Paper crafting is a very broad category of crafting, much like fiber arts or painting. It generally involves anything with paper or paper like materials as your primary medium. The paper can be glued, cut, folded, printed on, embossed, stamped, collaged, sculpted, you name it.
One of the beautiful parts about paper is that there seems to be no shortage of weights, textures, sizes and shades. If you want paper to draw and paint on but you don’t want it to bleed thru, there is a paper for that. If you want a textured insert into a card to add a bit of flair, there is a paper for that too.
Perhaps the most commonly known types of paper crafting is origami (yes, even origami is a paper craft) and scrapbooking.
My first introduction to paper arts
Back when I was a kid, the cool thing to do in art class was to make paper mache out of strips of paper, some watered down glue and a balloon. It was the coolest thing to see the dried paper keep it’s shape even after the balloon was popped.
My current paper crafting passion
I personally lean more into the scrapbooking side of the paper crafting world. I simply love taking stickers and markers and stamps and creating my bullet journal spreads each week and month. I love to create junk journal pages from scraps that I have and left over bits of washi tape. Check out my Youtube channel for examples!
Lately, it seems like the crafting world has exploded with even more ways to use paper and the creativity that I see on Instagram is limitless and I love it.
What is so great about paper crafting?
I personally am in love with the tactile engagement that comes with paper crafting. The cutting and gluing and laying of colors and textures provides my brain with a break from the persistent electronic notifications, emails, and texts that we all have in today’s world.
I also love the uniqueness that it provides. For example, I can make gift tags that are individual to the gift and the recipient. I don’t have to rely on the same ones that come from the store that everyone else uses. I can create something truly special and (in my eyes) beautiful from a few bits of scrap paper and a stamp or sticker and a nice pen. I can then turn around and create a collage with some newspaper or magazine cut outs to express how I’m feeling or to create a piece of artwork that is just my own. Next, I can create a page in a memory-keeping journal to preserve a family event or a funny moment from when my kids were younger.
Have you ever tried paper crafting? If so, how did it go? What did you make? Share your creations with me on Instagram!