Last Minute Wrapping Paper Tutorial

So you just realized tomorrow morning you are meeting a friend and don't have any wrapping paper for her Christmas gift. If you are me (one year ago when baby was still in the womb) you don't worry much because you can make your own.

Take one sheet of ordinary white wrapping paper. I keep a stash of such materials that are too good to go to waste.

Gather some art supplies that you have around the house. If I had nothing else but a set of acrylics and a paint brush, that would be enough.

Start covering your paper with paint. Here I have used a dark palette of browns and black. Try not to think to much while doing it. Just have fun and do not over do it so the individual colors can still show.

Once you are happy with the background, start decorating your paper.
I am using a wooden print block from India (thanks Laura), but you can use so many things (stamps, fruit-as-stamps, gel pens, inks). Your imagination is the limit.

You can stop here, or, if you are into details like I am, this will seem to easy and in need of some harder work :). Take a no. 2 brush and start adding details using gold acrylic paint.

Finish up the edges of the paper with more gold paint.

Let it dry for 5 minutes (that is all it takes, really), wrap your gift and go to bed because it's past midnight, you have a migraine and you need to breastfeed baby in a few hours :)