How To Encourage a Gifted Child's Artistic Expression Through Gift Wrapping

Here's How:

1. Gather the Supplies
   These can be as simple or as elaborate as your children want or have time for. All they really need is some paper and something for drawing and coloring. Brown grocery bags will work perfectly, along with some colored pencils and crayons. However, you can gather any other supplies you think your children might like to work with, including construction paper, glitter, paints, even feathers.
   
   
2. Prepare the Paper
   If your children are using grocery bags, they need to make them neat and flat first. The bags should be cut along the seam and the seam should be cut off. The top part of the bag should also be cut to make it even and smooth and the part of the bag that was the bottom should be cut off. The result will be a large sheet of plain brown paper. If there is a logo on the bag, just use what was the inside of the bag. If necessary, you can help your children cut the paper. White printer paper can be used for smaller gifts. White printer paper can also be glued together for larger gifts.
   
   
3. Design and Color the Paper
   Your children can now create designs on the paper. They can let their imaginations go wild and experiment with colors and designs. Repeating patterns, like straight or zigzag lines, or even circles, probably work best, but they can create any kind of design they like. Be sure to stress that they should be creating wrapping paper, not pictures. If they draw pictures, part (or even most) of the picture could be hidden or even cut off when the gifts are wrapped.
   
   
4. Let the Paper Dry, if Necessary
   If paint was used to create the wrapping paper, it should dry before presents are wrapped.
5. Wrap the Presents
   If your children can wrap presents on their own, they can now wrap them with their original wrapping paper. Children can be quite creative in the ways they manage to wrap presents, with odd folds and overlapping paper. Don't insist that the finished product be perfect. Part of the endearing quality of a gift wrapped by a child is the fact that it's not perfectly wrapped! However, if you have a perfectionist on your hands, then show him or her how to wrap presents.
   
   
6. Decorate the Presents (Optional)
   Once the gift is wrapped, it's ready to be given away! However, your child might want to be more creative. They might want to use the glue stick to glue some glitter or anything else they might want to use to create a work of art. They can even cut different shapes out of construction paper to glue on to the present.

Tips:

1. If you use brown paper grocery bags, your children will be able to create wrapping paper for larger gifts without having to glue pieces of paper together.
   
   
2. Printer paper isn't a good option if your children want to use paints. Construction paper will work better. However, construction paper is rather heavy and may not work as well for larger gifts that would require gluing sheets together.
   
   
3. If your children want to paint, use watercolors, not tempera paints. If the paint used is too thick, it will crack when the paper is bent or folded.
   
   
4. Rather than make the paper and then wrap gifts, your children can wrap the presents first and then decorate them. If your children aren't able to wrap presents, you can wrap the presents with the plain paper of their choice and then they can do the decorating.
   
   
5. Kids can make some great wrapping paper by placing paper over an item with an interesting texture and then rubbing a crayon over the surface. You can see how to do that on the Lifetime of Color Web site.

What You Need:

• Paper (Any kind will do, but plain brown grocery bags are best)
• Crayons or Colored Pencils
• Glue Stick
• Scissors
• Paints and Brushes (Optional)
• Glitter (Optional)
• Construction Paper (Optional)
• Any Other Art Supplies