7 Ways to Love Wacky Paper

BOLD... WACKY... COLORFUL... BRIGHT... LOUD... how many terms are there to politely describe the ugly paper hanging out in your craft area.  What can you do with all of the wacky scrap book paper that comes in the multi-pack sets?  I present to you my 7 Ways to Love Wacky Paper

You can't beat 250 pages for $19.99 and when it goes on sale or on clearance ... It is like mantra from the heavens...  250 pages for $7.57.. gotta buy it... but lingering, hidden (sometimes not so well ) among those stacks of beauty are crazy patterned papers.



Every mega-pack of scrapbook paper has them...
















Sometimes it is loud polka-dots, kaleidoscopic images, swirls, whirlies and large foliage.  When I first started scrappin', I just kept the unwanted paper to the side for a "one day I will use them" day.  After staring at a pile of wack-a-doo pages and moving them 4 times across the country, I decided to get busy.  So here are some options so that you can start busting out the pages with a little bit of wackiness and a whole lot of character!

1 - Let Glitter be Your Friend: 
Cut along the squared edges, outline images, edging with glitter and layer with alternating paper to break up the pattern.   I submitted this page to a scrap challenge featuring hearts.

2 - All Pages Need Borders: 
Allow an obnoxious print to do the high ligting for you.  Take one sheet and make two side borders for a layout.  Cut along the images as I did in this "All About Dogs" page

3 - Embrace It: 

You actually love the print but don't know what to do with it.  It is awesome for a home decor pillow but too loud, too large of a print for the background of your scrapbook page - embrace it, use it.  In the layout below, I cut it out again and used it as an overlapping border to make the pictures and journal box  peek out.

4 - Turn Loud into Lovely: 

Allow the print to have a say, but not too much of a say.  In the "Fiesta" page, the brightly circled paper went from "wowzers" to "Wow" as it calmly participated in the border action on both sides of the page.  I layered another "fun" paper over top of the side border that tied in the colors but calmed down both "loud" prints.

I used the brightly colored circle paper  as a lid on the fun in this two page spread of brightly colored pictures.  The vertical stripes pointed to the party at the top.   I used circular tags to highlight the bold circle action for the title area.

5 - Confine It: 

Narrow the bold print to one area on the page, use it is a focal point to tie in multiple colors and anchor matted pictures on your page.

6 - Background Action:

If confining it doesn't work, let the 12x12 sheet of paper do what it has always dreamed of doing... let it get in on the background action.  Use layering techniques to break it up a little bit.

7 - Title Feature: 

Get out your Cricut and go crazy making fun Titles with wacky print.  You can use it as the primary face of your title wording or use the wacky paper as the shadow cut out to highlight the title that is cut in solid paper.

There are a lot of options to tackle that unwanted stack of wacky paper taking up space in your craft area.  If you don't think one of the 7 options will work for you - swap it with a friend, stick it in your child's craft paper bin or donate it to a local child development center or school for use in their art projects.  

If you have created a scrapbook page using wacky paper, please leave a link to your blog in the comment section and I'll add your creation!