All About Rice Paper

Rice paper has exploded in the world of crafting in recent years, and it's little wonder with the range of exquisite designs that are now available. But it's all very well to buy the papers because they are so pretty, but what about using them? How do you use them?

They are in fact really easy to use, and they are very effective when you add them to your project!

Rice paper is a lovely, light fibrous paper; if you turn it over you can see all the fibres. As it is somewhat transparent, it works best when placed on a light surface.

One way of using this type of paper, is simply to cut out individual elements of the rice paper with scissors. Glue the image in to place on your project, using a wet glue that doesn't have a high water content, such as Mod-Podge. The reason for this is it won't warp your paper as much as a wetter glue would. As you can see, the images are pretty lovely when cut out:

However my favourite way of using rice paper is to tear out, rather than cut out the images. You can tear rice paper when it is dry, but it is much easier to tear it when it is wet. Get your paintbrush and lightly dampen around the image you want to use. Then just gently pull the paper apart. You end up with lovely soft edges, which is great if you are looking to use the image on a mixed media project, and you want to blend the edges with paint. Again, to glue the image down, apply a little glue on to the surface you are going to stick the image on to, place the image down and smooth out any bumps. Then lightly brush over with more glue to seal it in place.

 Rice Paper can be used on canvasses, in art journals, on cards, scrapbook layouts, glass, ceramics and other mixed media products. 

There really are so many lovely rice papers available these days, why not try some for yourself? We have a range available on our website here.