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Handmade Paper

By Becky Lemire
Crafty Cruisers
Intermediate Stamping Team Designer

Almost every crafter out there should already have all the supplies needed to make their own handmade paper.  There are, of course, kits you can buy at craft stores, but why not be thrifty and use the items you probably have on hand.  Handmade paper can be as simple as a single color or as complex as multiple colors with fibers, dried foliage, and other thin items embedded right in the paper.  Let's give it a try. 

Handmade Paper Supplies:

•  Blender
•  Water
•  Scrap paper/cardstock
•  Deep-dish pan or baking pan
•  Window Screen
•  Wooden Frame
•  Heavy Duty Stapler (not a paper stapler)
•  Sponge and a towel 

Handmade Paper Instructions:

1.      The first step is to make a screened frame to shape your paper if you don't want to buy a ready made one.  Purchase a cheap wood picture frame of whatever size you would like your finished sheets of paper to be.  Take the back off of the frame and the glass.  Cut a piece of window screen that you can purchase at your local hardware store if you don't already have some laying around, to fit your picture frame.  Leave some excess around all the edges to ensure you have a large enough piece to fit in the frame.  Staple the screen onto the lip of the frame that the glass would normally sit against.  Trim excess screen. 

2.      Fill the dishpan half full with warm water. 

3.      Find the scraps of paper that you would like to use to make your own handmade paper.  For example, I picked a bunch of different pink and dark pink scraps of cardstock.  Tear your scraps into smaller pieces and throw into your blender.  Fill the blender half full with the paper pieces.  Fill the rest of the blender with warm water.  Start blending on a slow speed and work your way up to a higher speed.  Blend until you see that you just have a fuzzy looking smoothie with no larger chunks of paper in the mixture. 

4.      Pour entire contents of the blender into the dishpan water.  Mix around and add any fibers you'd like incorporated into your paper. 

5.      Slide the frame under the water with the front of the frame facing up.  Start lifting the frame out of the water moving it around while still keeping it level to evenly disperse the paper fibers over the entire screen.  Let the water drip out of the screen, press some more water out using the sponge and then set down on a towel paper side down. 

6.      Using a damp household sponge, press as much of the water out of the handmade paper as you can from the backside of the screen.  The paper should start to come away from the screen when enough water has been pressed out.  Lift the frame away and move the paper to a dry towel and let dry completely.  If you prefer, you could iron the paper dry using your household iron.  Sometimes the handmade paper will curl up slightly when it air dries so you will need to spritz it with some water and iron it anyway. 

7.      Variations:  In the card sample, I did a thin layer of dark pink blended paper scraps, let the water drip out, and poured some light pink blended scraps over the top to make a two tone handmade paper.  If you wanted striped paper, you could pour strips of different colored blended papers onto the screen.  Experiment since you're just using up your scraps anyway.  Add things like dried flowers, ribbons, flat objects to the wet fibers lying on your screen before pressing out the remainder of the water. 

Card Project Supplies:

•  Wedding Vows Rubber Stamp (unknown)
•  Moonlight White Brilliance Ink Pad (Tsukineko)
•  White Vellum (TAC) - cut to 5 1/4" x 5 1/4"
•  Handmade paper - cut to 2" x 5 1/2"
•  Burgundy Cardstock (unknown) - cut to 5 1/2" x 11" - fold in half to make card
•  Heart Metal Tacks (Life's Journey by K & Company)
•  Dusty Rose silk ribbon (Bucilla)
•  2 pcs. White braided loop ribbon (Model Crafts~Wal Mart) -cut to 2 1/2" long
•  Scotch Double stick tape (3M)

Instructions:

1.      Cut all papers and ribbons as stated in the supply list.   

2.      Stamp the Wedding vows stamp on the right side of the square of vellum using Moonlight White Brilliance Ink.  When the ink is dry, tape the left side of the vellum to the card front using double stick tape.

3.      Tear the piece of handmade paper along one of the long sides so the piece ends up being about 1 3/4" x 5 1/2".  Attach the heart tacks to the handmade paper as shown in the photo.  Tape the loopy ribbon to the backside of the handmade paper and wrap as shown in the photo. 

4.      Using double stick tape, attach the handmade paper to the left side of the card. 

5.      Attach one last heart tack to the middle right of the card front. Tie the silk ribbon around the heart for added embellishment.

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