Christmas In July: Easy Potato Print Wrapping Paper

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Merry Christmas in July! When I discovered that my weekly post would fall on this happy day, I felt that it was too great of an opportunity for celebrating Christmas in July to pass up. Seeing this, I promptly turned on a Christmas playlist, broke out my art supplies and immediately felt 8 years old again making Christmas presents in my upstairs bedroom during summer vacation. But regardless of whether you are 8 or 80, this particular Christmas in July project can be accomplished with little investment while still being a lot of fun. Inspired by the first part of our potato printing series a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be nice to tackle another potato project: potato print Christmas wrapping paper. Whether using traditional designs of trees, holly and nativities as I did here or using abstract patterns in holiday colors, this diy is easy to accomplish and will make your gift giving this year all the more special. So, if you are looking for a fun afternoon adventure, raid your pantry, grab some paints and let’s dive into our Christmas in July potato printing! 

Supplies

• Cutting board
• Potatoes 
• Knife 
• Paint brush 
• Acrylic paints 
• Solid craft wrapping paper (or wrapping paper without a slick finish) 

With just a few supplies, most of which can probably be found in your kitchen or craft drawer, you can create the most fun and personal Christmas gift wrapping paper! Whether you set out to create an entire roll or cut pre-sized sheets to accommodate a variety of patterns, in a couple of hours you can have your own personalized designs for each of your family and friends. 

Symbolic vs. Abstract 

 While our part 1 of potato printing primarily focused on abstract designs forming interlinking patterns (check out those designs and potato stamp lessons learned HERE!), for this project I focused on more classic symbols of the Christmas season. That being said, you definitely could take a variety of approaches when creating Christmas wrapping paper by potato printing. If going for more abstract patterns, you might stick to classic colors like red, green, gold, silver and white and change up the designs with a variety of tones and shades. On the other hand, feel free to embrace more classic symbols like Christmas trees, bells, holly, candy canes, antlers, nativities and instead mix them up with unusual colors. Whether maintaining tradition or embracing modern forms, your wrapping paper can completely be customizable to your vision and potato printing skills! 

Single Stamp vs. Multi Piece

As I dove more deeply into potato printing and potato stamp creation in part 1, I won’t repeat all of that here (feel free to refer to that post as well!), but I do want to recognize the difference in creating a single stamp or multi piece stamped design. 

Single Stamp Elements 

For example, the Christmas tree design was created with only two stamps carved from the potato: a tree form and star form. Seeing as I was hoping to change the colors for the star, I decided to create the star separately from the tree, however the tree was entirely one stamp carved out of one potato piece. Having one piece can be very helpful for creating an easily repeatable design and can create an almost abstract quality to your pattern, especially if your items are stamped very close together. I certainly could have left only the trees printed here even without adding the star as this single print was dynamic enough within itself.

Multi Piece Designs  

In contrast, both the nativity and holly designs were created using three or more pieces. With the holly, I created two separate holly leaves and then one potato carving I repeated for each of the berries, totaling three carved designs. On the other hand, the nativity utilized six pieces as I used one piece for the stable walls, one piece for the roof, a piece for Mary, for Joseph, for baby Jesus and for the star. The star is repeated again in the pinwheels and the stable walls and roof elements were also repeated to create a complete stable. While I did not need to change up the designs for additional colors, I found it was much easier to cut smaller elements to repeat than to carve the entire nativity out of a single potato piece which would require both a very large potato and perhaps more skill than I currently have. Similarly, despite having more pieces, I found that the multi piece designs were able to be created almost as quickly as the single stamp designs largely due to the greater spacing between each element. 

Regardless of whether you decide to create a single stamp to repeat for a pattern or if you choose a multi piece design to allow for greater design flexibility (for colors, complex images etc.), both options can be great to experiment with and can provide a huge variety of interesting wrapping papers. 

Final Thoughts 

While Christmas is still 6 months away, tackling this afternoon potato printing project to create a bit of diy wrapping paper was absolutely worth it. Come Christmas season some of my wrapping will already be ready to go without trying to fit another project in around holiday parties, get togethers and other festive fun. If you are suddenly needing a break from the heat and feeling a little holiday spirit in the air, definitely try this idea out! Whether you are making it yourself or attempting the project with kids, it is an easy diy to love for all ages. But what do you think? Would you attempt a Christmas potato printing wrapping paper project in July or is it still too soon? And if you do try it out, do you have a favorite design to create? Let me know in the comment section below and be sure to share with a Christmas loving friend! 

Merry Christmas in July! 

Chloe

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