How to hand print wrapping paper

 Last week I had the opportunity to attend a workshop run by Marie Wilkinson from TLC Marie (Tactile Learning and Creativity) at the Dardanup Shire Hall as part of the Dardanup Shire's range of free short workshops.   Marie is an artist who is very generous with sharing her techniques, and I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours creating with a lovely small group of ladies. These workshops are so much fun and you go home with something you have made.

At the workshop we learnt how to hand print wrapping paper and I would like to share the basic steps with you here.  It is so easy when you know how!

There is a simple and economical range of supplies - 
* sea sponges - collected from the beach and washed, or I think you could use a shower sponge
 * acrylic paint - doesn't need to be an expensive brand
* sheets of light weight cartridge or roll of brown paper
* some old cardboard rolls to make into shapes
* something to use as a pallet - ie a takeaway plastic container lid, which can be washed and reused.
* gloves if you want to keep your hands clean
* a flat surface to work on
* some A4 paper to practise on!  

Yes sea sponges!  If you are near a beach you may be able to collect these, and rinse them well to get ready for use. Or I think you may be able to use a shower sponge. 
First we dabbed the paint onto the paper. You can have multiple layers of paint and as thickly covered as you like. I tended to be rather light handed with my dabbing.  But make sure you dry the paint (you could do this with a hair dryer) and rinse the paint off the sponge between colours. There is no right or wrong, just go for it and have fun.

The next step is to use some shapes to make patterns over your sea sponge prints. This can be done easily with shapes fashioned or cut from the end of a cardboard roll, or you could use cookie cutters. Anything that you can put into the paint on your pallet and transfer the shape onto your paper. 

At this point I would highly recommend practising on a smaller piece of paper first so see how it all works before you commit to your final piece of paper.  I probably got caught up with this flower pattern on both my white and my brown piece of paper, and didn't have time to experiment with anything else, but I liked it. The patterns can be as formal or random as you like.

 So there you have it! easy! You could make greeting cards this way too.  My best advice is to not overthink, just do, and enjoy! Put some nice music on in the background to wrap you in your inspirational space. 

Thank you so much to Marie from TLC Marie for the very enjoyable morning and workshop.  
And the Dardanup Shire for their fabulous library workshops.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

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