Vintage Technique: Paper Lace

Have you ever noticed vintage-themed scrapbook layouts with lots of lace on them? The lace makes the layout feminine, romantic and old-fashioned.  While material lace is soft and pretty, I sometimes struggle to use it on my pages so instead I like to create my own paper lace.  I would like to share these ideas with you to hopefully inspire you to create your own paper lace too!

For the first technique I am using border stamping to create the lace.  

I have used a Martha Stewart border stamp to create a lace-like border strip of paper. You can use any border stamp you have, however. I particularly like the Technique Tuesday border stamps as they have a nice, intricate pattern which helps to create a very detailed paper lace. I used brown Memento ink on a beige cardstock by Bazzil.

Next I trimmed it to size and used an old nail file to roughen the edges slightly.  

I added pleats along the length of the paper strip by folding it in a concertina fashion.

Then using an ink blender, I buffed the paper with the same color ink that I stamped in. The ink picks up on all the creases making them more prominent and provides that aged look.

Another great way of making paper lace is to use a border punch. Here I used a punch by Martha Stewart to create my paper strip.

Then I crumpled the paper and inked with a blender tool to add dimension.

Another quick and easy way to add a vintage lace feel to your pages is by the use of paper doilies. You can pick these up really cheaply and then alter them to suit your needs.  As with the paper strips I crumpled this doily up, scratched the surface slightly with a craft knife and then inked it up!

It created a material quality to the paper and gave it a little bit of life.

Finally, I ran another strip of the beige cardstock through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. Choose a folder that has a repeating swirly pattern to create your lace effect.

Then once more ink it up to bring out the definition of the dry embossing.

This is a very quick way to create four different types of vintage-feel paper lace.

Using all of these components, I created this layout about the wedding of my granddad's best friend in the 1920's. The photo is sepia in color and has hues of brown and pink so the paper lace helped to emphasis this. You can see the paper doily in the background and I've added another pink one to add some color. 

I have layered the paper lace on top of each other, keeping the border-punched one three-dimensional to add some texture to the page. I have stamped an image of a bride's dress onto some patterned paper, picking up particularly on the pink swirl. Then I have inked it so it matches the background papers. I've added a metal heart charm to further enhance the feel of the layout.

To add some extra softness, I've added some material lace to the top of the page with a couple of staples.

To finish the page I've altered Girls Paperie chipboard letters by adding ink and then wiping it off with tissue; it gives it a slight woodgrain effect

The background paper I have used is by My Mind's Eye and is from their Lost and Found collection.