Paper on today's craft market comes in a variety of textures and colors.
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Most craft stores sell handmade paper with intricate designs.
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This paper features a detailed "lace" edge.
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From time to time we will devote one or two segments of the show to displaying and talking about products. I hesitate to refer to them as NEW products because often by the time the show airs, the products are no longer new. But even if they are three years old, if they are new to you, that's all that matters. And with the great number of products out there these days, there is a pretty good chance that you've not seen or heard of ALL of them. Today we zeroed in on one particular material - paper. We've been saying that paper is the thing . . . paper is hot . . . paper is where it's at . . . etc. Today, may have convinced any doubters in the audience when we showed just a sampling of what is out there. First up were some of the beautiful sheets of handmade papers from Loose Ends that are part of their Botanical Collection, some of which have actual leaves and petals embedded in the paper. Another group of dramatic handmade papers were from Yasutomo. Sheets from both companies are usually sold in large individual sheets and are generally found in art supply stores, craft stores and many rubber stamp stores. If you do not see sheets of such papers hanging from a display rack, check to see if they might be in drawers. Art stores particularly use drawers for storing many of the large sheets of especially fine handmade papers. Aitoh is yet another company specializing in handmade papers as well as in large sheets of dramatically- printed washi paper. Scrapbookers are by now familiar with the fact that there are several companies out there that continue to come out with new and fascinating background pages for scrapbooking. They frequently come in booklet form with pull-out sheets in both 8- 1/2" x 11"- and 11-3/4" x 12"-sized pages. Hot Off The Press and Design Originals are two companies that seem to keep a constant flow of interesting booklets coming into the stores. Those showed on today's show were from the Hot Off The Press book called Yummies. Each page was a close up shot of something wonderful to eat, including chocolate chips, potato chips, strawberries, cookies, and a variety of candies. Other subject matter . . . under the title "Wild Things" are photos of bugs, animal skins, etc. Hot Off The press also has some beautiful papers with laser-cut borders that look like lace. They are pretty enough to use for stationery. Vellum continues to be popular but now instead of the plain white vellum sheets that were popular just a short time ago, the sheets come in colors and/or with embossed patterns. Some of the white-on-white sheets are particularly effective. Other vellum sheets feature photographs around the borders. The vellum sheets that come in books were from Hot Off The Press. The single sheets were from Embossing Arts (business for sale). They were all very elegant looking.
Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers has created paper with pictures of Victorian-style items.
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Mary O'Neil from Hot Potatoes has created "resist kit" packets with cards and envelopes that are good for stamping.
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Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers is the name of the next company whose products I showed . . . in this case, matching and/or coordinating patters and pictures printed on vellum and acetate. These come packaged with several sheets of each per package and were used to make some very effective, and in some cases amusing, note cards. Both the acetate and the vellum sheets showed featured black ink prints on white (vellum) or clear (acetate) backgrounds, however both can be colored if you wish to paint them. Also from Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers were the pages of colored snapshots of Victorian- style items. All are copyright-free and available for any craft project, but they are very detailed and would require fine cutting. And if it's the real thing that you prefer but forgot to start saving years ago, you can buy somebody else's memories in a cellophane packet . . . ticket stubs, cartoon cards, small mementos, even someone's will! Con-Tact has entered the craft market in a big way. Crafters have been going to the housewares departments for years to buy their Con-Tact to use for craft projects, and now Con-Tact is finally packaging some of their patterns in individual sheets in packages and placing them in craft departments! Those I showed were all of the glittery vinyl type, but there may be more to come. Resist papers are fun and interesting, and our friend Mary O'Neil of Hot Potatoes Rubber Stamps has come out with packets of cards with envelopes to make your own greeting cards. Simply take your ink pad and rub it upside down over the card. . . a hidden pattern is revealed! Then go on to write over it, stamp over it or leave it as is. It's definitely fun to do. Last of the papers were the packages of six-inch squares of papers called Fold 'Ems. There are no more than sheets of origami paper for making origami, but this way the public is not so intimated! The packages contain a variety of printed papers in wonderful colors and can, of course, be used for a number of projects in addition to origami. We also showed a few items that the decorative papers could be used to make. Some of the origami papers, as well as most of those shows, can but cut, rolled and wrapped around a clear glass cylinder to make an instant indoor luminaria. They are truly very pretty and do not have to be entirely see-through. Using one of the very sheer but surprisingly strong handmade papers with tiny gold flecks, my daughter-in-law, Rita, covered a roly poly glass to make a very attractive candle holder. Because the paper was one from one of the Japanese companies, and because the Eastern look is so extremely popular right now, she rubber stamped Japanese symbols onto the paper before attaching it to the glass. She did mention, however, that if you plan to stamp your paper, it is a good idea to try a sample first. Some of the handmade papers accepted the image easily and others did not. Some took the stamped image alright but resisted the heat from the heat gun when she went to emboss it, so test it out first! Steps:
Paper covered votive made by Carol's daughter-in-law, Rita.
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Figure A
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Figure B
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1. Cut a paper strip long enough to go around the glass with a very slight overlap and wide enough to be able to bring it under the glass and cover the bottom. 2. Stamp and emboss any desired design. 3. Coat a small section of the outside of the glass with a decoupage medium along the side but not on the bottom (figure A). 4. Start to wrap the paper around the glass (figure B), keeping it lined up perfectly along the top edge with the bottom edge extending beyond the bottom of the glass. Tap it first along the center of the glass to press it smooth and work in both directions toward the top and bottom edges. Because of the curve of the glass, there will be some overlaps as you press the gathers smooth. Continue in this manner until the glass is entirely covered. 5. When the glass is covered with the paper, apply the medium to the bottom of the glass, bring the paper underneath and smooth down the paper, working in the wrinkles and overlap. Allow to dry. 6. Use silver cord and beads to decorate. Taking a very long length of the cording and leaving a long end, wrap the cord three times around the top of the glass. Make a overhand tie along the top edge where you started, but do not knot. Pull both the long end and the end in your hand down the side of the glass, across the bottom and up the other side. Make another tie around the wrapped cords, knot to hold, cut the cords off at uneven lengths and string beads on them (figure C). Knot the ends to hold. Take another short cord, tie it around the joining on the other side, make a tie and then add beads as you did on the first strands. 7. Cut another lengthy piece of the cord and, folding it in half, loop it around the top strands again midway between the other two loops, half knot then pull under, across and up and tie to the strands on the other side. Cut off and add beads. Tie a short strand at the beginning of this strand, add beads, knot and cut. Place a small tea light or voitive candle inside the candle holder. Light and enjoy.
Figure C
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RESOURCES :
craft papers - AITOH
Contact AITOH for a local retailer.
AITOH Co.
Phone: 650-866-3814
Toll Free Phone: 800-681-5533
E-mail: origami@aitoh.com
Website: www.aitoh.com
craft papers - Loose Ends
Loose Ends LLC
Website: www.looseends.com
origami paper, decorative craft paper
Yasutomo
Website: www.yasutomo.com
self-adhesive metallic sheets
Available at local retailers such as: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Tru Value Hardware stores.
Kittrich Corporation
Website: www.kittrich.com
decorative craft papers, portfolio kit, photo album kit
Papers by Catherine
We apologize no contact information is available.
Resist Paper--accordion cards and note cards - Hot Potatoes
Hot Potatoes
Website: www.hotpotatoes.com
Vellum Paper, Bits O Inspirations, Sheets of Inspiration
vellum patterned paper
Inspiration products include a potpourri of art material to decorate artwork
Yummy Papers and Wild Things--album page background paper, lace paper and vellum paper
Yummy Papers - food print papers
Wild Things - animal print papers
Hot Off the Press, Inc.
Website: www.craftpizazz.com
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