Tips for creating gift wrap for & with kids

If you have children, chances are that they've idolized an obscure television or video game character at some point. Make the holidays extra special by creating your own themed wrapping paper that highlights your kids' favourites, no matter how popular or unknown they may be. Creating unique wrapping paper for your kids, based on their interests, is just one more way to make the holidays special. You can even get them to help you with the project.

• One easy way to create custom wrapping paper is to buy a variety of stickers with the favourite character or characters on them.
• Use plain or solid-coloured tissue paper, then apply the stickers randomly.

• Stamps and ink pads can also be used to create unique wrapping paper that your child will love.
• Find a rubber stamp of the character at the discount store, toy store or online retailer.
• Take white butcher's paper and black and coloured ink pads, then stamp the image over and over again to create your design.

• If your child's favourite character has been immortalized in a comic book or the cartoon section of the newspaper, then you have ready-made wrapping paper.
• Use pages of the comic books as the wrapping paper.
• If you need a bigger piece of wrapping paper, tape several pages together.
• If you're using the comics from the newspaper, start early and clip the different comic strips each week. When you have collected enough, paste the strips on white or solid-coloured paper to form the wrapping.

• You don't have to be a Matisse or Picasso to impress your kids.
• If your child's favourite action hero is so obscure that you can't find any stickers, stamps or comic books, get out your coloured pencils or your quill pen to draw the character.
• You only have to make one drawing on tracing paper before tracing multiple images all over solid-coloured paper to make the wrappings.

• Don't get so involved with making the wrapping paper that you forget the ribbons, bows and other accessories.
• These can be coordinated with the paper to make the package even more enticing.
• For instance, if you're creating a Spider-Man theme, use fake spiderwebs from the discount store. If you're making a Dora the Explorer package, you could use a luggage tag as the gift tag.