A Trellis Technique Tutorial from our DT Janine!

Hello everyone!

How are you all doing this fine Sunday afternoon ? We do hope you've had a very restful weekend, as this week is promising to be an extremely busy one for Paper Lane!

Watch out for our posts on our 2nd Design Challenge! (hooray!), our massive Anniversary Sale Offers (double hooray!) , and the details of our raffle draw for Paper Lane's Grand Birthday winner/s!!! (this one is guaranteed to be the biggest hooray, we promise you!)

For the meantime, we now would like you to learn about our Second Tutorial, courtesy of our DT Janine Smith, whose Sweetheart card featured last week drew a lot of interest and awe from our readers.

For the secret on  how to make it, please read on :

Hey crafty ladies, today I am going to share with you how I created the trellis technique on this card...

Decide on what shape you would like to use on your card; I decided on a heart shape because I wanted to create a romantic card.  You can use any shape you like and if you own a die cut machine it will make this step even easier.  I do not own a die cut machine so I used a heart shape template.


Tools you will need: cardstock and or patterned paper of your choice, a pair of scissors, a cutting knife, tape, glue, a rubber, embellishments of your choice and strips of paper cut to whatever width you decide on.

On the front of your folded card, trace the shape of your template.  If you using a die cut machine skip the next strep.

Cut out your shape.  Do not throw the shape away as you can use it later to decorate the inside of your card or on other projects. If you have any pencil lines showing use your rubber to get rid of it.

If you opted for a die cut on the front of your card, you will follow the steps from here on.

You will from now on work on the inside of your card i.e. the back of the shape on the front of the card.  Place strips of tape all around the shape; make sure the tape is placed at least a quarter of an inch from the  shape itself.  It does not matter if it does not look neat, we will be covering this with paper later on.  

Start placing the strips of paper across your shape securing it on each side with the strips of tape (I used double sided tape which is available at Paperlane).  Make sure you cover the whole shape and ensure that your strips are as evenly spaced as possible.

Starting in the middle of your shape, secure the one end of your next strip on the tape and start weaving over and under and over and under the strips of paper you taped down,  When you start on the second strip make sure you do it in reverse.  For example where you went under previously you now go over.  Remember you are weaving the paper to create the trellis effect.

When you are complete your shape should look something like this...make sure your ends are securely taped down and evenly spaced.

For the next step you have several options...you can choose to cover the inside of the card with patterned paper, or with plain cardstock. In my example for this tutorial I decided on pale green cardstock.  

Measure the size you want.  Tape or glue the cardstock onto the inside of your card.  The paper you used with be visible through the front of the card as shown below.

Decorate as you wish!

In my project I cut black cardstock to measure 16 x 12 inches; scored and folded in half - I opted for a landscape card shape as you can see.  Next I matted gold cardstock onto the front of the card.  I chose the rose patterned sheet of paper from the DCWV Tradewinds paper stack, measured it to mat on the gold cardstock and glued it down after I created my trellis. The Tradewinds paper stack is not double sided so I traced my heart shape onto the back of the pattered paper and did exactly as the steps indicate in the above tutorial.  In my project the gold cardstock is revealed through the trellis effect created by the white paper strips. I used the cut out from the heart shape to decorate the inside of the card.  

I took white cardstock and with a perforated blade cut strips of paper with my paper cutter.


There you go!!! Pretty ingenious, isnt it ? Would be great if you could make your own version and upload it on our FB page!

Thanks for dropping by and see you again soon!