Paper tearing can give a great look to your pages and it is very easy.
Take your paper and hold it with your hands close together. Start tearing with your dominant hand (the hand you write with). The hand holding the paper will be your end result. The tear always come out on your holding hand. The closer you hold your hands together the more control you will have and the smaller the tear. Hold your hands farther apart and you will have less control but a more dramatic tear.
Use some scrap paper and give it a try! Try tearing with different weights and types of paper to see the different results.
To make the flowers: tear small circles of vellum about 1 1/2 inches diameter. Take your torn circle and wrap it around the end of a pencil on the eraser end. Crinkle it all around the eraser. Unwrap and paint the edges using rub on paints or chalks. I think the paints stick to the vellum better though. Mount your flowers on a torn border with eyelets.
Eyelets
Eyelets are a LOT of fun. You can use them to anchor pictures, frames, borders, etc. You can use them to add embellishments or as the only embellishment.
You will need a couple of tools, an eyelet setter and the eyelets themselves. You can purchase eyelets in an assortment of sizes and shapes. Make sure the eyelet setter you get is versatile. Most serve two functions. As a hole punch and an eyelet setter.
First take your hole punch and place it over the front side of your layout in the area you want to place the eyelet. Push down and at the same time twist the punch back and forth. You will need to use quite a bit of pressure if your layout is thick.
Once you have the hole. Place your eyelet through it. Turn your layout over (hold on to the eyelet!) and place your eyelet setter into the back of the eyelet. Using a small craft hammer or a lot of your own elbow grease, gently tap the eyelet a few times until it spreads. I tap about 10 times. Hold on to the setter firmly while tapping. Remove the setter and your eyelet should be spread out around the edges, gently tap the back of the eyelet until it is flat. Be careful that you don't tap too hard or you will deform the front of the eyelet.
That is all there is to it! Have fun and be creative!
Some uses for eyelets:
1. Attaching vellum
2. Attaching pictures.
3. Use to thread fibers through your layouts.
4. As the center of flowers.
5. As eyes on punch outs of people and animals.
6. Embellish paper piecing.
7. To attach paper pieces (makes them moveable!)
8. As the center of tires
9. Use shaped eyelets as snowflakes, rain, etc.
10. Embellish large stickers.
11. Make an outline, ie: circle and stem for a pumpkin.
12. Use at the end of a bugs antenna
13. Use as part of your lettering. The dot of an i or the tail of a y.
14. Place eyelets about a 1/2 to 1 inch apart all around your picture and thread yarn or fibers through each one to get a "sewn" look.
15. Attach tags
16. Embellish tags
Using Vellum:
I love the look of vellum. You can use it to give your journeling a great look, you can use it to make pockets for your pages or place it over your pictures to give them a softer look. My favorite technique with vellum is to cut a piece the same size as my picture and then cut a piece out of the middle. When you place the vellum over your picture you will now have one part of the picture highlighted and the rest kind of muted. It is a beautiful look when you want to showcase one part of your picture without a lot of cropping.
The trick to vellum is how to attach it. If you use glue it will show through the edges. You can attach vellum to your pages using eyelets or brads very easily. If you want a cleaner look though, I suggest using vellum tape. It is kinda of like sticky dots. Cut a piece of vellum tape the same size as your vellum edge. Place the tape on the edge of the paper (it is sticky on both sides) and peel off the paper backing. Do this around all the edges you want to tape down. Place your piece of vellum on the page and rub down all the edges. At first you might see some of the tape but after it sets you will only see vellum! Happy Scrapping!
