Happy Monday! My house is so quiet right now... just the clickety-clacking of my keyboard. Silence fuels my creativity these days. It seems like my mornings are the best time. When the kids get home we immediately start hustling to get things done, then my piano students start arriving. Then there's that horrible moment when I realize it's 5:30 and I have no idea what I'm making for dinner. But mornings... ahhh.... it's my time to think and be creative.
Time for a little Make Your Own fun!
Today you will learn to make your own...
Chevron Paper
Chevron patterns are popping up all over the place. Even here! Check back tomorrow for my upcoming Trendwatch article about the popularity of chevron patterns in design and crafting.
I was looking through my own papers and realized, I have not one single piece of chevron paper! What? It could be that it's been a while since I've purchased new paper. The trend in paper seems to have just arrived. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!
Anyway, since I didn't have any chevron papers, I decided, why not make my own? And that's what I did! It took a little experimentation and turning my brain on to figure out the best way to do it. But eventually I figured it out. And now I'm going to share the secret with you! I've got two methods, using horizontal striped paper (or vertical depending on which way you hold it) and diagonal striped paper. The diagonal striped paper is definitely easier and wastes a lot less paper. You'll get a larger piece of paper in the end by using diagonal stripes, too. Why don't I share that with you first, then!
Chevron Paper from Diagonal Stripes
Materials:
One or Two sheets of 12x12 Diagonal Striped Paper
Paper Trimmer
Adhesive
1. If you only want to use one sheet of paper, first cut your sheet into 6x6 squares. You'll only need two squares and will get one sheet of paper about 5.5x10 in size. If you use two 12x12 sheets of paper, you should be able to get two large sheets of paper at least 10x11.5 in finished size. For these photos, I'm using two 6x6 pieces of paper.
2. Cut one of your squares of paper into strips. I made mine about 1.25" wide. The wider your strips of paper, the wider your chevrons will be.
Here is the really, really important part so listen up.... You must turn your second sheet of paper 90 degrees before cutting it! You want your stripes to be going the opposite way or when you glue them together you'll end up with paper that is still just diagonal stripes! Look at the two sheets sitting side by side up there in that first picture to see what I mean.
3. Lay your strips down in an alternating pattern. See the chevrons starting to show up?
4. Glue your strips together overlapping them slightly. You'll want to make sure your patterns match up as you go along.
5. Tada! Now go and trim the uneven edges off!
Here is my finished piece of chevron paper. Mine turned out about 5.5x10. Remember, this is from one sheet of 12x12 paper. You'd get a much larger result if you used two sheets of 12x12 paper. I realize now that over there on the left hand side I should have trimmed about 1/4" off so that the pattern matched. Looks cool though, doesn't it?
Here's your "to-go" copy of this tutorial. Click on it to grab it, save it, or why not pin it?
Okay, that's method #1. Method #2 uses horizontal/vertical stripes. It's probably the more common paper to use. If you are looking for a decent sized piece of paper at the end to do something other than cardmaking with, I'd suggest you use TWO sheets of 12x12 paper rather than taking one and cutting it into squares. You can still do that, it will just be a much smaller end result. This method is a little trickier because you'll have to cut part of it by hand with either scissors or an xacto knife.
Chevron Paper from Horizontal Stripes
Materials:
One or Two sheets of 12x12 Horizontal Striped Paper
Paper Trimmer
Scissors or X-Acto Knife
Adhesive
1. Start with two sheets of 12x12 paper, or cut one sheet into 6x6 squares.
2. Cut one of your sheets in half, diagonally, from corner to corner. You'll probably find this won't fit on your paper trimmer. This is where those scissors or xacto knife come in handy. I folded my paper in half and used a pair of scissors to cut along the fold.
3. Cut your paper triangles into strips. Since I used a wide stripe, I decided to use my paper trimmer and just cut as narrow as I could without damaging my paper. This turned into about 3.75" wide. Since I was using a wide stripe, this was just fine. If you are using a narrow striped paper, you'll probably need to use that xacto and a ruler to cut those strips.
4. Cut each strip the same size. Discard any little leftover bits.
5. Do the same for the other piece of paper. Before you run off and do this, you must listen up here!
You have to turn your second piece of paper 90 degrees before you start cutting. If you don't, this will not work! You'll just end up with diagonal stripes and then you'll be all mad at me. It won't be my fault if you don't listen!
6. Lay your paper together, alternating the stripe direction. You'll want to use your longer center strips for this.
7. You can make smaller pieces out of any shorter sections.
8. Glue the strips together with some tape or other adhesive.
9. Overlap the edges, making sure you match the stripes up exactly.
10. Here's your finished piece... almost! Trim up the edges so you have a finished rectangle.
Now you have a finished piece of chevron paper! Mine turned out about 8.75x14. You may get different results depending on how wide your stripes are and how wide you decide to cut your strips.
Here's your portable format! Just click to enlarge and save.
Now, run off and make yourself some stylish and trendy chevron paper! Don't forget to stop back tomorrow for my Trendwatch Tuesday article about chevrons!
Time to get crafty, people!
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