How to use rice paper in crafts - idea #2 - QUICK ideas using rice paper and colour backgrounds

 I'm a huge fan of rice paper. Today I'm sharing a video about how you can use rice paper with coloured backgrounds plus upcycling card packaging.

Link to YouTube video below plus additional inspiration blog posts.

What is rice paper?

Rice paper was traditionally made from the pith of the rice plant, however in crafting, we mainly use rice papers made from mulberry. It had been used for centuries in Asian style arts for writing and artwork. As crafters we enjoy using rice paper because of its texture & translucent nature. 

You can buy rice paper as plain sheets for you to create your own designs or as pre-printed sheets. I get my plain rice paper from Amazon.

Today I am using rice paper designs from Ciao Bella Paper. Piuma is a line of textured rice paper used by Ciao Bella. It is an excellent paper which can be used for decoupage, mixed media, upcycling, album making & a whole host of other paper crafting techniques.  

YouTube video 

I created a YouTube video to show case my ideas as felt it would easier to actually show show. Photos are fabulous but sometimes hard to convey each thought process.

Using colour with rice papers

For me, I started out by using a white or cream background with my rice papers. Yes it did make the images "pop" but also felt a little "samey" - does that make sense? Anyways, thought I'd share how using rice papers on coloured backgrounds, how you can create a completely different look.

Tag idea #1

For this tag I started with one of my favourite background colours - blue. Adding small pieces of rice paper to the background on a blue layer showed the Ciao Bella typed Faces rice paper design off in a completely different way

When the first layer was dry, I went over it with smaller pieces of Ciao Bella Sign of The Times rice paper. Now I have a multi-coloured layered look.

Tag idea #2

For this background, I added some recycled corrugated card to the tag first and painted the whole tag in white. I know I said to avoid white but I actually wanted the texture of the corrugated card to show through.

I've used a mix of  different rice papers from The Signs of The Times collection to create the tag. Love how it looks against the corrugated card.

Tag idea #3

This time I used different colours of acrylic paint on my background before adding the Ciao Bella Botanical rice paper. It has lots of images on the paper both large and small.

I also added a layer of corrugated card too which married with the coloured background, I think gives a really col effect.

Tag idea #4

For this tag, I decided to go darker and more Halloween inspired. Again I painted the background but in traditional Halloween colours.

Taking small parts from a mix of different Ciao Bella Sign of The Times rice papers, I have made my tag now appear as if it was designed for Halloween.

Now next thing to do, is decorate my tags with other images from the same paper collection ... but am enjoying just looking at them as is for the moment. Is that strange?

Need more inspiration?

I have other blog posts sharing other projects I have made using rice paper

• Taking video ideas and using with mdf - HERE
• Rice paper on die cuts for added texture - 
• A3 double journal page HERE

What hints & tips do you have when using rice paper? Please share your ideas as always love to try out something new.

Until next time,

Lou
xxx

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