Hand-made Paper Embellishments

Today we're gonna share a different kind of embellishment that you can use on your pages, cards, and home decor projects.

They can be fun & cute or beautiful & elegant depending on what you need.

We're talking about Paper Casting . . . That pretty much means making your own paper.

We used this technique to make some sturdy little embellishments for our pages & cards.

On this Callaway page, these items are the butterflies . . .

Here's a close-up . . . .you can see much more detail.

Aren't they the cutest?!?

And here we added one to a simple card . . .

So let's get started & show you how to make these!

Here's the secret weapon that we used . . . . Plastic Candy Molds.

They come in all kinds of designs & sizes. Choose one that you like or pick up a multi-pack like this. You'll find them in the cake decorating & candy making dept.

You'll also need a couple of common kitchen tools . . . a blender, a spoon, & LOTS of paper toweling.

First thing you need to do is gather your scraps of cardstock and choose a color theme. Next - tear them into small chunks into the blender. (This is a good time to put the kids to work!)

Then you'll want to add enough water to cover the pieces . . .

Let this stand to soak for a minute or two.

After that, turn your blender on high speed & pulverize it all.

Add more paper if you need . . . it takes more than you'd think!

What you want is a mooshy-gooshy, bloppy-ploppy mess!

Spoon out your paper pulp into your desired mold . . . .Note: You'll want to pile it up into a good mound!

Using the paper toweling, push the pulp down into the mold very tightly and soak up as much water as possible . . . the more water you take out now, the faster it will dry and harden.

After that, just set them aside to dry. It may take 2 - 3 days but you can speed that up a bit by placing them outside in the sun.

Now, I'm a bit impatient. When I get a notion in my head, I'm the kind of person who wanted it done yesterday.

So I tried a hairdryer - that was taking forever & would have burned it out .

Then I had the bright idea to put them in the microwave . . . not so bright!

Only 30 seconds & it melted the mold.

So . . . after your embelly is dry & hard, just pop it out of the mold. You can then use as is, or try painting & inking them or even chalk them! Afer all, they are made out of paper!

These are some leaves we created . . .

HINT ~ If you want some graduated coloring, start with your lightest color of stock, mold a few pieces, then add some darker colors of the same family to what's left in the blender.

These little crowned pieces remind me of those pastel after-dinner mints . . .

And this is a page using the leaves from above that I scrapped for a customer who walked in with the most beautiful heritage pictures.

I'm very proud of how this one turned out! Lucky customer!

So, I hope you all will find this post a useful one.

It's a great way to use up alot of little scraps that are laying around.

It's probably not something you'll make very often, but it sure will add a nice touch to whatever you do use it on.

Have a Safe,Happy, & Blessed Easter!