Starting by taking a piece of cardstock and make folds every 2 cm (1/2”- 3/4”). There are lots of possibilities to do so I have used the mini scor-board, but you can use other ways to make the scores and, when your cardstock is not that heavy, you even can fold it by hand.
Fold the cardstock and colour the edges direct-to-paper with distress inks; you can use one colour and more, whatever you fancy.
Unfold it and pleat the other way and colour the edges again. When you unfold for the second time, your cardstock should look like the photo above.
Spray water on your cardstock, the inks will start to bleed immediately.
Iron your cardstock. And this is how it looks like when the cardstock is completely dry.
Mask off some areas and put a stamp into the stripes you have created this way; do that every other stripe.
Pleat the top half and punch a hole.
Decorate the bottom half and thread some ribbon through the holes, re-arrange the pleats a bit. This will make awesome gift tags. It’s simple but effective.
This is how it looks when you use mulberryor handmade papers, the bleeding looks even more beautiful on these papers.
This is a gift tag I made with the mulberry paper.
Have fun playing around with different colours and papers.
Warmly, Hermine Koster © July 2009
