Make your own patterned paper!

Hey, all! I want to share a few fun ideas with you on how to get some awesome patterned paper. I love bright colors and unique patterns, and sometimes the only way to achieve the look I want, is to make it myself. For all these projects, I recommend using acrylic paint. It dries really fast on paper, so you can make your paper, fold a load of laundry, and when you come back, it's ready for scrappin'!

The first technique I like to use requires an aluminum can or two. Take an aluminum can and paint the bottom ring of the can in your desired color. Then stamp the can onto the paper. I recommend using a separate can for each color unless you actually want two-toned rings (which would look pretty awesome). Here is the result:


To achieve the second look, paint a layer of paint onto the bubble side of bubble wrap. Try to only keep the paint on the bubbles. I recommend using a foam paint brush. If you paint across the bubbles real fast, as if you were painting a piece of wood, you shouldn't get much paint between the bubbles. Flip the bubble wrap over, so the paint side is laying on the paper and pat the bubble wrap so it sticks to the paper. Then peel off. I like to use two different colors from the same color family, but I bet any combination would look great. Here is the result:

For this last technique, I once again recommend using a foam paint brush. You will also need some tissue paper. Ball up the tissue paper, as if you were about to stuff it into a gift bag. Then add a layer of paint to the wad end. Don't worry about covering all the tissue paper. I like to pick certain wrinkles to paint. Once you have applied your paint to the tissue paper, stamp it on to your scrapbooking paper. Here is the result:

Here is a layout I made using the rings paper (layout based on a sketch from Creative Scrappers). I like that I was able to customize the colors to match the other patterned paper:

And here is a layout I made using the bubble wrap paper (layout based on a sketch from ScrapSketch):

You can view another bubble wrap layout in yesterday's post entitled "thankful 4 friends."

As always, I would love to see any layouts that you decide to use these techniques on...just link them to this post! And keep checking back...I will be posting my first challenge later in the week (sweet prize for the winner!).