I like giving handmade gifts with the best of ’em, but sometimes you just need to give a regular store-bought gift. Last month, I took my daughter to a kid’s birthday party where this was the case. I felt slightly bad that the gift didn’t have a homemade touch (there may be some sort of addiction going on here), and once again happenstance solved my problems. When I went to wrap the gift, I realized that I didn’t have any cute wrapping paper, just ugly wrapping paper and plain white gift packaging/wrap. Hmmm….just because the gift isn’t handmade doesn’t mean the wrapping can’t have a personal touch!
My inspiration was the box that contained the gift. I thought the pattern was so cute, so I set out to do something along those lines for the gift wrap.
Inspiration:
My Version:
Supplies:
- Plain white gift wrapping paper
- Ruler
- Marker/sharpie
- Round sponge
- Plaid acrylic paints
I began by wrapping the gift in plain white paper. Since I’m painting the outside, I wrapped mine in about 3 layers so the paint would not bleed through to the gift. Tape the gift as you would normally wrap it.
This step can be as exact or as guess-timated as you would like. Using a ruler and a sharpie, create a broken line pattern on the wrapping. Do the entire box with lines going in one direction.
Begin again with lines going in the opposite direction.
Choose your paint colors. Use a round sponge to paint circles in between the lines. I started out wit purple and did one color at a time.
I painted the entire box in stages to allow for drying time.
Let the paint dry completely. Make a cute gift tag and attach with baker’s twine. 
There ya go! DIY Patterned Wrapping paper!
Linking to these great parties!
I love this! I have often used brown paper bags to wrap things and stamped/painted them.
This is adorable! Years ago, I let my boys paint their own wrapping paper, but I used packing paper since I had so much; however, that stuff was too thick for easy wrapping. I may have to do this again using regular paper. I forgot all about that until I read your post.