Print Your Own Paper

I think of myself as a paper artist. I love paper. I love to make things out of paper products. I love to print my own tags, paper and embellishments for free when I can. I get most of my printables from the public domain, ebay artists, some from online libraries too. I also use graphic resources readily available to everyone like the line of Dover clip art from the library and vintage prints from The Graphics Fairy. But my favorite all time resource for digital paper is Far Far Hill. The site is no longer being updated and who knows how long it will last but go get them while you can.

This is an older free site where you can download packs of patterns and print out your own paper - if you have the time and patience to put up with their download provider's time limiting games. I sometimes just make a day of it and I have quite a stunning collection of papers from this site already.

I don't have all of them yet but I'm working on it. The site is no longer active but most of the collection is still there free for the picking.

I have a massive collection that I pull off on dvd for backup when my external hard drives get crowded. Yeah, it's awesome. I can design or print just about anything I want for a project, mostly garden, vintage, old world and nature stuff. I print my papers out full bleed to the edge "no margins" on standard 110 lb card stock and they turn out gorgeous.

I have bags and boxes of pretty printed ephemera ready to use. What I've been doing for quite some time is collecting digital paper to print. I have bought paper stacks before but by the time I use the three or four sheets I really want, a lot of it goes to waste until I can try to think of ways to use it up. I have even printed on the clean side of scrapbooking papers that I did not like so I could at least get some use out of the thicker papers. I still have some older Vera Lim designer papers on disk from when she first started designing paper packs.

When I print my own paper, I get exactly what I want and as many sheets as I want. No waste.

I more recently got sets of Foil Quill pens so I can add foil to anything. I have printed out my own Christmas plaid papers with little gold foil lines running through them and up until recently, you just couldn't make your own stuff like that - you had to buy it commercially made in a crafts store.

I manually add gold foil lines to my plaid Christmas paper with my metal ruler as a guide and they look just as stunning as the store bought papers. You can find all kinds of free resources for plaid digital papers by searching the internet or buy them cheap on Etsy from designers.

I can also add gold foil patterns to any paper using my digital Cricut Foil Quill pens. You don't have to buy expensive foil prints when you can make your own. I love this technology. It levels the playing field for the average person to design, create and make high end graphics and papers of their own. I get exactly what I want with no waste. This is why I print my own papers.

Tags with Freehand Foil Quilling

I started making some tags and embellishments for Christmas. I'm trying to get them started because there's a lot I want to get done. I love my Foil Quill pens and adding foiling to my vintage graphics. These could be used for gift tags or even ornaments.

I discovered The Metropolitan Museum of Art online and a whole bunch of vintage art in the public domain to download for free. I ran across some beautiful vintage Santas that needed to be cleaned up and re-colored. I decided to make some tags out of them.

I made a cardboard cutout smaller than the shapes and used that as a guide to freehand foil quill some gold inside the edges with my freestyle Foil Quill pens.

Probably would have been smoother and better done on my machine Foil Quill pens but that was extra work to create and set all that up for the machine so I just wanted to do this quick. I used my heavy pen to make a thicker line of gold on these.

I've got a bazillion old world Santas now to play with.

Lining Your Card Envelopes

CLASSY ENVELOPES

Nothing looks more professional than opening a card with a foil liner on the envelope. It just adds so much class to any card or invitation you send. Here's how to do it on the cheap and by hand.

Anytime in late August to after the first of the year, you can get foil wrapping paper at that famous one dollar store for only one dollar per roll. I usually get gold, silver, green and red for my Christmas card envelopes. But hurry because these foil rolls don't last long! They don't get a lot in and they go quick. You could always just buy more in other stores if you want to but you will pay a lot more for them. Make sure to get the paper backed foil and not the plastic foil. Plastic foil (mylar) will not glue smooth and it just looks bad for liners.

I cut strips of paper from the roll about 7 or 8 inches wide off the roll. I also make a cardboard template out of one of my envelopes by tracing around the envelope flap and extending it down into the card a few inches. You don't have to be exact because it doesn't go down all the way into the envelope.


EASY TO MAKE

Just lay your template down on the back of the foil paper and trace around the template. Then just cut them out. You can get dozens - or even a couple of hundred liners from a few rolls of foil paper to line your envelopes. As many as you want for two or three dollars. All it really costs you is a little time.

I usually cut out a stack of each color and then just insert them into the envelope, not covering the gummed edge and then I use DSST to adhere the foil to the flaps. You can also emboss a pattern into them if you want but they are just as stunning without it IMO.

That's all there is to it and you can have a bunch of foiled envelopes for next to nothing but the time it takes to cut them out. And you can do it on the cheap without buying expensive and pre-cut liners or lined envelopes.

But the real kicker is that they look the same as the commercial lined envelopes. No one can tell the difference!

Make Your Own Rosettes

SO EASY TO MAKE

With the holidays coming, you might want to do a little paper crafting and decorating. I always do and it's so easy to make a lot of the commercial and store bought stuff yourself for cheap. You can get digital paper patterns for free online (just search for free digital paper) and print your own paper on cardstock if you want to go that far and start them from scratch. You can get some really pretty Christmas prints and plaids for cheap on Etsy or for free from FarFarHill.com . Or you could just get some pretty printed scrapbooking paper ready made and save some time. I print my own plaid paper and then add goil foil lines to it with a foil quill. I printed some of these papers too.

If you want to make a 3 inch rosette you need to cut out a 1-1/4" strip of paper 11 inches long and score it every quarter of an inch down the short sides throughout the length of the paper. You could make it longer and fuller if you want but it really doesn't take a lot of paper to make a pretty one. Just zig zag fold the lines, back and forth until you have it all scrunched, then glue the ends together with a strong craft glue and wait until it dries. Cut (or punch out) two circles, one for each side to glue on the rosette to hold it together. Bring up one end of the circle and push it down flat and hold it while you glue the center piece on.

You can cut these out by hand, score them by hand -  or scan one into Cricut design space and let your machine score them and cut them out for you. That's the easiest and fastest way. I use my old fashioned paper punches to make the edge pretty (and punch out some snowflakes and circles too) but you could use decorative scissors or anything to cut the edges pretty. Pretty papers and glitter make them pop.

If you are really good in using design space, you could make your own cut out pattern from scratch. Some people even cut them out with metal dies and a press machine like a CuttleBug or BigShot machine but the dies can get pretty pricey. That is the most expensive way to do it when these are so easy to make yourself from scratch.


A GLUE GUN IS FASTER

You want to use a glue gun for these because it dries quicker and holds the paper really solid and rigid. That's what you want. But heavy craft glue will work, you just have to wait longer for it to dry. You can experiment with fancy edge paper punches and die cuts, hot foil, glitter and just about anything you want on these to get the look you want.

They are so pretty that you can decorate packages with them, hang them on a tree and make a lot of other craft goodies with them. You can put them on greeting cards but if you mail them, you will need to pay parcel pricing for postage because they add a lot of thickness to a card.

I love making these things, they're addictive. Make a bazillion of them and - Enjoy!