Put your own stamp on holiday wrapping

With holiday wrapping season upon us, it’s likely the tape and scissors are already out at your house. Try making your wrapping more personal this year with an easy personal touch. You can design your own custom stamps and make your own wrapping and labels.

Monika Giacca is a Torontobased artist and travel agent who sells handmade custom portrait stamps on Etsy through her business, Owl Paper Goods. She says it’s cost effective to make your own holiday designs — and it doesn’t take long, either.

“If you can draw, you can do this. It’s very simple, “she said. “Anyone from Grade 4 and up could do it, really.”

You’ll need:

Tracing paper, $6 and up Sheet of eraser-like rubber, $3 and up

HB 2 pencil, about $4

Linozip cutters, under $20 Kraft paper and/or blank hang tags, $3 and up

Ink pad in the colour of your choosing, $1 and up

Butter knife or nickel

Step 1: Find a design or draw your own

There are lots of free libraries of simple line drawings online to choose from. Search Pinterest for some royalty-free images, print them out. Giacca says images that are folksy or nature-themed are on trend this year. FirstPalette.com offers lots of images, including candy canes.

Step 2: Trace the design on tracing paper

Using the HB 2 pencil, trace the design you’ve picked onto the tracing paper. An HB 2 pencil is slightly softer than a regular pencil, which will help the graphite transfer onto the rubber easily.

Step 3: Transfer the image to rubber

Once you’re happy with your design, place the tracing paper on the rubber sketch side down. Press the image into the rubber with a firm item, such as a butter knife or a nickel.

Step 4: Carve the rubber

Using the Linozip cutter, carve out the negative space — anything that is outside of the pencil lines on the rubber. The tool comes with cutters of different sizes, so experiment and find out what works well with your design. Clear away all of the rubber shavings you carve away.

Step 5: Make a test print

Push your rubber into the ink pad, then make a test print on some scrap paper. Make any adjustments you deem necessary.

Step 6: Stamp away

Stamp your design onto hang tags or kraft paper however you’d like.

RICHARD LAUTENS TORONTO STAR Monika Giacca of Owl Paper Goods demonstrates the various steps for making custom rubber stamps for wrapping paper or labels. In this case, she carved a rubber stamp in the form of a pine cone to use on a package label or to make your own wrapping paper.

Raw materials for the build include an HB pencil, small chisel, exacto knife, ink pads, tracing paper, rubber blanks and paper stock.

7. It's better to put the stamp pad onto the stamp rather than the other way around.

5. The carving of the light parts begins. Everywhere that isn't carved out will take the ink.

1. Monika traces a pine cone design.

2. The traced design is rubbed onto the rubber.

3. A chisel is used to carve out the outline.

4. The design is cut away from the rest of the rubber.

8. Monika makes wrapping paper.

6. The finished stamp.