Hand Stamped Wrapping Paper

Since the holidays are fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to share some of the fun new crafty wrapping techniques I've been trying out.  One that I really enjoy is hand stamped wrapping paper.  A few months ago I decided I'd really like to start wrapping everything in brown paper and focus on bows and other embellishments instead of the predesigned patterns of paper available.  Then I thought that it would be really cute to stamp onto the brown paper to make my own designs.  It is a little extra work, but I think it's worth it for the cute factor :)

Here's a quick tutorial for you (not that I think you really need one, it's a pretty basic concept, but it will be good tutorial writing practice for me.)

First cut the size of paper you need from your roll.  Unless you want to wrap a bunch of presents in the same stamped design, then go ahead and cut a bigger piece.

Next lay your paper out flat.  Mine tried to curl back up on me so I weighted the corners and sides down as needed to make it lie down flat. 

Then just stamp as desired - this is the fun part :)

 I like to let mine dry for a little bit so my stamps don't smear, but you might not need to do this step depending on the kind of ink you use.

Now all that's left is to wrap your gift. 

Tada!  Super cute and fun! My brown paper is kind of thick so I wrapped it with packing tape, but plain old scotch tape should work fine.  Probably not the method you want to use if you're a last minute gift wrapper though...