I came across a tutorial by Martice Smith II which was quite inspiring, it was her intricate paper stencils and gift wrap ideas, where she creates a stencil and uses some of the designs in making your own customized wrapping paper.
Always one for having a go I thought I would make a few of my own. I guess it is similar to paper cutting, which I never thought I would have the patience for, you can get some really intricate and beautiful designs.
For these I took some construction paper which is quite thin that had been used on one side, you can use any type of paper you like, and it is a great way to use up those pieces of paper that you would put in the recycle bin. To cut these I just used a pair of scissors, making it easy to get instant results, you could also use paper punches in some areas.
Keep the designs simple to get really great results |
After you have folded your paper into a triangle and then folded a further two times you can mark out a simple design on one side.
Cutting away areas on the paper |
Cut them out, and voila you have some lovely stencils and masks below that you can use in a number of different ways.
Paper stencils - one of my favourites |
Squares cut out gives an interesting design |
I couldn't resist doing a few more
Simple shapes create lovely effects |
and here is how they turned out
The simple designs are the most effective |
These can be used as a stencil or a mask when using the Gelli plate but the possibilities are endless!
Do check out Martice's site, she has very generously shared some of her designs in a free ebook, you need to sign up to access. Have fun and allow your creativity to soar!