Sometimes, the things we learn as children are really, really good lessons that stick with us. Sometimes they’re big lessons like being kind to others or eating your vegetables, and sometimes they’re small lessons, like elementary school art techniques. Behold, the glorious art of wax resist painting, something you probably learned to do in Kindergarten! With just some plain paper, a white crayon, and a set of inexpensive watercolors, you can make really beautiful custom wrapping paper for the holidays. And the best part is, it’s a holiday craft that is totally appropriate for all ages!
Materials & Tools
white kraft paper (I used Scotch brand banner & sign paper)
white crayon
watercolors
paint brush
water
Steps
1. Using the white crayon, draw designs, write messages, or otherwise decorate the white paper. If you look at it from the right angle, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing.
2. Paint over the white crayon with watercolors. The paper might wrinkle significantly as it gets wet, but it actually does a pretty good job of flattening itself out as it dries, so don’t stress over it too much.
3. Allow the wrapping paper to dry completely before using.
Beautiful and inexpensive!
Love it!!
This is just lovely! I love it! I have some brown kraft paper, and I’m wondering how that would look. I would love it if you linked this up to the Handmade Holiday link party on my blog: http://persialou.blogspot.com/2013/11/handmade-holiday-link-party.html Thanks! š
I am attempting this for the holidays. My question is do you paint all the paper first, or do you wrap the presents and then apply the watercolor. Seems like wrapping first would be best option, so that you can control the messages and patterns by each gift. Seems like a huge waste of time to paint first, then wrap. There will be so much waste, plus you can’t control one package from the other if you paint a huge piece of paper. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Lisa. I think you can certainly do it either way depending on what look you’re going for. If you want those messages to show on the packages, by all means, paint them on after the presents are wrapped. If you want to do more of a pattern, it should work to paint the paper first. Good luck, and happy holidays!