Roll up, roll up!

 Jen here, I hope you are having a lovely December! This month I’m focusing on using paper rolls as embellishments for your scrapbook pages. 
You can find links to the products I’ve used at the end of this post, and as always please click on photos to see them bigger.
Although I love all the gorgeous pre-made embellishments that you can buy, often my very favourite products from manufacturers are the papers themselves. I just love the bright colours and fun patterns, and the fact that papers can be so versatile. I’m always on the lookout for new ways to use my (much too large!) stash of patterned paper. This technique is great for using up scraps as it really doesn’t use a lot of paper. 
For this first page I made several paper rolls in a variety of colours and patterns, and in uneven lengths. I chose one favourite paper – the multi coloured diagonal stripe, and then took four other papers in monotone designs that matched the colours in the stripe. Using each design twice gives a cohesive feel to my collection of paper rolls. I lined them up beside my photo, staggering the heights, as I didn’t want the page to feel too orderly. 

How to make paper rolls:
1. Choose a selection of papers, scraps will work as you only need small pieces.
2. Cut pieces to a width of approximately 1.5″ and whatever length you wish.
3. Apply adhesive down one long edge of the paper strip.
4. Roll the paper around a pencil (or other round tool) – the diameter of the paper roll can be varied here by using difefrent sized tools to wrap the paper around.
5. Press firmly until well stuck, and then remove from the pencil.
6. Adhere to your page using strong glue.

For this second page I used paper rolls in a different way, by placing them at the centre of my butterfly embellishments. I love using them like this – they give my butterflies some added dimension. I made two embellishments for this page using a scalloped oval as a base, then adding two punched butterflies in different colours layered with foam pads, and a paper roll in the middle, then adhering some stickers and wood veneer accents too.

These rolls are made slightly differently too as they are made from triangles rather than rectangles. To make these buterfly centres:
1. Cut an isosceles triangle from your paper (as below) – the base of your triangle will be the height of the roll – for this particular sized punched butterfly it’s 1″.

2. Using a small round tool such as the handle of a thin paintbrush or a pokey tool roll from the base towards the point of the triangle. This time you want the piece of paper to wrap around your tool a few times rather than just once.
3. Dab some glue onto the point and press firmly to adhere.
4. This also looks really effective with a plain paper triangle that’s been inked pre-rolling.
5. Attach to the centre of a punched shape with strong glue.

I’d love to see what you do with paper rolls – do leave a link if you give them a try!

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