Paper has been around for thousands of years and even in the digital age, paper crafting techniques remain fun, creative, exciting and relevant. They’ll have you hooked in no time!
In this article, we’ll give you some great paper craft folding techniques as well as paper weaving techniques, and we’ll teach you how to make some truly awesome home made cards.
So whether you’re a vellum veteran, a paper pro or a notebook newbie, let’s take a look at some really cool paper crafting techniques. Get ready to unleash your inner artist!
Paper Crafting Tools and Techniques of the Trade
Original children's art project (Credit: 13-Smile via Getty Images)
To kickstart your paper crafting journey, you need the right tools, so here’s a short checklist of some must-haves –
Paper Cutter An old-style paper guillotine trimmer or a plastic rotary cutter is essential for perfect straight lines every time.
Scissors Almost all paper weaving techniques require scissors, and you’ll likely have these at home. If not, a pair of good quality stainless steel paper crafting scissors is a must.
Silicone or Rubber Mat These are essential to protect tables from a million and one cuts and ink stamps.
Pencils Again, you’ll probably have pencils at home but it’s worth investing in a box of high-quality pencils for drawing, doodling, designing and marking cut lines.
Glue The glue you use will largely depend on the type of paper crafting techniques you’re using so it’s worth taking your time to ensure you purchase the right glue for the project.
Corner Punches & Rounders These give the corners of your home made cards and scrapbooks a super-stylish finish.
Ruler Like pencils and scissors, you’ll probably have a ruler or two at home but ensure the edges are perfectly straight with no nicks or cracks.
Craft Knives From cutting everything from straight lines to intricate shapes, craft knives are an essential tool for doing all sorts of paper craft folding techniques. These should be handled only by an adult or with adult supervision.
Paper If you want to learn paper craft folding techniques, you’re going to need paper! There are dozens of different types of paper depending on what you want to do, but white cardstock is a good place to start. It comes in lots of different sizes, weights, textures and finishes so ask at your local arts and craft shop and they’ll point you in the right direction.
As you’ll notice, quite a few of the tools used in the paper crafting techniques below are sharp, and therefore dangerous. When the use of scissors, paper cutters or craft knives is required, please ensure an adult undertakes these tasks.
Types of Paper Crafting Techniques
Painting a wooden box. (Credit: Tolimir via Getty Images)
It’s cheap, fun, creative and imaginative and the end results are stunning, so what are you waiting for? Here are some amazing paper crafting techniques to learn.
Scrapbooking
Breathe life into your memories with a beautiful scrapbook. They’re a treasure trove of magical moments that can be passed down from generation to generation. Start with a blank album or book and fill it with photos, diary entries, artwork, stickers, cinema, bus or train tickets, colours, stamps, indeed anything you like!
Home Made Cards
The only thing better than receiving home made cards is making home made cards! Start with coloured cardstock and then you can get as creative and you like. You can cut out images from magazines, make a mosaic or words from coloured paper or even create 3D cards or use cool paper weaving techniques! Use ink stamps, ribbon, glitter or anything you like to adorn your cards. And remember, sketch out your designs before you start
Decoupage
Decoupage is a French word and is the art of decorating objects with cut out pieces of paper. It’s been around for centuries and all you need is paper, scissors and glue. There really is no limit to what you can do. You may want to decorate a vase or a plant pot, a box, a picture frame or even schoolbooks to make them look a lot less like, well, schoolbooks!
Paper Craft Folding Techniques
Little girl making a paper airplane. (Credit: PhotoAlto/Sigrid Olsson via Getty Images)
The most famous of all paper folding techniques is of course origami. Traditionally Japanese, it translates as ori, meaning ‘to fold’ and gami meaning ‘paper’ and it is the art form of folding a piece of paper into a three-dimensional sculpture. Origami is a remarkably intricate skill that can take years to master and the true experts will never use glue, pencil marks or cuts. It’s just about the folds!
Paper Weaving Techniques
Abstract background with coloured paper (Credit: Colormos via Getty Images)
Paper weaving is a fun and engaging hobby and there are loads of different paper weaving techniques to learn and master! All you need to get started is paper, scissors, a ruler and a pencil.
It’s great fun for kids and adults alike and you can be incredibly creative, weaving all sorts of patterns and shapes. Using advanced paper weaving techniques, you can even make things like pen holders, masks for Halloween, flowers, animals and birds and even decorations for Easter or Christmas.
