I love using Christmas as a time to get crafting and creative with the kids and this DIY gift wrap is no exception. We have designed wrapping paper with potato print penguins on.    I am delighted to be working with Sellotape this festive season to share the magic of giving and we will be using our DIY wrapping paper as part of that collaboration.

How to make Potato Print Penguins DIY gift wrap

Materials:

• Brown paper
• Paper Plates or regular plates
• Potatoes
• Knife
• Black and White tempura paint
• Orange acrylic paint
• Paint brush
• Googley eyes

Instructions:

Printing with potatoes is an inexpensive and fun way top mark make with kids and if you cut a hand hold in your potatoes it makes it much easier too.  I am going to admit that I have a stash of paper plates and I use these as palates instead of washing regular plates!  First up pick your potatoes.  You need a large one for the penguin body and then a smaller one for its white belly.

Start by laying your brown paper or any other large roll of paper you have across the table.  I made sure I cut two potatoes as I didn’t want the boys fighting over one.  Then comes the fun part of stamping the potatoes in the black paint and on to the paper randomly.

We used tempura paint for this, but you could use acrylic paint.  Then allow the black bodies to dry.

Once the black paint has dried, you then move on to adding the white belly, ideally on top of the black.  Don’t be too precious with your kids about this.  This DIY gift wrap looks adorable even if it is a little rustic!

Then you can have a cup of tea whilst the white paint dries, before moving on to adding the googly eyes.

We used googly eyes with peel off backs for this project and the boys stuck them on each penguin, but don;t worry you could just add a dab of white paint if you don’t have any.  We used orange acrylic for our penguins beak and feet.

Then we set aside our wrapping paper overnight to allow it to dry before using it.

I was worried that they eyes might come off when we wrapped our present, but they didn’t.

Now this is where Sellotape comes in.  This year they are looking to Share the Magic of Giving with the Honeypot’s Children’s Charity, which is the only charity inn the UK who provide respite support for young carers aged between 5 and 12.

This Christmas Sellotape is donating festive gifts for vulnerable children and young carers at the Honeypot Children’s Charity.  We are getting involved by designing and wrapping those gifts, so that we can give back to children who give so much all year long.

We wanted to make our wrapping as magical as the gift inside, so we decided to do one design on one side and something else on the other.  Yes we are really in to DIY gift wrap here!

DIY Gift Wrap – Ribbon Tree

The boys decided that they wanted to make a BIG version of our favorite simple ribbon christmas card.  So I dig out all of the festive ribbon and they started designing using Sellotape double sided tape.

They had so much fun cutting the ribbon and tape to the size they wanted, designing their tree.

Then they embellished the rest of that side of the wrapping paper with decorative buttons and stickers and a pug with antlers! They even used white clay stars that we made and painted them silver and gold.

We had so much fun with this collaboration with Sellotape and I will be sharing with you the other wrapping paper that people have made as soon as I can too.

Why not take a look at our other DIY Gift Wrap:

• Gold star wrapping paper
• Colourful printed wrapping paper 
• Footprint wrapping paper

For more Christmas decoration ideas then take a look at the following crafty bloggers:

• Make a sparkly snowball decoration with: A Rainy Day Mum
• Make a salt dough garland decoration with: Crafty Mama in Me
• Make a cinnamon scented sled decoration with: Play dough & Popsicles
• Make a tripod grasp snowman craft with: Sugar Aunts
• Make a pom pom garland with: Spark and Pook
• Make Christmas bell ornaments with: Peakle Pie
• Make bubble wrap holly wreaths with: Crafty kids at home
• Make a Nativity Lantern with: Sun Hats and Wellie boots
• Make DIY decorated gift wrap: Mum in the Mad house
• Make Glitter Glue gingerbread man with: Adventures with Adam
• Make a gingerbread house photo frame with: Teach me mommy
• Make a tissue paper Christmas wreath with: 3 Dinosaurs
• Make a Gingerbread man paper dolls with: Creative family fun
• Turn a kids art into a Christmas decoration with: Non Toy Gifts
• Make a pom pom santa hat with: The Gingerbread House
• Make a Christmas card holder with: My bright firefly
• Make a Snowman Christmas decoration with The Creative Pair

Disclosure: Post in collaboration with Sellotape