Upcycling Paper in Card Making - Quilled Mosaic Card

Remember the compass card I posted a few days ago? Here's a different design in which I used the same "found" paper.

quilled card on textured background
The patterned background was originally the cover of a contemporary art museum catalog that caught my eye when it arrived in the mail. Because I loved the colors and its textured vibe, I couldn't bear the thought of banishing it to the recycling bin. So out came the trimmer and a short while later... big rectangle, torn edge, little squares, some added triangles, and bam!... a surface ready for coils and scrolls.

The strips for the filigree design were cut from interesting speckled paper that started life as a theater program. A random quilled design like this one is easier to do than it appears at first glance because there's really no right or wrong way to position the elements. Trust yourself to go with the flow as you glue each piece in place and I'm pretty certain you'll be happy with the result.

If you like to work with textured backgrounds, Zen Textures [edit: site no longer available] is an incredible resource for papers that can be printed out at no cost. There are 76! pages of very cool surfaces. Be sure to check out their gracious Terms of Use. And as they say... Go crazy folks…but remember: always texture wisely.

Ann Martin
Ann Martin

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