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Create Your Own Patterned Paper
Creating your own unique patterned paper is a fun way to express yourself and personalize your layouts. When you need just the right paper to match photo colors, mood, or style try your hand at designing your own paper. There are unlimited ways of creating custom backgrounds. Here are a few to spark your imagination.
- Texture rubbings: lay cardstock over a textured surface. Rub completely with colored pencils, picking up the textured design
- Use a wire paint-remover brush to create subtle, textured stripes or plaids. This works especially well with double-sided cardstock or cardstock with a white core.
- On a budget? Use your scraps! Cut or tear strips of leftover cardstock. Adhere to a full sheet of cardstock to create stripes. Not enough paper to create stripes? Try punching leftover cardstock into circles to design a polka-dot background.
- Make a striped background using ribbon. Attach ribbon in rows across a piece of cardstock, filling the entire page.
- Scan a group of objects such as candy, blocks, game pieces, leaves, or twigs. Print the scan on a full sheet, or print several times and "tile" the scans onto a piece of cardstock. Children's artwork, fabrics, old documents, and clothing are also interesting items to scan for backgrounds.
- Using a gel-based bleach "pen," draw designs on a colored sheet of cardstock. Alternately, stamp designs on background paper using bleach in place of ink.
- Apply acrylic or watercolor paints to cardstock to create interesting patterns. Paints can be applied to paper in a variety of techniques:
a. sponge on with a sea sponge, bath scrunchie, or art sponge
b. dab on with wadded foil, plastic wrap, paper or a ball of yarn
c. drizzle on directly from the paint container
d. splatter on with a toothbrush
e. make plaids and stripes with an inexpensive sponge paintbrush
f. brush bubble wrap with paint, then lay on cardstock to create a dot pattern
g. dip the end of an empty paper towel roll into paint, then print on background making circles
h. use a wide paintbrush to whitewash a dark colored cardstock
i. print with everyday objects such as keys, shaped erasers, dominoes, or coins dipped in paint
j. drizzle paint on the surface of a tub of water. Lay paper on top of paint for a marbled effect.
 Paint designs on background paper with a concentrated solution of instant coffee, tea, unsweetened KoolAid, or walnut ink. Solutions may also be poured into a spray-bottle and spritzed onto background cardstock for a splattered effect.
- Ask a child to help you create interesting backgrounds by making footprints, handprints, or fingerprints with ink or paint. Allow a child to write their name repeatedly or create simple artwork on the background paper.
- Cover a piece of cardstock with a thin layer of Modeling Paste. While the paste is still wet, create designs with a stylus, comb, or stamps. Paint or apply rub-ons after paste dries completely.
- Use rubber stamps to randomly stamp designs on background cardstock with dye-based inks, Versamark ink, bleach, walnut ink, paints, or markers.
- Using a blow-pen attachment and acid-free markers, blow a spotted design on your background.
No matter which technique you explore, you are sure to have fun while creating amazing, one-of-a-kind prints for your paper crafting projects.
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