and a little time I created pretty gift wrap for 15 cents a sheet. Bargain!

TWICE STAMPED LEAVES

This project really is very simple and I made it even more so with my choice of stamps. The Leaves of Holly set has two each of two different sizes of holly leaves and I ended up using the smaller ones. I think the identical sized leaves are supposed to be stamped on top of each other but I decided against that. Instead I stamped them separately, one using Shaded Spruce ink and the other in Granny Apple Green ink. To add even more interest after I inked each image and stamped, I immediately stamped again to get a second lighter leaf. This way I could use the two stamps to create four different looking leaves on my design.

As I worked, I tried to remember to turn the stamp slightly so that the design appeared random. I also stayed away from the edges until I was almost finished. This was because I knew that when I stamped over the edge I would create a hard ink line on the surface of the stamp. To prevent this line transferring onto the paper I had to re-ink the whole stamp completely before going back to my project. Then if I actually wanted the lighter version of the colour I needed to first “stamp off” onto scrap paper.

After I’d filled in most of the paper with the four different leaves I turned to the holly berries. Once again I decided to only use one of the two layering stamps. So I picked up the fuller berry image and stamped that using Sweet Sorbet ink. As before I stamped with full strength ink, and then stamped again without re-inking the image.

With the berries and leaves done all I had left to do was add a few sentiments from the Leaves of Holly Stamp Set. First I chose “Seasons Greetings” and stamped that into some of the gaps using Shaded Spruce ink. Then using Sweet Sorbet ink I stamped “Christmas Wishes”. And just like that my gift wrap was complete.

PRODUCT LIST

As I explained in my introduction, I use white packing paper for my gift wrap projects. In Canada I can get sheets of this “clean white newsprint paper” in a box from my local U-Haul franchise. The box I chose had about 100 sheets of clean white newsprint approximately 24″ x 30″ and I paid $13 +tax Canadian. If you don’t have access to U-Haul, try doing an online search for “white newsprint”. Otherwise try contacting your local moving company and ask about buying their white newsprint (packing) paper.

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Leaves of Holly Stamp Set in a bundle with the coordinating Holly Berry Dies (not used today). Buying the two items using the single “bundle” item number saved me 10% off the cost of buying them separately. I’ve included a link to the bundle in case you want to explore that option for yourself.