December 17, 2019

Make Your Own Hand-Lettered Holiday Wrapping Paper

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Calligraphy & Lettering

The links below may be affiliate links where appropriate. This means that your purchase through these links may result in a few cents in payment to me, to support creating further resources like this one! That being said, I will never suggest supplies that I do not personally use and fully recommend.

I’m going to show you how you can create your own unique wrapping paper with some eco-friendly Kraft paper and hand lettering!


Not only is creating your own wrapping paper WAY more fun than buying it from the store, but it’s also so much more eco-friendly than plastic-coated shiny christmassy papers.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you:

  • how to write one quick & easy calligraphy word that’ll make you look pro
  • how to flawlessly fill up your wrapping paper to the edges
  • an easy way to make your lettering pop
  • AND…drum roll…my secret weapon for making wrapping gifts a breeze! ?

First Things First…

The links below may be affiliate links where appropriate. This means that your purchase through these links may result in a few cents in payment to me, to support creating further resources like this one! That being said, I will never suggest supplies that I do not personally use and fully recommend.

Tools

Now let’s get started!

Prefer watching over reading? Feel free to skip right to the video and see these in real-time! ??


Step 1: Roll out and tape down your Kraft Paper

Tip: Cut your paper a bit bigger than what you’ll need to wrap your item because we’re going to letter off the edges to give it that run off look.

Step 2: Use your pencil and ruler to mark out the size you need for wrapping

Sketch out some super-light lines as your guide.

Step 3: Draw diagonal guidelines for your lettering

Note: You can totally do this straight, I just personally prefer the lettering to be at an angle.

Start at the top corner and slowly move down at an angle.

Keep your lettering height about the width of the ruler!

Be sure to leave a small gap in between each section!

Remember: Make your lines as light as possible because you will be erasing them!

You can practice your word in calligraphy as many times as you need to before starting on your project. Remember, with your brush pen: Up = light, Down = hard.

Step 4: Begin your lettering!

Starting somewhere in the middle of your sketched lines, start your lettering.

Don’t worry if your “l” goes a little above the line.
Don’t worry about your lettering running off of your designated space!
Keep writing in your word, and not worrying about anything overlapping!
When you get to areas you’re unsure about filling in accurately, just use your fingers to measure out the space.
Now continue filling everything in!

Step 5: Cut out your wrapping paper along your pencil border

Step 6: Erase your pencil lines

Tape down your cut out piece of wrapping paper, and go through and erase all of those pencil lines.

Ah! Doesn’t that look neat?

Step 7: Embellish some of the words with your gel pen

A good rule of thumb is to do this treatment over every couple of words, and not every single one, to give it that extra pop.


Ta-da!

Step 8: Wrap it up!

Flip your paper and start the wrapping.

I’m wrapping a book I’m giving a friend – GREAT book if you’re an artist!

Tip: For fancy wrapping paper like this, I like to use invisible adhesive tape.

And there you have it! Your own custom gift wrap!

Step 9: Use your gel pen to create little snowflakes for nice added touch

You proooobbbbabbly want to do this step BEFORE you wrap, but hey, we’re not all perfect are we? ?

And that’s a wrap!

There are a bajillion other ways you can make your own wrapping paper. Check out this video, where I show you how to make 4 Easy Hand-Lettered Holiday Greeting Cards!

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Comments

  1. Natascha Johnson/Peters says:

    Love this idea and will definitely try it for birthdays and other celebrations. Thank you.

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