For our second installation of Seasonal Wrapping, our monthly collaboration with Sacramento Street, the mood was indigos and ocean blues, inspired by wabi-sabi and happenstance mark-making.
There really is no wrong way to make these papers. Each person's hand and touch will create something beautiful. It's about using the basic framework and then experimenting and having fun.
To make your own, you'll need to following supplies and a few step-by-step instructions:
Paint: Choose 3 colors that are similar in hue: light, medium, dark. I used Farrow + Ball – Stiffkey Blue (light), Hague Blue (medium), Railings (dark).
Paintbrush: The size you choose will determine the size of the brush strokes. I used a 1/2 watercolor brush. There are some great options here .
White Wrapping Paper: I love this one from Paper Source .
3 Spray Bottles: (1 for each of your paint colors). I love using these glass bottles , but you can use any type of spray bottle you have around the house!
Small Cardboard Rectangles: I used a stiff paper that I had in the studio. You can use any cardboard and you can make the rectangles any size – these are what you will use to make your stripes. I made mine 1 1/2 “ wide.
Style 1: Stripe Pattern
Cut a piece of wrapping paper roughly to the size you will need to wrap your package. Dip the end of your cardboard into one of your paint colors, about 1/2 deep. Then, simply drag the cardboard in a straight line across your paper. Simply repeat with each color. Don’t worry about making the stripes perfect in any way – they look lovely when they’re different depths and aren’t necessarily matching up perfectly. Voila!
Style 2: Brush Strokes Pattern
Cut a piece of wrapping paper roughly to the size you will need to wrap your package. Dip your paint brush into your lightest color of paint and make a simple, short vertical brush stroke on the paper. Repeat, leaving a space between your strokes that about the same width as your paint brush. For the next line, make a simple, short horizontal stroke. Repeat as you did with the vertical strokes. Once the paint dries, go back over your brush strokes with the medium color paint. Repeat with your darkest color paint as the top color. It is fine to ‘dab’ each next layer on – you don’t want to cover up the color underneath. This style looks great when it’s not perfect and shows the beauty of each brush stroke.
Style 3: Spray Bottle Pattern
Cut a piece of wrapping paper roughly to the size you will need to wrap your package. Fill each of your spray bottle about 1/4 of the way full with a mixture of about half water to half paint. You want the mixture to be opaque, but not too thick to fit through the sprayer. Shake. Spray your paper with a few squirts of your lightest shade of paint water, then move on to the middle shade and finally, the darkest shade.
Make sure to let each of your papers dry before you wrap your packages! There really is no wrong way to create these wrappings - experiment and have fun!
