How to make a paper leaf: A Pictoral Tutorial

 

Sometimes, when it is very early in the morning, or very late at night, I realize I need something in my studio, but I cant find it. . . . like this morning. I wanted to put leaves on my card, but I could not find my leaves from Michaels. I buy the ones in the bridal section. So, I decided to make some leaves from my scrapbooking paper.

 

This is the card I was making. I will walk you through the simple steps of how you can make your own paper leaves.

 

You will need:

Scissors that have a fancy edge similar to these.

Some scrapbook paper.

A scoreboard and scoring tool.

An ink pad.

 

 Fold one end up a bit

 so that it is half the width

of what you want your finished leaf to be.

 

Use your fancy edge scissors

 to cut an elongated oval

on the fold you just made in the previous step.

Keep the "leaf" folded in half.

Use a scoreboard to mark the "veins" in the leaf.

Put the leaf at a slight angle on the board to do this step.

 

Unfold your leaf.

When you are finished scoring it,  

it will look something like this.

 

Use an ink that matches the paper to ink the edges of the leaf.

 

I inked it on top and underneath to get as much ink along the edges as possible.

Also, run the ink pad lightly along the center fold and along the veins for some dimension.

 

Use a pencil or the handle of a paint brush to give your leave a bit of a curve.

Simply run the pencil or handle under the paper leaf and it will take on a bit of a curve.

 

If you want to add more dimension,

curve the leaf a bit in the opposite direction before you glue it to your project.

I used a dab of hot glue to attach the leaf to my card.

 

You can see how I used the leaves behind the roses and ribbon.

It worked and when you look at the card,

you don't really notice that the leaves are made of scrapbook paper! 

I actually like the technique and think I will use it often.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

If you want to see this in a slide show,

please check out the video on my You Tube Channel:

http://youtu.be/eL7rFxUn2lg

As always, your comments and questions are welcome . . . and until we meet again, may the Lord hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Emmy