5 Fun And Easy Ways To Use Decorative Paper!
I’ve been looking for a piece of decorative paper to add to the black and white gallery wall I’m putting together. I found this great printed piece at The Paper Source for $4.95 on Friday. It is a pressed handmade paper, with a cotton-like consistency. The piece was very large- 20X30 inches. I really only needed an 8X10 piece and I was thinking, gosh, I hate to waste it. What else can I use if for? So, I challenged myself over the weekend to find other ways to put it to good use and I easily came up with five fun and easy ways.
First, I cut the 8X10 piece that I needed and put it into the white frame you see here at the very left. I took a wider shot so you can get the idea of where I’m going with this. I’m using a combination of printed paper, fabric, and watercolor that I’m doing in black and white. It’s definitely a work in progress.
I had a gift to wrap this weekend, and I thought, why not? I only needed a small piece. I wrapped it up, added a gold bow, and viola! My second use is as a super high quality gift wrap!
When I cut the paper to wrap the gift I ended up cutting off some smaller pieces. So, I decided for my third project to play around with slicing some additional thin pieces and burying them in some layers of encaustic medium for a 3 dimensional effect. This piece isn’t finished yet. I only put it in this frame to get an idea of what the finished product will look like and I definitely think it needs some additional interest. I put it aside to work on when I have more time. Art is definitely an iterative process.
The fourth project required me to break out my stamps. I made a 5X7 decorative placard with some watercolor paper as the background and the decorative paper. I used a stamp (I already had) and embossed it with gold embossing powder which you can read more about here. (I am totally addicted!) I added some metallic gold around the edge of the stamped paper with a Gelly Roll pen, let it dry, and put it in an inexpensive frame (Home Goods $7.99) I think this would look cute in a dorm room, don’t you?
For my fifth project, I thought I’d try the paper on some greeting cards. Again this is just water color paper and decorative paper, stamps, ink…and of course…the glasses are embossed;) I like the yellow borders on the first card, and although it doesn’t translate quite as well here, it really pulls out the gold in the decorative paper and makes the card look “happy”. I was going to make the outer edges of the second card in black, but I liked the way the gray looked -just a little softer. After trying to make some valentine cards for the guys a few weeks ago, I though this could be a good card to send to a fella’!
Here is a bonus project. (I bet we can easily come up with five more ideas!) I used a small piece behind a photograph I had in a modern picture frame. I like it the way it gives the photo a more defined framed look. I still love the pattern, but it might be a little busy for my family room. Oh, no…it might be time to go back to Paper Source to find another piece of decorative paper. Hmmm….I’d better put that on the calendar for next month…or I might never stop this challenge.
This was so much fun! What projects have you done with decorative paper that you enjoyed? Please share:)
XO
Kate
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