How To Lino Print Your Own Wrapping Paper

Get crafty with your gift wrapping! Create beautiful lino stamps that can be reused for years to come, perfect for decorating plain wrapping paper, greetings cards, gift tags and table place cards. Find our step-by-step guide to printing your own wrapping paper below, with easy to follow instructions, photos, recommendations for the best tools and template of festive designs.

 

To print your own wrapping paper, you'll need:

• Surface to print onto — we've used brown kraft paper, which is available in rolls in our Falmouth shop.
• Lino — we've used Essdee's soft-cut lino, but we also offer their traditional hessian-backed lino for more detailed works.
• Lino carving tools — we've used Abig's wooden tool set, but we also offer Essdee's three-in-one tool set.
• Lino roller — we offer Essdee's red handled rollers in three sizes.
• Lino printing ink — we've chosen black, but we offer a range of colours in Essdee's water-based block printing ink.
• Surface to roll the ink onto — a glass chopping board or sheet of acetate are great options.

 

1. The first step is often the trickiest step — choosing your design! To help you out, we've put together a template of classic festive motifs, including stars, a Christmas tree and a sprig of holly. You can download our template for free by clicking here: Salt Art Supply Lino Template

 

2. Once you've chosen your design, you'll need to transfer it to your lino. We've transferred our fir branch design by scribbling on the back of the paper with a graphite pencil and then tracing the design onto the lino, but you can also use tracing paper or draw your design directly onto the block.

 

3. It's time to carve your design! As we've chosen a more detailed design, we've carved around the outlines first, using a small V shaped blade to help keep the details clear.

 

4. Once you've carved the outline of your design, use a wider U shaped lino blade to cut away the rest of the lino. Any raised areas will be printed, so be careful to carve or cut away anything you don't want in your design! 

 

5. To make your design into a stamp ready for printing, use a straight edged lino blade to carefully cut around the edges. You can also use a craft knife for this. We've also used our blade to cut out some star shaped stamps — a great option for those wanting to print their own gift wrap without spending the time carving a more complicated design!

 

6. Once you've carved and cut out your lino stamps, you're ready to start printing! Squeeze a blob of your block printing ink onto a smooth surface and then use your roller to spread the ink around and coat the roller.

 

7. Once your roller has been coated with the ink, roll it carefully over your lino design. The ink will stick to all the raised areas of your stamp, so this is a great opportunity to double check you've carved away all the lino around your design.

 

8. This is our favourite step — it's time to print your design! Carefully position your inked lino stamp face down onto your wrapping paper and press down firmly. Carefully peel the lino stamp away to reveal the print.

 

9. Repeat this process until you're finished with your wrapping paper design. You can really experiment here with different motifs and patterns, making each of your printed designs unique.

 

 

Have any questions? Please feel free to email us at hello@saltartsupply.co.uk, and we’d be happy to help you! We love to see the work you create using our tools, materials and recommendations, so make sure to tag us @saltartsupply on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok.