The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Cookie Cutter Wrapping Paper and Gift Tags

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This is such an easy way for preschoolers to make homemade wrapping paper and gift tags! You simply need some large pieces of plain paper, or preferably a roll of brown parcel paper, some cookie cutters and some thick paint, such as acrylic.
Squirt the paints into trays or shallow dishes and your child can dip their chosen shapes into the paint and start printing carefully all over the paper. The secret to successful printing with young children is to use objects that are easy to grasp and that have a small surface area, so that they don’t slide all over the paper and make a big, smeary mess. Cookie cutters are perfect, as are duplo and lego bricks, toy cars and other everyday objects.

 C. was really into this project this year and asked for copious amounts of brown paper to cover in hearts and stars! She was totally free to print all over the paper in any way she wanted, and did lots of overlapping and layering.

 When it’s dry, simply use it to wrap presents with! We opted for a very subtle, limited palette on a neutral background, but bright reds and greens on a white background would also look lovely!

 I also turned a lot of ours into gift tags by simply cutting around the outline, leaving a little gap, then sticking them onto a darker shade of paper and cutting around that with a similar sized border. Use a hole punch to make a hole and thread through ribbon or twine to attach to the parcels.

 Easy, child focused and very homemade! Perfectly Christmassy in every way.

Comments

  2. Rachel T says

    Wow, these look wonderful. I was THIS close to making wrapping paper this year with my two, but I have exhausted myself and worn out my Christmas mojo! (in my defence, we’ve made a lot of stuff this year.)
    I am also pretty certain that my eldest would print one or two cookie cutters, then would declare herself done, leaving me to either finish the rest myself and lie, or to use up some very minimalist paper!

  5. teresamcnamara says

    Thank-you for such a great idea. I went the very simple route of brown paper with may different types of yarn, string or thread to tie the presents up but this looks really nice. As for what Rachel T said, I have two boys and sometimes they get absorbed in a craft project and sometimes they don’t. If this was a “don’t” for them I’d probably continue by myself and just enjoy it.