How to use marbled paper if you are not a bookbinder
It can be so exciting to see beautiful papers in a shop or online. But if you aren't a bookbinder, you might very well think to yourself "but what can I do with this paper?".
I've put together a little list of ideas for using small sheets and using up smaller pieces of paper that you just can't bear to throw away (no hoarding shame here!)
Folded Paper Stars
One of my favourite things to do, particularly around Christmas, is to make simple folded paper stars. Here's a link to an older blog post by me with a full tutorial for making them.
https://www.thewhimsicalmarbler.co.uk/blog/folded-paper-star-tutorial
Fanzine fold
This is a great way to create a simple booklet - you can create your own fanzines, mini journals, art books - whatever you can think of!This works best with an A4 sheet at smallest but if you want the pages to be a bit bigger, then A3 works too.
Fold your paper in half vertically (along the long side) keeping the decorated side (if you are using paper with a design on) on the outside.
Fold out flat again and then fold in half in the other direction (so it looks like a book) again while keeping the decorated side on the outside. Open out, and keeping the paper landscape, fold each half in half again. You will see your paper now has 8 ‘sections’. These are your fanzine pages!
Open out and cut down the central vertical fold along the central two sections.
Fold in half vertically again. Push the two ends towards each other and you will notice the central cut section opening out. Push the two ends together and the three sections will fold together and one is on the other side. Now you can decide which sides you’d like to be front and back. Fold up as a book. If you want, you can glue the open sections together to create more solid pages. Trim around the edges.
Now you have an awesome little fanzine for creating your own little magazines, stories, journals, photobooks, sketchbooks, or whatever you feel like!
Tutorial pics to follow!
Collages
Marbled paper is great for using in collages of all sizes. Shown here are some of my own. As I use acrylic for my marbling, you can paint, print or draw on top of the design without affecting the paint underneath. So washes of colour for shading or gluing things down is stress free.
Memory Jar / Art ideas Jar / Journal prompts Jar
Use pieces of your favourite decorative papers and cut them into rectangles approx 7-10cm long. Write on the blank side either your favourite memories, ideas for art projects or journaling prompts on them. Fold up and keep in a large glass jar. Works as a decorative piece and as a helpful prompter/mood lifter when you need it.
Fridge Magnets
Cover small canvases with paper and then stick sheet magnets to the reverse to turn into a simple fridge magnet. You can also buy canvases with a magnet reverse already attached.
I’ve used these ones before https://www.artsupplies.co.uk/p/daler-rowney-simply-mini-magnetic-canvas-panel but there is lots of choice out there!
Bookmarks
Cut paper into rectangles (52x148mm is the standard size for bookmarks but you can make them whatever size you want!). If you want a stronger, less flimsy bookmark you can stick the rectangle to some thin card using a glue that is not too wet. You can also make your bookmark double sided. Allow to dry flat under some weight (a pile of hardback books works great!) and trim once dry if needed. You can now punch a hole with a hole punch and fit a tassel if desired. It is a great and practical way to use up pieces and they make great gifts for your bookish friends and family!
Gift tags
You can use a die cutter to cut gift tag shapes or just cut the sheets into small rectangles. Punch a hole at one end and use twine, ribbon or raffia to attach them to your gifts.
Other ideas include, making envelopes, envelope liners, die cutting or paper punching out shapes for cardmaking and journalling, covering small boxes, tins, and containers, backgrounds or highlight elements for journals and scrapbooks, as backgrounds in frames for photos, postcards, and small artworks, the list goes on! I hope this post has given you some lightbulbs for how you can included marbled paper in your creative endeavours.
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