Paper Tips for Rice Paper Decoupage

Tips for choosing handmade or rice paper that will work for my Fast & Easy Rice Paper Decoupage Project:

~Choose a paper with an all-over repeat pattern because that will definitely work well when it’s torn up.

~A paper with a very large motif might be beautiful as a whole paper, but will probably be tough to use in this project because once you tear it up, the image might not have the same impact.

~Avoid papers where the motif is small and very spread out for the same reason as above–if you have too much negative space, you’ll have a lot of wasted paper when you tear it up.

~If you want to use several papers together in one project, you might want to avoid papers that are too high contrast in relation to each other–the combination could work out really well, but because you are patching together lots of  varied pieces of torn paper, it could end up looking a little choppy, leaving your eyes nowhere to land.

~Make sure the background color you see on the front of the paper is the color of the paper itself (same color on back)–if the paper is white on the back, you might be a little disappointed when you tear it up because you’ll have white torn edges which will have a big impact on the final design. (This can actually work for some projects, and I’ve got a few coming up that do just that, but it might be tough here on a large piece.)

~Don’t be afraid to keep it simple–just because you’re not suffering doesn’t mean you’re cheating!

A Few Online Handmade Paper Resources

If you want to try the Fast & Easy Rice Paper Decoupage technique, and need to buy your handmade paper online, it’s not so easy to find.  To help out, I’ve listed a few links here, including where I bought my paper for this project.

New York Central Art Supply
This site is kind of confusing, because the pictures and the text don’t line up that well, but I buy from them in person and there are a lot of papers on these pages that I’ve used and know work well for this project:

http://www.nycentralartsupply.com/asiaii/thailand3.html

http://www.nycentralartsupply.com/asiaii/thailand.html

Specifically:

• All the Marbled Momi papers: Earthquake, Tsunami, Firestorm, Forest, etc.
• All the solid color Unryu and Unryu Momi papers–I’ll be using some in the video where I combine Stamping and Embossing with the Decoupage
• The three Tribal Papers–I used them on the round vase in the picture on the first video…
• And the Climbing Vines also work well and come in a of of colors….
• I don’t think they have the tie-dye papers I used in the video online yet, but I’m sure you can call and still order it. It comes in several colors.

You can order a catalog and/or a whole swatch book or just order individual swatches (up to 5 are free of charge). I definitely recommend that, as their catalog is black and white.

Creative Papers Online
http://handmade-paper.us/ : I’ve never shopped here but it looks promising. They let you buy samples, which is key when you’re buying online so you don’t waste your money. Remember if the paper is a little stiff, it has to be very thin, and if it’s thick, it has to be very soft.

A Couple Suggestions:

• The pattern on this paper would work really well, you just need to check if it’s soft enough: http://handmade-paper.us/page/CPO/PROD/CP-71
• The pattern on this one would also work: http://handmade-paper.us/page/CPO/PROD/blf/29-20-03

If you know any other places to order great handmade paper online, please let us know in the Comments section below.
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