My son was anxious to help wrap the presents we found for his cousins, but I hadn’t bought wrapping paper yet. I love and encourage him to help, so I wanted to make his gift wrapping wishes come true. I came up with an easy solution that we both loved.
For his birthday he received this awesome paper roll holder from Ikea along with two big rolls of paper. I ripped off three sheets large enough to wrap each present. I gave him a limited range of marker colors (red, blue, green) and asked him to decorate the paper.
He diligently drew a different design on each paper. He told me what he was drawing as he went a long. All I can remember, is one has Santa on it and one has frozen ice. To him they each have a story, which I am sure he will tell to his cousins as they unwrap them.
At 5 years old, my son is no good at actually wrapping presents, but he sure does love to tape. I wrapped and folded the paper. He taped it in all the right spots. For the gifts, we got his cousins these Kid Made Modern Comic Book kit and Board Book kit from Target.
To finish off the gifts, I used some paper ribbon I had in my stash. I bought it a while back, because it is the perfect shade of teal. Yes, I randomly buy teal and lime things just because I like the color. Anyway, the paper ribbon was only a few dollars. I wrapped a piece around each gift and tied a big bow. The paper ribbon is a bit stiffer than crêpe paper, but still easy to work with. It still tears by hand, but not as easily as crêpe paper streamers.
I was totally surprised at how much I LOVE this gift wrap!!! I am inundated with kid art around here, so much so I have almost become numb to it. It kind of all starts to look the same after a while. This was a great project to add meaning and purpose to his art. He created these pieces specifically as gift wrap. He made a story for each one and drew it out. He wanted to create this gift wrap for his cousins.
The kid-colored gift wrap is sort of modern in its own way. I think the limited color palette helped keep the artwork simple and graphic. I kind of want to put him to work coloring all of our gift wrap this year, but going to school might be more important.
What a great idea. I love the finished product. So cute. Next year I’ll have my son do this (when he’s a little better at wielding a marker). Merry Christmas!
Again, brilliant! I would never have thought to a) cut the paper first, or b) limit the choice of colors. They turned out great and the paper ribbon is very kid-like and classy at the same time. Thanks for sharing!