Out of Christmas Wrap? Then Let's MAKE SOME! A Tutorial by Lynne Mizera

 

Hello Everyone!  Today I am here to share my last STAMPlorations tutorial for 2017.  And we are Down to the Wire with Christmas Eve just around the corner, which is always when I run out of wrapping paper!! So I want to share with you how I quickly turned some brown parcel paper into my own personalized Christmas wrapping paper using my stencils with acrylic craft paint and a foam brayer.

 

It only took me about 45 minutes to make one 4-foot piece and three 3-foot pieces of customized paper and it was enough to wrap all of these gifts, so let's get started...

 

Now before I get into it, here are a few things I have learned along the way... 

1.  If you don't like your pattern you are  NOT finished yet... just keep layering.

2.  Gold fixes EVERYTHING!!

3.  Clean the sponge brayer between EVERY color application.

4.  You only your pattern to run down the centre of the paper, the edges are usually cut off so don't waste time and paint going right to the edge.

 

Now, for my first attempt, I tried sponging on red spray dye ink over top of this Holiday Words stencil, but it was too much work and I did not really like the look - there had to be an easier way...  and there was, the foam insert for my brayer!!

  

My brayer came with three rollers, a hard plastic solid one, a softer roller that I  use for ink and this sponge roller which I had never used before now... and now I know it is for pushing paint through a stencil evenly and QUICKLY... (who knew??)  While it too me almost 15 minutes to sponge this 4-foot piece of paper, it only took me five minutes to add this coat of white paint over top of the red ink with my sponge brayer!

And the coverage was so smooth and even.  Now you can make yourself crazy trying to brayer each image perfectly and even, but Why?? Because this is wrapping paper so the overall effect is what  really matters, not the individual details... and remember this will probably be going into the garbage after the gift is opened.

This piece was still not quite bright enough for me and I wanted those words to really pop, so I brayered a strip of white paint down the centre and re-did that stencil in a dark red over top so the words popped right off the paper, and then I cleaned off all that red paint in my sponge by running it all over the top and bottom of the paper to make it a bit more red...

 

Now this is the look I was going for... and you will notice that nothing is perfect or lined up and the images are not even straight and it still looks GREAT!  this piece of wrapping paper took me about 30 minutes to complete, but now that I knew what I was doing the next three pieces took only about 15 minutes.

Using the sponge roller was exactly like using a paint roller on your walls, just smaller.  I used a piece of wax paper for my paint pallet and made sure the sponge brayer was loaded with enough paint to get good coverage but not so much that it squished out everywhere.

I also discovered that gold paint does not make a good bottom layer, it just doesn't show up enough against the brown paper, but it makes a magnificent top coat.

And just look at how lovely this piece is after I used my gold ink spray and dripped all over those dark green holly leaves.

And in the light it shimmers just like those expensive foil papers.  Now this next piece I went in a slightly different direction, applying different colors of paint through the Christmas Trees stencils...

And HATED IT...

Until I brayered over top the entire piece with my gold craft paint... SWOON!!

This picture really does not do it justice... the gold paint softened the colors of the trees and pulled them into one cohesive piece and totally shines in the lights under the tree!

And finally this final piece, done in under 5 minutes, using only one of the Christmas Tree stencils, gold on the bottom and a light green on the top in an evenly repetitive pattern. Lovely isn't it?

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Here are the papers under a light so you can see the wonderful metallic shimmer achieved using gold craft paint as an accent...

And here are the seven gifts I wrapped using all those papers I made... each have one piece of that awesome wire ribbon that makes my bows look like a professional tied them and one of the gift tags I created in my last post... aren't they just STUNNING!  (the gifts, not the tags...grin)

 

So that's it for my Tutorial this month and this year!!  Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday and all the best in 2018... And looking forward to sharing even more of my creativity with you next year!

Lynne Mizera

For the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Design Team

 

Remember to use my personal discount code:

 STAMPGIRLLYNNE

to Receive 20% your entire order, even sale items.

STAMPlorations products used on the project:

Christmas Trees stencil

Holly Background stencil

Holiday Words stencil

Other Products Used:

Plaid Pure Gold Acrylic Craft Paint

FolkArt Acrylic Color - Shamrock

Americana Snow White Craft Paint

American Decor Chalky Finish "New Life" (green)

American Decor Chalky Finish "Rouge" (red)