Using Washi paper on your scrapbook LOs

When I first arrived in Japan, I fell down playing softball, broke my wrist and was not able to get any scrapbooking accomplished. However, I was able to go shopping so ideas began to swim around in my head about what I could make with all the beautiful washi (rice) papers I found. Once I got my cast off, this page became my first project.

First, I tore the washi around the edges, which was quite easy to do. It comes in really huge sheets, but I cut mine into 12x12 before tearing. Then the edges were inked and the entire thing was adhered to my background paper.

The photo was then double-matted on SEI papers from the Chocolat collection. I love the colors and feel of these beautiful papers. Before I glued the photo down, though, I took a Mizuhiki crane off of a greeting card and wrapped it around my photo. (more on Mizuhiki later). The title stickers are from the same SEI collection. A bit of bling, some ribbons and blooms and the page is almost done.

The journaling was added by running a piece of the SEI paper through my computer. The right end - though it does not show up well here - is folded over and underneath lies a tiny scrap of my cast. Someday, cast material may differ from the current material, so I wanted to keep a small bit for nostalgic reasons.

For the final touch, I used Daisy D's rub-on stitch tape around the border of the entire page. I didn't put my page in a protector right away, and some of the border tape rubbed off. All in all, I think the Japanese touches are quite pretty!

What is Mizuhiki? Mizuhiki is a ribbon-like paper cord made from washi and cut into long thin strips, twisted into strings then covered with a seaweed glue mixture to stiffen it. After the cord is formed it is polished or wrapped colored metallic paper for hundreds of beautiful color combinations. The finished cord is used to tie gifts for congratulations, condolences, and weddings. Most traditional Japanese money envelopes are tied with fanciful mizuhiki decorative knots such as the crane used in my LO. You can find many resources on the web if you wish to use Mizuhiki in your LOs.