This is a tutorial for a very simple but attractive effect to use in your card making, scrapbooking and other paper craft projects.

This is a great way to use up scraps of paper. I often do this with the free scrapbook papers that many crafting magazines include, as they are very thin.

You will need:

base card
a die, large hole punch or template
piece of scrap paper
strips of paper
glue that sticks paper (glue stick, photo glue or PVA glue is ideal) or a tape pen, or double sided tape
scissors
embellishments as required

Let’s Begin..

1 – cut out the aperture from your base card using a die cutting machine, large punch or template. You could also use a pre-cut aperture card. Keep the cut out piece for a future project.

TTApperture1

2 – use the die, template or the aperture you have just cut to draw the same shape onto a piece of scrap paper. As long as the scrap paper is at least half an inch bigger than the aperture all round it doesn’t matter what you use. I am using junk mail here.TTApperture2

3 – cut some strips of paper. I am using two colors of scrapbook paper that coordinate. I cut my strips using a household shredder but you could of course cut them with scissors or a paper cutter too.

4 – put a strip of glue on the scrap paper, at one side of the drawing of the shape. Now carefully lay strips of one colour of the paper onto the scrap paper, so they are fixed down at the glued end. Leave the other end of the strips unglued. But each strip up against the previous one as neatly as possible. Make sure you have added enough strips so that the shape you drew on the scrap paper is completely covered.TTApperture3

5 – now take one of the strips of the other color and weave it over and under the strips on the scrap paper. This is easiest if you do the weaving at the unglued end of the base strips. Push the woven strip up to the top so it is over the drawn pattern area.TTApperture4

6 – continue to add the strips, weaving each one under a base strip where the previous one went over, and vice versa. Make sure the whole of the area of the drawn shape is covered (you can easily flip up the weaving to look underneath to see).TTApperture5

 

7 – apply glue around the edge of the aperture in the base card. Make sure there is a good coverage of glue. Then lay the base card on to the weaving so that the part you can see through the apperture looks attractive. Handy hint – if you have a square or rectangle aperture, try laying the weaving at an angle as well as straight up and down.

TTApperture6

8 – flip up the scrap paper and add a bit of glue before pressing it down on to the back of the woven strips, so everything is very secure. Trim the excess ends of the woven strips so that the base card looks tidy from the front.

TTAppertureThumb

9 – now mount your base card onto a card blank, or however you wish to use it. Add embellishments to suit. If you used a nesting die to cut your apperture then you can easily cut a frame for it.

10 – experiment with different types of paper for the woven strips. Old magazine pages, maps or junk mail can also be used. They look very interesting if used with a plain coloured paper for contrast.

Paper craft tutorial – Woven paper aperture
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