That set in motion more research. I started to call different paper printers in the Pacific Northwest, doing research to find out: how does one produce photographic gift wrapping paper? I learned about offset printing, different types of paper, the differences between stochastic and conventional printing, and received a flood of paper samples – paper weights and paper finishes (velvet, dull, glossy, uncoated…).

Over the years, I had bought enough gift wrapping paper to know what I wanted to do and what I didn’t.  I narrowed down my choice of printers and, a week before Christmas, chose 12 holiday images to go to press.

After the printing was complete, I armed myself with poster bags, put an individual sheet in each bag, and went to local retailers and a few arts & crafts fairs. The response was overwhelming. The one comment that kept coming up was that everyone was calling it “happy paper” and telling me how fun it was to see all the boxes under their trees with these beautiful images. People loved giving their packages away with the holiday images on them, and some people even used them to hang as art.

Now, did I know I was onto something? All I knew was that it made me just as happy then as it does now. There was a huge learning curve, but in that, the journey has been fun and continues today.