DIY Christmas Wrapping Paper for a Vintage Holiday Look

One of my favorite places to shop for vintage Christmas gift wrap are the thrift stores, where tubes of 50s and 60s era wrapping paper can be found for less than 50¢ a roll. These vintage Christmas gift wraps have a "look" that are nostalgic and old fashioned, and can be easily duplicated with a few basic supplies. Before beginning however, it may be helpful to visit this site for a peek at authentic Christmas and holiday wrapping papers to give you an idea of how vintage wrapping paper should look.

The basic supplies

Vintage gift wrap typically had a basic white background, with the different colors applied in different layers. After the last layering of color was applied, the finishing detail was often printed in with black ink. Rolls of white crafting paper or "butcher" paper are still available at Hobby & Craft stores such as Michael's or Joanne's, and will work well for this DIY project.

Other supplies should include:
... Stamps in a nostalgic print
... potatoes and paring knife for creating potato prints
... an assortment of acrylic paints including gold and silver colors
... trays for holding paints (microwave meal trays worked great!)
... poster board for creating stencils
... Xacto knife and straight edge
... green spray paints
... black calligraphy pen and india ink
... old toothbrush
... newspaper

With these supplies, you will be able to create an assortment of looks that look authentically "vintage." You can either experiment on your own, or try one of these ideas:

Gold Christmas baubles

This vintage paper uses potato "stamps," gold paint, a calligraphy pen and black ink to create a pattern that looks like a vertical string of Christmas ornaments.

Step 1: Slice two potatoes in half. Using a paring knife, carve four different styles of vintage looking Christmas ornaments. One should be a round orb style, and the remaining three should be of a pendant style in an assortment of sizes.