updated on Creative Time

Making Backgrounds for Festive Papercrafts

image of a grid of various colorful patterned papers with designs like dots, squiggles, and shapes

by Sarah Kuntz Jones, Assistant Branch Manager, St. Louis County Library

This may come as a surprise, but libraries have limited budgets. I’ll give you a minute to recover from the shock of this revelation. It can be a challenge for programming librarians to strike a balance between our enthusiasm for providing inspiring creative programs for our communities with the very real constraints of programming budgets. DIYing anything we can leaves some wiggle room in that budget, while allowing for the opportunity for even more creativity.

Luckily, if there’s one thing a library with children’s programs has, it’s art supplies–paper, paint, crayons, pencils, and markers. Turns out this is all you need–along with Creativebug classes–to make festive, colorful, creative backgrounds that can be used again and again in card-making, collage, and art journal projects as well as other papercrafts.

It is not hard to find inspiration for the backgrounds–there are so many tutorials nestled in daily practices that can be adapted for these purposes. Creativebug has pulled together a mixed tape of tutorials that can lead to a variety of fun designs to be used for any number of projects: Mixtape: 15 Backgrounds

To create the pages, you could host a program to show others how to make backgrounds for their papercrafts. Then again, taking some off-desk time to make these materials for future programs is a great way to catch a breath during a busy day.

PLANNING

Take stock of the supplies you have. The tutorials in the mixtape call for

  • Watercolors
  • Gouache
  • Brush pens
  • Acrylic inks
  • Water-based spray paints
  • Tempera paint markers
  • Acrylic paints
  • Paint brushes
  • Bristol board
  • Watercolor paper
  • Cardstock

If you don’t have these supplies, colored pencils, markers, pens, or paints would work well too. Even a digital art app like Procreate can come in handy if it’s available.

If hosting a background-making program, decide which tutorials you want to feature in the time you have available. Test those patterns–check that there’s plenty of time to finish the designs in the time you’ve allotted for the program. If you have volunteers, you might lead them in a practice session to see how long the projects take to facilitate in real-time.

When you have some designs you like, scan them to make digital files that you can access and print anytime you need some patterned paper.

EXECUTING

Set up for a program like this would be straightforward–gather up and distribute the supplies you have on hand across tables for your attendees. A program like this is facilitated with the help of a laptop, projector, and screen. I demonstrate the steps to access Creativebug through the library’s website, to help participants remember how to do it themselves once they’re at home. From there, the Creativebug instructors will lead the program.  You can periodically stop the tutorial to give everyone time to complete steps, check in on progress, and address any questions.

This is a great opportunity to bring in books on papercrafts to inspire folks to make something with their backgrounds and patterned paper. You could also make flyers promoting other Creativebug classes like Artist Trading Cards or Beginning Collage.

FOLLOWING-UP

After the program, email registrants a PDF of the resource list, including the links to the Creativebug tutorials used in the class and a post-program survey. Encourage participants to share their projects on Instagram to continue to build community. If your library offers printing/copying credits to cardholders, this is a good time for a reminder of that too.

WHAT NEXT?

There are so many ways to make use of these materials. This past November, we facilitated for our patrons the Holiday Craft-Along: 30 Days of Cards, Tags and Packaging Ideas and demonstrated using painted and drawn backgrounds with the items we have on hand can help preserve our budgets and give us more flexibility than purchasing holiday-specific papers.

image of 3 photos of handmade paper holiday cards using creative backgrounds for papercrafts, on the left are cards covered in hearts and on the right or holiday cards with paper ornaments and mittens

Right now at my branch, for a passive card-making program, we’re using backgrounds for making hearts from paper punches and cardstock to embellish appreciative notes to the library.

Maybe these tutorials in the mixtape will inspire you to dip into the full classes:

Creating your own backgrounds can lead you and your library users on all kinds of creative adventures. Where will it take you?