CRUMPLED TISSUE PAPER

This is a super easy background that I have seen in several books and on other sites, and yet somehow haven't actually tried out until now. It just seemed too simple.......Now I wish I'd played with this idea earlier. All that it needed is some tissue paper, glue and cardboard backing. Scrumple up the tissue paper (I repurposed some that came with my new shoes). Coat a sheet of card ( I just used 200g white copier card) with glue (I ended up using Aquadhere on the sound grounds that it was sitting on my work table at the time). Then stick the crumpled tissue onto it, retaining most of the wrinkles in the paper. Trim the edges and that it! It looks good enough to use “as is” but you could colour with paint or highlight with ink.

As a digital card/scrapbooking background it can be scanned and easily coloured in Elements by selecting the “Enhance” then “Adjust color” then “Adjust Hue and Saturation”. Tick the colorize box and play around with the sliders until you've achieved the desired colour. 

The thing that I think I'll be doing most often, however, is to use the scanned paper to add texture to photos. Open your scan of crumpled tissue , then open the photo you wish to use. Hold the left button down and drag the tissue scan from the project box onto the photo. Then play with the blending modes until you find one you like.  The Church at the left used "Color Burn" and the one on the right used "Hard Light."