It is December 1st so get ready for some festive craft ideas!
I have had the honor of working with some AMAZING ladies on Instagram and was asked to join in on a fun collaborative project called CRAFTmas! Craftmas is your ultimate holiday craft guide featuring some super creative ideas by 15 superstar crafters! No more Pinterest browsing for activities to do with your little ones (or big ones on their holiday break!). We have it all right here!
I am happy to share with you one of our holiday ideas on the Craftmas train by two of my favorite creative mamas, Cara from Raising Kinley and Sara from Toddler Tornado. These two are part of the amazing trio at smocks.on, one of the best resources for crafts and art activities for children. If you are not following them already, go do it!
But first…check out these fun and EASY ideas below for Kid Made Wrapping Paper by Cara and Sara. Also, be sure to check out the next Craftmas idea at the end of this post for more holiday themed crafts!
Well, hello there, holly jolly friend! Sara and Cara here from smocks.on. Lisa, invited us over for a little holiday kid crafting and we’ve come up with a super fun way to make your holiday presents extra special this year — kid-made wrapping paper! There are endless possibilities, but we’re gonna show you our top four tried-and-true, crazy pretty process art options.
This cookie cutter print process is the perfect way to get anyone in the Christmas spirit! It’s the middle of November and Luke and I couldn’t help playing some of our favorite holiday tunes, and singing along of course!
Cue: Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer.
As we sat side by side, I couldn’t help but notice that his art was crazy perfection. There were no rules, no specific layout or pattern. It was all about having fun with it. His carefree awesomeness was looking so great and was making my carefully spaced paper creation seem pretty boooooooring. I learned something from my little guy that day — relaxing and just enjoying the process and not worrying about the product is where it’s at! Seriously, you have to try it!
You’ll Need:
Brown Kraft Paper
Christmas Cookie Cutters
Tempera Paint
Paper Plates
Gift Box
How to:
Measure gift box and cut Kraft paper to correct size
Squeeze desired colors on paper plates.
Dip cookie cutter into paint.
Stamp it all over your paper and have fun making some adorable holiday prints!
Let dry.
Wrap!
This gorgeous cookie cutter paper actually does double duty! If your family is anything like mine, you either have to travel, or wait while others travel to you and all that waiting and staring at untouchable presents can make the kiddos a bit cray, right? Time to break out the old crayons and markers and let your antsy kiddos go nuts on the coloring-paper-wrapped presents of yours. Not only is this tried, true and kid-approved, but even you will soon find yourself coloring on that beautifully printed paper yourself. Trust me, Cara and I couldn’t stop!
MORE HOLIDAY PERSONALIZED PAPERS WE LOVE:
Red & Green Scrape Art:
We all love a good scrape art process, right? So why not add that love to your holiday wrapping paper?
Measure and cut out your Kraft wrapping paper, and let the fun can begin! Pick out your favorite holiday colors and squirt some right on the paper. Cara let Kinley do the squirting herself and she had a blast with this step! You can experiment with paint drop size, but we found little drops made the coolest scrapes. You can then take a piece of cardboard, credit card, or squeegee and drag it through the paint. You might wanna wipe your scraper off between drags. Let dry and wrap! (Helpful hint: If you wanna use red and green together, you’ll wanna do one color first, let it dry and then come back and repeat the steps with the other color to avoid the dreaded brown smearage.)
There is something so relaxing about this process and with all the crazy holiday shenanigans going on, it’s nice to stop and do something that makes you remember WHY you’re doing it in the first place — FOR THAT KIDDO! This is an activity they are sure to love, especially because they are doing it with you!
Ice Cream Stamp Process Art:
Summer is over and if you’re like me, you still have ice cream cones sitting in your cabinet and not much ice cream in the freezer. Break those poor stale little treat holders out and use them to make some gorgeous holiday wreath wrapping paper!
To turn that cone into a stamp, you’ll need to cut the top lip of the ice cream cones off to get the nice print instead of a boring old circle. Squirt your paint on a paper plate and have fun stamping away to make the perfect present paper. Let dry and wrap.
Bonus: this print makes a perfect gift-tag, too!
If you wanna take the cone wreaths from pretty to gorgeous, you can use Q-tips dipped in red paint to decorate those holiday wreaths with holly berries! Super cool, right?! Now you have a print that will be the talk of your holiday party!
CHALKBOARD PRESENTS:
Kids LOVE chalkboards, so why not add them to your holiday wrapping paper?! Simply wrap your kids presents with Kraft paper and take ANY color tempera paint and apply a layer of paint to the top. After it dries, tape some chalk to the gift.
Christmas morning has arrived and it’s not quite time to open, let them take some time to put their personal style on that much anticipated gift!
And, extra cool, after your kiddo has unwrapped that present and tossed his chalk art paper aside, pick that sweet artwork up, cut out his design, write the year on the back and save it! A little holiday keepsake to love to love for years to come.
Well, that’s a WRAP! We hope you’ve enjoyed our smocks.on family Christmas special! We can’t wait to share even more memories with you throughout this Christmas season and many more Christmases to come!
Be sure to check out our personal Instagram accounts @toddler_tornado and @raising.kinley and our blog, smockson.com, for even more ideas from us and all of the inspiring kid art people of Instagram!
Happy Holidays!
Sara and Cara
Don’t those ideas look like so much fun and best of all, SUPER EASY! The girls and I will be getting on these clever wrapping paper ideas pronto! Want some more holiday craft ideas?? Your next stop in this HOLLY JOLLY CRAFT-MAS ROUND UP is Bonnie from Make It Your Own. See what she has in store!
I love the ideas!! Did you first wrap the gift and then stamp on them or will the colour press through to the actual gift?