More Wrapping Paper

I wanted to share with you some of the projects that I have been working on between the Iron Craft Challenges. I have been making a lot of handmade wrapping paper since August is always a busy month for birthdays and celebrations.

I am also developing a line of wrapping papers to sell through Spoonflower and I will share those designs a little bit later once the proof copies arrive and we settle some issues with the paper sources they are using.

These papers were simply designed on brown craft paper. For these, I used a stencil and then I doodled and detailed the background. These are all done by hand and are usually very appreciated by the recipients.

Pattern One

Pattern One is a collection of circles and onion dome shapes. Originally, I made an error when I repeated the pattern. Notice in the above picture, one of the circles has a line through it. It DROVE ME CRAZY. Someone told me that you learn more when correcting mistakes than when you originally design something. In the final wrap below, you can see that the solution was to bisect both the domes and the circles (in opposite directions)--an easy fix. I always forget to take pictures of the wrapped gift when I do these projects so I was pleased that I remembered to do so. Since this was for a teenage boy, I decided to use raffia instead of ribbon. This is a new type of raffia that is made from recycled plastic bags.

Final gift.

I called Pattern Two--Shoe Prints because that is what it looked like to me. I decided to use a pattern on pattern effect in that the shoes were vertical and horizontal lines and the background was a diagonal plaid.

Pattern Two

Pattern Three

Pattern Three was called Asteroids because I had a bunch of rough drawn circles emanating from a single source. The curved lines in the background were made with my new collection of large French curves. I have never seen plastic curves this size before and just happened across them at a new art supply store called DaVinci Artist Supply. I was visiting the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in Manhattan and ran across this store.

Wrapped Gifts

For these books, I decided to combine them and tie a burlap ribbon (although, I hate working with burlap--I am still itching from working with it). These books went to the twin brother of the Pattern One gift.

Many people ask me how I can concentrate and detail the backgrounds for these papers. It really is a Zen exercise for me. I usually plug into music, gather my guides, stencils, rulers and markers and just start. Before I know it, I am either (1) late for an appointment, (2) finished, or (3) have to stop to eat. And that ain't a bad way to spend some time alone.