How to Design Wrapping Paper

Color Wheel

Once you experience the fun of designing and creating wrapping paper, you may never settle for ready-made wrapping paper again. With some basic arts and crafts material, making wrapping paper that is unlike any other paper is a simple project. A fun project might be to combine a quick study of color theory with a hands-on project of designing and making wrapping paper. Learning about how colors work together and then using this understanding to design and create wrapping paper can be an effective learning opportunity.

Things You'll Need

• Butcher paper (white)
• Newspaper
• Tempera paint
• Old toothbrushes (one for each color of paint)

Instructions

1. Visit colorschemedesigner.com/ (see Resources) to familiarize yourself with the color wheel and how colors complement and contrast with each other. In basic color theory, there are three primary colors that do not ever combine with each other. Every other color hue imaginable is created by a different combination of these three colors. Experiment with the interactive color wheel and decide on a color scheme for your wrapping paper.

2. Place a layer of newspapers onto a large, flat work surface. A hard floor would be a fine work surface for this project. Lay a long length of butcher paper on top of the newspapers.

3. Open the tempera paint jars and assign a toothbrush to each paint color. Do not mix the toothbrushes between paints because you will mix paints in the jars if you do.

4. Choose a paint color to start with and dip a toothbrush into the paint so that the bristles are saturated. Do not dip the entire head of the toothbrush into the paint.

5. Flick the paint-filled toothbrush over the butcher paper to spray paint droplets onto the butcher paper. Experiment with different effects by holding the toothbrush closer to the paper and farther away.

6. Choose another color and repeat Step 5 with all of the colors you will be using on this wrapping paper. Keep working until the butcher paper is filled to your satisfaction with paint droplets.

7. Allow the wrapping paper to dry completely before removing it from the newspaper and using it.

Tips & Warnings

• See how many color schemes you can create on wrapping paper.

Resources

• Color Scheme Designer