Making Handmade Wrapping Paper with a Toddler

The Christmas festivities have started at our humble abode! I hung up our Christmas countdown calendar and our “Cherish” bunting. We purchased a potted Christmas tree (which we plan to plant in the backyard of the house we’re building after Christmas–which, by the way, we still haven’t started because the city is taking FOREVER to get the building permit to us!).

We’ve ordered or made most of our Christmas presents and have started wrapping them. A couple weekends ago, Henry and I made our own wrapping paper. Here’s how we did it:

Supplies

Paper grocery bags
BINGO daubers (we bought three of them at the Dollar Store for $3 plus tax)
Scissors

Directions

Turn each grocery bag into a flat sheet of paper by cutting up the side and cutting out the bottom.
Use the daubers to apply circles in a haphazard and fun way!

Okay, it’s really so simple you didn’t need me to spell out the directions. Sorry about that.

A few suggestions for doing this activity with a toddler:

Work outside if at all possible and wear old clothes (the paint does splatter).
Don’t expect perfect circles from a toddler. Henry liked to smear them, stamp incessantly, etc.

This activity was inspired by Otis’s work with stickers. We tried to use stickers to make wrapping paper for Ruby’s birthday present, but our stickers didn’t like to stay stuck to the brown paper. We had much better luck with the daubers.