Paper crafting has come into its own and goes much further than traditional scrapbooking. The things I have seen crafters create from paper astound me. The amount of time and patience people put into paper art is equally amazing. From scrapbooking to card making, paper flowers, and even paper quilling, there is no limit to what the imagination can produce.

Embellishments play a large part in paper crafting. They range from simple accessories like washi tape, buttons, miniature clips, and the like to ribbon, HTV, and specialty papers and inks. Each embellishment brings forth a new dimension in paper crafting and is carefully chosen by the crafter for its uniqueness. Vellum paper is one such embellishment.

So what exactly is vellum paper? Originally made from thin calf skin, the process of cleaning, bleaching, and stretching the skin, and then preparing the skin to accept ink, gave vellum durability and smoothness for writing, precise drawing, and even painting. 

Printing on vellum skins continued even past the development of modern paper, simply because people did not know how durable this new paper would be, and how long documents on this new paper would survive.

The traditional way of creating vellum through animal skins is still produced to this day. However, modern vellum paper and stationery are made from cotton rag fibers and continue to offer a smooth finish. 

The smooth finish of modern vellum paper allows the crafter to add to the vellum in different ways. Stamping, alcohol inks, dry brushing with ink, and even more intricate options like embossing, or die cutting, are just a few ways crafters are using vellum paper.

Let’s make a project with vellum paper, just to show how easy it is to use, and a simple application to enhance an everyday project. We’re going to make a card for Fall. Here is what you will need:

Using your preferred cutting method, cut a 5.5” high by 11” long rectangle. Use your scoring tool to score a line down the middle of your rectangle to make a cleaner fold for your card.

Cut a 5” square from your seasonal cardstock paper.

Create your saying to go on the vellum. Using your cutting machine, write the saying on a 4.5” square of vellum paper, and cut out the square. Alternatively, you could cut the 4.5” square by hand, and handwrite your sentiment onto the vellum square.

Use your boning tool to crease the fold in your solid color rectangle.

Using your preferred adhesive, center, and glue or tape the seasonal paper square to the front of the rectangle you just folded. Then, center and glue or tape the vellum paper square to the seasonal paper.

Helpful Tip: When using glue to adhere the vellum paper to the seasonal paper, use a small amount, and only in the corners. Place something heavy on top of the finished card, and allow the glue to dry fully. Doing this will help keep the vellum paper from becoming overly wrinkly where the glue was placed.

How simple was that? The outcome is a nice enhancement versus using solid colors on top of printed cardstock. The vellum paper softens the printed cardstock so the sentiment doesn’t get lost in all the layers and bold print.

In the paper crafting world, there are many different types of paper, and each type of paper is used for something in particular. Thicker paper, like cardstock, is the best choice when creating sturdier products like greeting cards, envelopes, paper flowers, and shadow box scenes. Thinner scrapbooking paper is great for layering for dimension. 

Textweight paper is ideal for paper quilling because it is heavier than regular printer paper, but much more flexible than cardstock, allowing the crafter to roll the paper without creating creases. These types of specialty papers often come in packages of solid colors, are sometimes put together in a collection of prints and solids, or can be sold individually.

Vellum paper, unlike the previously mentioned types of paper, is translucent. It offers a cloudy finish, which can soften solid colors when layered or can elevate a project, like wedding invitations. Vellum paper is also a thinner paper, very similar to tracing paper. 

However, vellum paper can handle the addition of ink on a much higher level than tracing paper. Where tracing paper will wrinkle significantly with the addition of ink, and vellum paper, when dried completely, and often with the help of continuous, low heat, will dry flat. 

We mentioned a few different techniques to use on vellum paper already. Let’s dig in a little deeper to see how these methods are used on vellum paper.

Alcohol ink is a great addition to vellum for a watercolor background effect. This effect creates a beautiful background for cards and allows for word embellishments to pop out a little more from the background versus a solid background. Just be sure to dry the alcohol ink completely before adding more elements!

Dry brushing is a fascinating technique, where you take a dry blending brush, and brush ink from a stamping ink pad onto the vellum. Similar to using a dry brush with paint on a canvas, the cloudy gradient transition of dry brushing adds a peaceful element to your project.

Embossing vellum can be done two ways, blind embossing, or color register embossing. Blind embossing takes a piece of vellum, sandwiches it in an embossing folder, and then runs through a pressing machine. The result of blind embossing is a raised design on the vellum. 

Embossing vellum can be done two ways, blind embossing, or color register embossing. Blind embossing takes a piece of vellum, sandwiches it in an embossing folder, and then runs through a pressing machine. The result of blind embossing is a raised design on the vellum. 

Die-cutting pieces of vellum can be used simply as the cut design and adhered to projects like scrapbooking pages or cards. The die-cut piece of vellum can also then be run through a blind embossing process, creating die-cut, embossed embellishments for your project.

Knowing a little more about the versatility of vellum paper, the imagination can truly run wild with application! With the techniques we mentioned above, vellum paper has multiple uses that go far beyond simple applications. Here are a few more ways you can use vellum paper:

Crafters have barely scratched the service where vellum paper is concerned. With so many brilliant crafters in the world today, new techniques and ways to use vellum paper will begin to unfold. It is always exciting to see how a crafter uses a simple material and elevates their project to the next level, often in ways that I never could have imagined.

So go on, you brilliant crafters! Take the information you’ve learned here today, and go try something new. My pack of vellum paper came with 25 sheets. That means you get multiple chances to create something amazing. Unleash your creativity, and be sure to come back and share with us how you chose to use vellum paper in your projects. You never know who you might inspire!