Wednesday 9 January 2013

Paper quilt

I recently tried a crafty idea that I saw in a past issue of Frankie Magazine - I made a paper quilt for my wall. Now I hear you asking what is a paper quilt, well here is a little picture of how it turned out in the hallway of my house.


You can use any paper that you like to make your paper quilt. I must admit that I searched for weeks to find the paper that inspired me. I was very lucky to stumble across Love Mae (www.lovemae.com.au). Love Mae has many wrapping paper designs to choose from and they are very reasonable priced in my opinion anyway. 

If you would like to make a paper quilt for your wall or to give as a gift to someone you love (the little hexagons would look so cute bundled up, wrapped in string with an instruction sheet) then here is a little step by step guide.

What you will need

Wrapping paper of your choice
White cardboard 
Glue stick
Pencil
Scissors
Ruler

You need the same amount of cardboard as you do your wrapping paper. You will need a little bit more cardboard for your hexagon template.

I used wrapping paper that was 35cm x 50cm and this made quite a few hexagons.

Steps

1. Print out a hexagon template. My hexagons are approximately 9cm wide however you choose whatever size works for you. I simply searched for a hexagon template in Google.

2. Cut out your hexagon template and glue it to a piece of cardboard. Cut around your hexagon so that you now have a nice firm hexagon to trace around.

3. Now make sure that the size of each piece of your wrapping paper is the same as the pieces of cardboard. Glue each sheet of wrapping paper to the corresponding piece of cardboard. I found that using a ruler to drag over the paper helped get rid of any bubbles (don't press too hard of your could mark or tear your gorgeous paper). I foundd this bit kind of tricky but I persevered and got there in the end. 

This step could sound a bit unnecessary however I found it easier to attach the shapes to my wall. I also think that it will help them last longer.

4. With the paper now glued to the cardboard you get a tracing. Trace as many hexagons as you can fit onto the cardboard side of your paper. 

5. Cut around each hexagon that you have traced. This will leave you with a lovely pile of quilt pieces in the varying designs of wrapping paper that you chose.

6. Choose a place where you would like to show off your craftiness and attach the quilt pieces to your wall in whatever design that you like. I used small pieces of blu-tack to attach the pieces to the wall. I also left a small gap in between each quilt piece as it tends to hide any unevenness with your cutting (I certainly found that anyway).

7. Voila! Stand back and admire your new paper quilt wall art.


Now this only took me about two hours to achieve. Remembering that I love to break for cups of tea on my deck and give my handsome fat cat, Yoda, a belly scratch, so it may only take you an hour or so. However long it ends up taking you I certainly found the process and the results extremely fun. I love looking at my wall of craftiness.

MerryMeagan 
xxoo



2 comments:

  1. That looks great Meagan. I love the colours. I love patchwork- and now I wish I could find a way to make a patchwork scarf. I look forward to reading your future posts - Prue :)

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  2. So clever and a very cute outcome. I also like the blu-tack idea - permanency scares me. Mx

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