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!I am going to use these to create some more Gelli prints - see my previous Gelli prints tutorial, and I will show you how the designs look on Tuesday and I will probably use these background papers to decorate some handmade books I am toying with. I will also show you how you can take the stencil once you have used it in a mixed media background.
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!