A few weeks ago, after Susan Dworski mentioned that she carved stamps out of erasers, we started thinking about all the things you could do with home-made stamps. Why not stamp a pattern on sheets or rolls of paper to make your own fab holiday wrapping paper? (It’s easy, you just get yourself some Staedtler Mars Erasers and start carving, with whatever tools you have…dip in paint and stamp away — check out our how-to here).

Then we remembered some wonderful gift wrap our friend Holton Rower made with his kids one Christmas. He made his stamps out of potatoes.

…a simple potato stick makes rectangles that stamp a fine graphic design:

…crescent shaped slices make a nice slash….

…possibilities are infinite…

We found a great how-to at Henry Happened. Dig these cool moderne spots:

Here’s another pretty eraser stamp design:

If you’ve got some fabric paint around, you can use your stamps to pattern fabric for some swell project: a scarf maybe, napkins, a pillow, a sofa, perhaps…

top photo via artisancraft.devantart.com; bottom photo via daisyyellow.squarespace.com   

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unwrapping the holidays: alt-gifts, d-i-y wrap and……… cool blogs