FOLDING EMBOSSED PAPER

ORIGAMI CARD AND BOOKMARKS

I love paper folding so this is not the point of this weeks post - its was, rather finding out whether this highly embossed and somewhat stretchy paper could be folded.  The answer is "yes" although I wouldn't try models that involved a lot of sharp creases as the embossing tends to tear, nor any models that need too many folds as the embossing adds thickness.  HOWEVER.......simple folds like this are fine.  Just make a waterbomb base (a square folded in half with the sides squashed in (http://www.origami-instructions.com has clear diagrams if you need them).  The next step is to lift one side on the front and squash it flat, turn over and repeat on the other side.  That's it!  Place four side by side to make the motif on the card.  Make and package a few more to give as a gift - they slip nicely over page corners to make bookmarks.

PRINTING ON BOOK PAGES

PAGE TAPED TO A4 PAPER 

CLOSE VIEW

Its easy enough to combine images using software such as Elements, but it never looks quite the same as the "real thing".  I have a few old books that I use for various projects and wanted to experiment with printing out some clip art onto the pages.  The only problem was that being a very old (and cheap) paperback, the quality of the paper was poor and I didn't want it shedding "bits" in the printer, plus it was an odd size which isn't a major issue but still a bit annoying.  The solution was to use a couple of tiny pieces of thin double sided tape to secure the book page to an ordinary piece of white A4 copier paper,  The floral picture was placed in the middle of an A4 document, and then printed out onto the taped book page.  It all worked rather well except.........I knew which side of the paper the printer printed on but obviously now realize that I didn't know which way up it printed as it ended up being upside down - something you can't get away with when using text!!  Oh well, the point of this blog is to try different things each week and work out how to improve my efforts the next time around!!  (P.S. The pretty picture of the lily was free clipart but I didn't reference where it came from - sorry- I'd love to add the appropriate attribution if anyone recognizes the source).

PAPER EARRINGS-

Here are some earrings made with cardboard and paper and I think quite wearable.

I cut six circles of the same size out of very thick card with my Cuttlebug. I then stuck some text scrapbooking paper to another piece of the the card with double-sided Jac paper, and cut two more circles.

The circles were then divided into two groups and stuck together with Jac paper to form a really thick base.

A thick coating of Dimensional Magic was put on top of the patterned paper, and when it was dry, and earring post was glued to the back.

I decorated the top of a paper mache box with a book page, and smudged some brown ink over the top.  The rosette is made with layers of punched  flower shapes secured in the middle with a split pin, and the packing is scrunched up book pages.

PAPER COVERED BOXES

BOX WITH EMBOSSED PAPER AND PAINTED EDGES

BOX WITH HANDMADE PAPER WITH LEAVES AND FIBRE

 Marvin has been out in the shed making me some MDF boxes so I can experiment with different finishes.  I'm not totally happy with any of these examples but I have learnt quite a bit along the way, and they aren't so bad that they can't be used.

The first box was edged with gold paint and covered with a highly embossed paper. I used doublesided Jac paper to stick the paper, which worked really well.  The only issue was that as the paper was quite highly raised, it didn't sit nicely on the bits where it joined the wood.  A lot of sanding with an emery board and retouching helped a lot but I think gorgeous as this paper is, I'll use a flatter one in the future.

The second box was a real surprise.  I had some small squares of  different coloured handmade papers with leaves and fibre that were not big enough to cover any of the panels.  I didn't think obvious joins would look good so I ripped it into small pieces (with hindsight not the easiest thing to do to paper with so many "solids"), and stuck them to the box with Mod Podge, each slightlty overlapping the other.  The "surprise" element was that whilst the coloured papers covered the surface, the the white paper disappeared completely once the glue was applied, so that the "raw" box was visible with the leaves etc appearing to sit directly on the surface.  It added a really interesting element.  I finished off with about three coats of Mod Podge.  I hadn't really factored "disappearing paper" into my plans but will now test all papers if I'm gluing them on to a particular surface.  If I can find enough of the paper I might have another go at this one as it has potential.

The third box is painted, and decorated with a Kaiser wooden flourish.  The "paper" bit of this one is the lining - simply suede paper applied to very thick card and cut to a very snug fit so glue is unnecessary. I did this in case the lining needs to be replaced at some stage.  (Its not sitting quite straight in the photo but it just needs a little push on the front edge to fix it).  The edge of the cardboard looked surprisingly brown (I just used packing board) so I ran around the edge with a marker (permanant) in a green to match the box.

PAINTED BOX

SUEDE PAPER BOX LINING.

COLOURING VERSAMARK STAMPS

VERSAMARK AND KAISER PENS

Yes I know this is very "ordinary' colouring of an otherwise very nice Kaiser stamp HOWEVER fortunately I wasn't trying for a masterpiece of  colouring technique.  I was, rather,  experimenting with the idea that if I stamped in Versamark I'd be able to see the outlines clearly enough to colour without them being too obvious afterwards.......in other words, to make the images look more "drawn"  and less "stamped".  It works best on coloured "dyed through" papers but it does work, as shown in this example