Guest Author - Sandy Laipply

Adding Embellishments to Your Papercrafts

There are so many wonderful embellishments available to add to your papercrafts. We’ll discuss some of them here.

Ribbon – one of my favorites. Ribbon is hot, hot, hot right now. And it’s not your grandmother’s ribbon! (Unless you want it to be, of course!). Ribbons are available in brights, pastels, earthtones, jewel colors, and neons, stripes, plaids, prints and solids. There is even a large variety of ribbons with words printed on them! Ribbons come in satins, grosgrain (heavier, with a specific weave), silks, nylon, paper, and velvets. They can be glued, stapled, or tied on. Or try weaving a piece of ribbon thru holes punched along the side of a card, or across a scrapbook page. Special adhesives for vellum work well when using a sheer ribbon. Pebbles, Inc. makes a special ribbon iron to remove those nasty wrinkles.

Flowers – flowers are another current trend. Many companies have silk flowers especially for crafters. Some look real, others are just for fun, such as the polka dotted flowers form Petaloo. Try a border of flowers down the side of a scrapbook page, or a great big silk flower adorning a card. A variety of punches make it easy to make your own paper flowers to match or coordinate with your project. Many of the die cutting machines will even cut flowers from fabrics and felt. If you want to cut from soft fabrics such as cotton, back the fabric first with an adhesive sheet, or stiffen it with a spray such Stiffin Stuff from Beacon Adhesives.

Beads – some of us believe you can never have too much bling, so try adding beads to your papercrafts! Seed beads are the tiny beads that come in dozens of colors and finishes. They can be stitched on, or glued. Or put a handful inside a shaker card for a fun surprise. Tiny clear glass marbles – also called no hole beads – are an elegant addition. To use them, apply an adhesive sheet over your design. Remove the backing sheet, and pour the beads over the adhesive. (Do this in a small tray, or over a special tray made for catching the extra beads). Pat them down gently, or go over them with a brayer to secure any loose beads. Voila! A beautiful project that looks like you spent hours hand beading it!

So next time you’re stumped for a little something extra to make your papercrafting project zing, try adding an embellishment!