Thursday, May 6, 2010

Stop to see the paper!



So after my recent post about origami, another fellow paper lover happened to stumble upon my blog—and I'm glad they did! The lovely paper blog is about all things paper, from diy projects to gowns made of nothing but. Currently they're having a contest to win a wonderfully handcrafted picture frame (image above) made from newspaper and felt. All you have to do to be entered into the contest is the following:

1. Follow their blog (what paper lover wouldn't want to do that?)
2. Leave a comment
3. Write your own blog about the contest (lend a hand
to fellow bloggers and help promote!)

With this fun and creative contest about paper taking place I thought I'd talk about a couple of other must have/must sees for avid paper lovers.


The book Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut, by Ravin Smith celebrates one of our oldest artist materials. It provides a historical look at paper from its creation to contemporary use. Paperprofiles fifty artists and designers that use and manipulate the material in non-traditional ways. Featured artists include: Andreas Kocks, Rachel Whiteread, Robert Ryan, and Thomas Demand. If you're looking for a book that will not only fill your brain with the history of paper, but also introduces you to some "outside of the box" uses by some of the great contemporaries, then this is it! Oh, did I mention the book has an interactive component too?


If I'm going to talk about paper then I should also mention something to contain this historical gem. The book Re-bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled Repurposed Materials is chalked full of amazing ways in which to bind your paper. And since going green as become as popular as sliced bread, this how-to book is a double win! The book contains sixteen step-by-step instructions on how to take every day house hold items and turn them in to a masterpiece for your bookshelf.

Last, but not least we can't forget about our wallpaper lovers! I will be the first to admit I'm not a fan of wallpaper in the traditional sense. It's rare now-a-days that I see wallpaper adorning a wall that doesn't look tacky—yes there have been some exceptions. However, wallpaper in the non-traditional sense I'm game. Coming into the home stretch before my wedding I've been scouring some of my go-to websites for last minute diy projects and came across a project forpersonalized napkins that uses wallpaper. I was really attracted to the vintage wallpaper they used that I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing Vintage Wallpapers' website. They literally have hundreds upon hundreds of different styles ranging from the 1930s to the 80s. With such a great paper to start with the creative possibilities are endless!

So whether you're going big, going green, or trying to go back in time take a second to appreciate a paper and all of its infinite potential!

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