paper art

Vintage paper tree ornaments

Decorating, DIY, tutorial

To continue on from my last post of vintage paper Christmas decorations, I have been adding old sheet music paper to ready-made basic shop purchased wood shape decorations, plus also creating 3D paper ornaments.

revamping old decorations:

For the wooden decorations, I really simply added shapes cut from old musical scores:

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Decoupage:

With a plain wooden decoration I simply added torn up strips of old paper glued on with Modge Podge:

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And hey presto:

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3D paper Decorations DIY:

Finally, I made some 3D decorations which are really simple:

  1. Cut 8 identically sized circles/shapes.  Fold all in half with a strong crease in the middle.
  2. Glue one 1/2 side to the next piece, work your way all around until you have 2 pieces left to glue.
  3. Add a ribbon and glue shut.  Here is a really simple video tutorial on how to make them in case the above makes no sense!
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Circle shapes

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Diamond shapes

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Heart shapes

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Very simple, but very sweet I think….

I shall be trying all sorts of shapes now.  In fact my children had better keep busily moving about or I may decoupage them….

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Christmas Trees Vintage Paper Tutorial

Christmas, Decorating, DIY
how to make sweet christmas table top decorations

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Yes, I know…. we have not even hit Halloween yet, but I am starting to make Christmas Decorations early.  These trees can be made SO EASILY!  They can use any type of paper, although I think vintage music scores or old books look best as they have a great sepia tone.  All you need is paper, card, glue and scissors.  I think they look great in groups as well.

instructions
  • Cardstock
  • Sellotape
  • Old Vintage paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Small star (optional)

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Take some card and twist it into a cone shape.  Tape up the sides and trim it so it sits flat when upright.  If the top has a small gap, take a bit of old paper and glue it over the top so there is no visible hole.

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Cut the vintage paper into strips about 2″ wide lengthways.  Then cut up into them 1/2 way so they have a layer of ‘smaller cut strips.  I have fantastic shredding scissors that do this job, but normal scissors will work (but will take more time).  I do them in bundles of 5 strips at a time to speed things up.

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Once these are done, take a piece and bend up the cut pieces so they look like frills:

IMG_1364Now take the cone, and starting from the bottom, glue the paper around the cone.  With each subsequent layer cover the top part of the below strip:

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Keep on going!  When you get to the top reverse another small bit of paper so the strips stick upwards.  Then tease and tweak all the cut pieces upwards so it looks almost fluffy.

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You can add a star if you want, I happened to have some little wooden ones around so I added them on with a hot glue gun, but you don’t need these.  Here are the cones without stars:

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And then with the stars added:

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They look lovely and you can alter the scale.  The ones I made were in a set of 3 with varying heights, and one had much older paper with a darker sepia colour.  This is the size in terms of scale that I made in the below photograph, but you can make them any size and from any paper that you want.  They would look lovely in zingy tones of tissue paper in the summer for example….

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3D Paper Pictures and Botanicals

Paper Art

I love botanical prints, and have many old ones over the house.  However, I had a space for some artwork and some box frames lying about, so decided to make my own modern version of botanical prints. They looked great, and I sell mine a lot, they can even be customised for clients with text:

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3D Paper Art
Hung in a pair
Detail of flower
Detail of printed old paper
Details of layers

Using royalty free images found on-line, I pick one image and then print it up either on aged paper or pages from old books, in varying scales of size, about 5 copies per image.  It needs to be strongly coloured to work well.  Then I cut them out carefully with a scalpel.  Mounting them is trial and error, starting with the biggest at the rear and then building them up.  Pinching and curling some leaves etc added to the 3D effect. Using small pieces of sponge cut to size and a glue gun, you attach each layer so it protrudes.

You can also print straight onto old pages if you do not want to do a 3D effect.  I used old encyclopedia pages, and printed the botanicals straight on top of them:

I have now started on birds and trees:

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Paper Flowers and Wreaths

Paper Art

IMG_7950 I saw this idea online, and decided to have a try.  They are really easy to make, and look beautiful.  I sold a load at a craft fair at Christmas, and people now commission them with specific central ornament colours to match their home decor colours.

IMG_7963You will need: 120 pages of a standard sized old book.  The older the better as the pages are yellower and have a great patina.  I only use books from junk shops that are falling apart as I do not feel guilty when cutting out the pages. Scalpel and ruler Sellotape Stapler Foam Board Hot Glue Gun Decorations  – These can be baubles, natural cones and dried fruits, shells (lightweight), feathers… anything light and that you like.

INSTRUCTIONS:

  • Cut a square piece of foam board slighter larger than a dinner plate.  On the board, draw circles decreasing in size in pen or pencil, (I use a dinner plate, bowl, side plate & mug turned upside down and I draw around them).  Then draw through the circles 2 x lines forming a cross, so you have a graphic resembling a target.  This is your guide for when you stick on the paper cones.
  • With a scalpel and a ruler, cut out 120 pages from the book.  Try and keep them equally sized.  At this point I normally settle down in front of a good movies and start making the cones as it can take a while.
  • Roll each piece of paper from the bottom left inwards into a cone shape, use a small piece of sellotape to secure the wide back of the roll so that it is unseen, and then staple once across the bottom point horizontally.
  • Once you have all of your cones ready, heat up the glue gun.
  • Start attaching the cones to the board, put small blob of glue at the back bottom part of the cone where the back of the staple is.  Use the widest circle as a starting point and stick a circle of cones around it.  Then moving inwards, repeat the circles.  The trick is to keep it neat and uniform.  Once you start nearing the middle, you may need to trim the bottom of the cones so they are shorter and re-staple before attaching.  Leave a space in the middle the diameter of a mug base.  Once all of the cones are stuck on, just glue in the decorations you want to use.
  • That is pretty much it.  To hang, I use a bulldog clip attached to the top of the foam board with a ribbon attached, as it is all paper and foam board, the flower wreath is very light.

IMG_7945 I also been working on versions with folded paper sheets rather than cones. The central area is shredded paper rather than decorative elements: IMG_0097 IMG_0098