Though the word “ornare” may look exotic and strange, it’s actually the word for piercing paper to “draw” cool patterns and designs.

I never knew this crafting art existed until I was researching my first papercrafting post and happened across supplies for “ornare” among the listings at various papercraft websites. “What in the world is ornare?” I wondered. Then I clicked and found out!

Ornare the Professional (More Expensive) Way

You can buy actual ornare kits, complete with special foam board, all kinds of pretty paper, and special needles to poke the holes with. Along with Creative Papercrafts’ page, I discovered a couple of other interesting sites where you can pick up ornare supplies, like pattern templates, piercing pads (to protect the surface underneath your pierced paper as well as to give you a cleaner punch), needle tools, etc. They appear listed below:

Kamya.com Ornare Templates
EcstasyCrafts’ Ornare Section
TerryficTimes.com Ornare Introduction
PaperWishes.com Ornare Template

Ornare the Cheap Way

However, while looking at all of this, a thought kept popping to mind: “Why couldn’t I just do this with regular printer paper of any color, a few pieces of foam core or flat styrofoam, and a regular sewing needle?”

So, here’s what I brainstormed (and my theory is backed up by this post over at Gem’s Cottage):

1. Find an outline of a picture you like (nothing too detailed or you’ll go crazy trying to copy it).
2. Lightly draw your chosen pattern on your printer paper with pencil. Make sure the outline can erase neatly!
3. Lay your paper pattern on top of some foam core or flat styrofoam. Likely you will need to affix it using either some sort of clip, or even a piece of easily-removable tape or pins.
4. With your needle, begin to punch holes at small regular intervals along the lines of your pattern–almost like Connect the Dots in reverse!
5. Once you’re finished piercing the pattern out, erase all the light pencil marks.
6. Now, you can leave the paper as is, cut out your pattern and layer a contrasting color of paper underneath it, or whatever your crafting heart desires!

With these kinds of instructions, ornare is an approachable and easy art form for making delicate and beautiful paper art!

To Learn More

The Search Press Book of Traditional Papercrafts offers even more insight on how to start doing crafts featuring ornare. Try it and let your imagination pierce through the paper!