How to Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

Brown paper. A potato. A pot of paint you probably already own. That’s genuinely all it takes to turn a plain roll of parcel paper into wrapping that looks like it came from a little boutique on a cobbled street. I’ve taught this project to groups of eight-year-olds and to groups of adults who swore they “aren’t creative,” and both sets walked out grinning with armfuls of the stuff.

Making your own wrapping paper costs pennies, uses supplies you likely have lurking in a cupboard, and turns gift-wrapping from a chore into an evening you actually look forward to. It’s also the single easiest way to make a small present feel like a big deal. Let’s get messy.

Materials List

• Brown kraft paper or plain parcel paper — a roll from the post office, a hardware shop, or the back of an online delivery. Plain white newsprint or even the reverse side of a roll of cheap lining paper works too. Avoid anything shiny or coated; paint needs to sink in.
• Acrylic craft paint — two or three colours is plenty. Poster paint works if you’re wrapping things that won’t get damp, and leftover emulsion from a decorating tin is honestly brilliant for this.
• A potato, a carrot, a sponge, or a cork — your stamp. A potato cut in half is the classic for a reason.
• A small knife and a chopping board — for carving the stamp. Adults only for the knife part.
• A shallow dish or an old plate — for the paint. A foil tray from a takeaway is perfect.
• Newspaper or a wipe-clean tablecloth — cover more surface than you think you need.
• An apron or clothes you don’t love — acrylic paint does not come out. I learned this the hard way with a favourite jumper.
• Kitchen roll or a rag — for blotting and for emergency cleanups.

Step-by-Step

1. Lay down your protection first. Spread newspaper over the whole table and let it hang over the edges. Paint travels further than you’d believe. Do this before you open a single pot.
2. Cut your paper to size. Work out roughly how much you need for the gifts you’re wrapping, then add a generous margin — you’ll trim the edges later once the pattern is dry. Cut a few sheets at once so you have room to experiment.
3. Make your stamp. Halve a potato and pat the cut face dry with kitchen roll. Draw your shape on the flat surface with the tip of a knife — a star, a heart, a simple leaf, a circle. Keep it bold and simple; fiddly details vanish once you start printing.
4. Carve carefully. Cut down about half a centimetre around your outline, then slice sideways underneath to lift away the unwanted potato. You want your shape standing proud, raised above the rest. Take your time here — this is the part that decides how the whole sheet looks.
5. Blot the stamp. Press the cut face onto kitchen roll to soak up excess moisture. Wet potato stamps go soggy and smeary fast.
6. Load the stamp with paint. Pour a thin layer of paint into your shallow dish. Press the stamp face-down into it, then dab it on the spare newspaper a couple of times to even out the coverage. You want a thin, even coat — not a thick blob.
7. Start printing. Press the stamp firmly onto the paper and hold for a second or two before lifting straight up. Don’t twist or slide. Work in a loose grid or scatter the shapes randomly — either looks good, so stop overthinking it.
8. Re-ink every few prints. You’ll feel when the stamp is running dry. Reload it rather than pressing harder, which just gives you patchy, faded shapes.
9. Add a second colour. Once the first layer is touch-dry, go back in with a different colour and a different stamp, or use the same stamp offset to create a layered look. Two colours is the sweet spot; three starts to get busy.
10. Let everything dry flat. Give the sheets a good hour somewhere out of the way. Acrylic dries fairly quickly, but thick patches stay tacky for longer than you’d expect.
11. Press the sheets. Once dry, stack them under a couple of heavy books for ten minutes to flatten out any curling. Then wrap your gifts as normal.

Beginner Tips

Skip these and you’ll end up with a soggy, smeared mess — and I say that with love, because I’ve made every single one of these mistakes.

• Don’t drown the stamp in paint. More paint does not mean a better print. It means blobs, smears, and a stamp that slides around. Thin and even wins every time.
• Dry your potato properly. A wet stamp releases watery, washed-out prints. Blot it, then blot it again.
• Test on scrap first. Always. Press your freshly carved stamp onto a spare bit of paper before you commit to the real thing. You’ll spot a wonky edge or a too-thin line straight away.
• Don’t carve too deep. If you cut too far down, the walls of your stamp collapse and the shape loses its crispness. Half a centimetre is plenty.
• Keep the pattern loose. The charm of handmade paper is that no two sheets match. Perfectly even spacing looks like a machine did it, which rather defeats the point.
• Work in a well-ventilated room. Acrylic fumes are mild but real, especially if you’re doing a big batch.

Here’s a counter-intuitive one: don’t aim for a perfect repeat pattern. The sheets that look most expensive are the ones where the stamps are slightly irregular, slightly overlapping, slightly imperfect. Lean into that. It’s a feature, not a flaw.

Creative Variation

Once you’ve got the basic stamping down, try a two-tone ombre wash. Thin your paint with a little water until it’s the consistency of milk, then brush it loosely across the paper in broad, uneven strokes — darker at one edge, fading towards the other. Let that dry completely, then stamp your shapes over the top in a single contrasting colour. The wash gives you a soft, painterly background that makes even the simplest potato stamp look deliberate and designed. It’s the trick I pull out when I want a roll of paper to look like it came from a proper stationery shop, and it takes about four extra minutes.

Troubleshooting

The prints look patchy and faded. Your stamp is running dry. Reload it with paint and dab off the excess on the newspaper before pressing down again. Don’t just push harder — that flattens the shape and makes it worse.

The paint is bleeding around the edges of the shape. You’ve overloaded the stamp, or it’s too wet. Blot the stamp on kitchen roll, then try again on scrap. If it’s still bleeding, your paint is too thin — add a little more from the pot.

The potato is going mushy. Potatoes have a short working life once cut. If yours starts crumbling, cut a fresh face or switch to a new potato half. A carrot or a firm sponge holds up much longer if you’re doing a big batch.

The paper is curling at the edges. That’s just moisture. Let it dry fully, then stack the sheets under heavy books or a board for ten minutes. They’ll flatten right out.

The shapes look smudged together. You’re stamping too close, or the first layer wasn’t dry before you started the second. Give each layer a proper rest. Patience here is the whole game.

Making your own wrapping paper is one of those rare projects that’s cheap, quick, and makes you look far more organised than you actually are. You don’t need talent. You need a potato, a bit of paint, and half an hour on a Sunday evening. The gifts underneath will be delighted with the upgrade — and so will whoever’s unwrapping them. Now go and raid the vegetable drawer.