How to Make Lino Print Gift Wrap
Make Christmas gift giving even more memorable by adding hand-printed designs to the wrapping paper! This is a great way to use up extra lino or an excellent first printing project using the easy to carve abstract and boho tree illustrations.
With a free template and choice of four designs, you can easily match your prints to your chosen Christmas style, colours and theme. Reuse your pieces of lino over and over to create the kind wrapping they’ll want to keep and cherish just as much as the gift itself!
Project and instructions by Hobbycraft Artisan Rachel Elinor Toye
You will need
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Is $ 31.00
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Is $ 3.49 , was $ 5.49
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Is $ 1.49
You will also need:
* FREE downloadable template
* Basin filled with soap and water to clean the lino, tray, and rollers between colours.
* Tape to hold the template in place on the lino. Washi or masking tape works the best.
* Scissors
* Pencils
* Masking tape
Download and print the template below onto A4 photocopy paper in black and white. Once printed, cut to size with scissors or a paper trimmer.
The template is A5 sized and has the choice of 4 abstract Christmas Trees. Cut around the tree of choice OR around the black outline to use all four designs.
Turn the template to the non-printed side, and scribble across the back of the whole design using a pencil.
Tape down the template. The side covered in pencil should touch the lino and the printed side should face you.
Top tip: Four trees will fit perfectly onto a piece of A5 Lino. But this is a great opportunity to squeeze each tree onto a scrap piece of lino to minimise your craft waste!
Using a pencil and heavy pressure, trace onto the printed side of the template following the lines of the design. This will transfer the scribbled graphite onto the lino.
Remove the template once fully transferred.
Now begin carving your festive design! Using a lino cutting tool with interchangeable blades, select the thinnest tip and carve around the outline of the design.
Safety Note! It's important to keep the hand that's not cutting, behind the blade - this will steady the lino in place and ensure you don't accidentally cut into your hand.
Larger blades will cut away big areas, and smaller blades are for detail work. Using a combination of blades for each design will allow the most precise stamps.
We are keeping our pencil marks intact, and cutting away the plain coloured, excess lino. The pencil marks represent what will be printed lines.
Safety Note! It's important to keep the hand that's not cutting, behind the blade - this will steady the lino in place and ensure you don't accidentally cut into your hand.
Squeeze your choice of block printing ink into a printing tray. Using an ink roller, spread the concentrated, thick and sticky ink across the tray in all directions until it smooths out to an even texture.
Top tip: Block printing ink will give a strong opaque colour - use papercraft ink stamps for a quicker and more subtle colour pay off.
Time to print! Roll ink over the cut surface of your lino stamp. Work in multiple directions for an even coating.
Place the stamp ink side down onto the shiny side of the kraft paper. Use your hands or a clean roller to add heavy pressure to transfer the ink to the paper.
Carefully lift to reveal your hand stamped design!
Re-ink your roller and repeat the process with different colours and patterns across your piece of kraft paper.
Experiment with rotating the stamp and changing the distance between each motif’s for endless results!
Craft with us at our workshops
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