Paper Tearing Technique

December's Creative kit from My Creative Scrapbook is full of beautiful winter papers from Crate Paper. I had so much fun working with the papers and the pieces - there are so many pieces - in this kit. This month I wanted to share a technique I used on several of my layouts. I hope you like it! If you've never torn paper for a layout you are missing out - especially when you are creating winter layouts. It adds a fun look and it is super easy to do. Amazingly, I've talked to several people who are unsure of how to do it and make it look good. First, let me say it is TORN paper so it really can't be wrong - right? I personally tear paper in short sections. Depending on the look I want to achieve I either tear the paper towards me or away. Check out the differences:

Here I tore the paper away from me. The paper still looks the same along the tear line. Here I tore the paper towards me. Can you see the difference? The paper is white along the tear line.

This is the method I chose to use on my December Creative kit layouts. I think the white part gives a kind of snow capped looked. For my Winter Wishes layout I tore my paper into 3 pieces (per page). I added diamond stickles to the torn parts for an added sparkle. Once the stickles was dry I added the pieces to my layout.

On my Winter Snuggles layout I started out watering down my paper strips using a small spray bottle. Once the paper was pretty wet I tore the paper towards me in small sections as well. This time I also tore little sections further open as well. I finished by curling the torn paper up. At this point I let my paper dry over night. You could also use a heat gun to dry the paper. It will be stiff once it is dry. I added ink to the papers when they were dry and then created my layout.

I also tore the pattern paper on the dashing through the snow layout. For this particular layout I used a pencil and ruler to draw a line from corner to corner of the 12x12 paper. I used the line as a guide as I tore across the paper. I didn't want it to follow the line perfectly but I did want to make sure I was on track to make it to the other corner when I finished tearing. After I tore the paper I placed it on the cardstock. I placed adhesive along the torn edge and then slide in the "snowball" looking ribbon along the edge. I hope you like it!