Stamp your style

With only three sleeps until Christmas the rustle of wrapping paper can be heard all over the country.  If you want to put your own individual touch on your gift wrap this year try stamping plain paper in your own designs.

Everyone has tried potato stamping as a child, and it's a great way to keep kids entertained in the lead up to Christmas. But it's also a really neat way to have unique wrapping papers.

You'll need:
Plain paper
Acrylic paints
Large potatoes, well washed and dried
Cookie cutters in Christmas designs

To make your potato stamps:

Step 1.
Cut the potatoes in half

Step 2.
Choose a cookie cutter and carefully and evenly press down about 2cm into the cut side of the potato.  Carefully remove the cookie cutter. Repeat for your different designs if you are doing more than one.

Step 3.
Using a sharp knife trim the potato until the design is revealed. You'll need to trim down about 2cm, the depth of the design. Be careful not to cut into the design left by the cookie cutter.

Step 4.
Put a little paint onto a saucer and dilute with water so the paint is the consistency of cream.  Acrylic poster or folk art paints are ideal for this and can be bought at $2 shops. They come in a huge range of colours so you can go wild with your colours.

Step 5.
Dip your potato stamp into the pain and then stamp away on your plain paper. You can buy rolls of plain paper or you can recycle old wrapping paper by stamping on the plain side. Your butcher may even sell you some butcher paper sheets if you ask nicely.

Let each sheet of paper dry before wrapping your presents.