If you search the Internet, you’ll find many craft ideas using cardboard. I was first introduced to this idea when I watched a video created by scrapbook designer, Gabrielle Pollacco. She creates fabulous scrapbook layouts and in the particular video I was watching, she used corrugated cardboard as a background. I was surprised at the beautiful results and it convinced me to start using cardboard in my own art projects.
Corrugated cardboard offers an inexpensive way to add natural texture and interest to your backgrounds. It’s very versatile and can be torn, cut or colored with spray paint or acrylic paint. If you mess it up, no big deal, just go find another box, at my house there is no shortage, whatsoever. 🙂
Here are some craft ideas using cardboard:
In this first image, you can see how the corrugated cardboard was painted black. It makes an interesting background for my *bird (see bottom of my post for more details). I made a nest with Spanish moss, added some eggs, a few “grapes” and leaves to complete my shadow box.
Here is an example of an art card covered with corrugated cardboard and painted with ivory acrylic paint. I purposely left some of the cardboard showing through. I wound some jute around the top and attached a large and very interesting earring. (I bought the earring at a second hand store and repainted it.) The word “future” was torn from a free printable that I offer on my website.
Here I used corrugated cardboard as a background for a greeting card. (The flowers were painted using navy and blue acrylic paint. In the center, I placed a round textured piece of clay on top of a bit of lace.
In this piece, I used the cardboard to cover an old wall plaque. Then I added some silk flowers, leaves and weeds. I dry brushed the cardboard with a tiny bit of black acrylic paint and added gold paint to the center of the flower and along the edges of the leaves etc.
So now that you have some craft ideas using cardboard, here is how to get started. First, cut or tear (for a more organic look) your cardboard to the size you need. Then spray or soak one side with water for several minutes until the paper pulls away easily. After it’s dry, you can either leave it natural or paint it. Then you can glue things on top of it or do anything else you would do with regular paper or cardstock.
As you can see, creating effective, textured backgrounds for your art and mixed media projects is quick and simple as long as you have some cardboard on hand.
*The bird was created digitally using GIMP, a free image editing program, then printed out on cardstock and cut out. You can see it here on one of my cards at Greeting Card Universe and here as a stock image at Dreamstime.