Today’s post features a papercrafting art that is both decorative and functional: parchment craft (or Pergamano). It is generally used for greeting cards and gift tags, but it’s also extendable to ornaments, picture frames, and even boxes!

How Do You Do It?

To craft with parchment paper, you can emboss or paint designs onto the paper, and/or cut it into interesting shapes. Parchment is thinner than regular paper, so it takes better to raised designs, like fancy lettering or detailed shapes, but you do have to be careful with it so you don’t accidentally tear it.

Tools You Need and Basic Techniques

• Mapping pen (used generally with white ink) – for drawing out larger, bolder designs on the “rough” side of the parchment paper before you emboss them
• White pencil – for tracing smaller, finer designs before you emboss them
• Embossing tools – for raising designed lines on the paper. Press down/rub back and forth gently on the “rough” side of the parchment, and on the other side, your design will appear as a whiter area. Narrower embossing tools make sharper lines; wider tools make softer raised areas.
• Scissors – for cutting and shaping the paper
• Needle tools – for perforating parchment, lending a light and lacy look–great for borders and within embossed designs. Single-needle and multi-needle tools are available to create different shapes!
• Felt pads – for cushioning your parchment so that you can emboss and perforate the paper without damaging the paper or the surface underneath.

Other Fun Techniques

• Add color with markers, acrylic paints, colored pencils, crayons, and even watercolors. Doing this gives your parchment crafts a more modern look, since colors were not traditionally used for Pergamano until the 20th century.
• Use the needle tools in concert with small scissors to create interesting borders for your designs. Perforating and then cutting selectively can give you lovely snowflake-like looks in a matter of minutes!

To Learn More:

ArtofParchmentCraft.com
Parchment Craft Magazine
Free Pergamano Patterns
CreativePapercrafts.com Pergamano page
The Pergamano Place