Make Sponge Art Wrapping Paper

With holidays and birthdays year round, it seems there's never enough wrapping paper around the house. Why not give the kids an activity they can do that also helps replenish your wrapping paper supply? When people open a gift from you, they'll be pleasantly surprised to know that the gift came in paper handmade by the kids. Plus, this wrapping paper is made from sponge art -- and it's a fun way to take old sponges and put them to new use!

What You Need:

• Old (or new) sponges; multiple shapes and sizes are fine
• Paint
• Bowls for holding paint
• Butcher paper strips, or even newspaper
• Markers
• Scissors

What You Do:

1. Help your child cut the sponges into various shapes. Ask her what shapes she would like to use as stamps. Suggest circles, squares, triangles, etc. It is tricky to do anything too intricate when cutting a sponge, unless it is very thin.
2. Lay out a long piece of paper. Newspaper will also work as wrapping paper, so you can always use that in a pinch.
3. Pour several different colors of paint into different bowls.
4. Have your child carefully dip the bottom of her sponge into one color paint, remove excess paint, and stamp it onto the paper. Encourage her to place the stamps in any way she desires. Repeat this process until she feels she's created the design she wants.
5. After it dries, see if your child would like to use a marker to draw designs on her sponge shapes. A shape might look like a monster, so draw monster faces on it! Encourage her to embellish the stamps using her imagination.
6. If it's holiday time, cut triangle sponge stamps and have the kids decorate them with thumbprint hollyberries.
7. Let dry, and get wrapping!