Ripping and peeling paper is a fun way to add warm, hand crafted accents to you pages. Almost any paper scrap can be turned into a cute accent. Mastering a few 
tearing techniques will turn your “regular” pages into “wow” pages. You can create beautiful boarders, backgrounds and shapes by tearing paper. Here a few versatile and whimsy ways to decorate your layouts.
Practice with scrap paper to get the feel of how different papers well tear. Once you get the feel for it, you will become a pro and enjoy doing this technique over and over again.
To make a basic tear, hold the paper in your non-dominant hand. Tear with your index finger and thumb, going gently and slowly for you a straight tear or rapidly for a modern look. If your paper is jagged, you may be tearing against the grain. Rotate the paper about 90 degrees and try again.
To tear strong paper, wet the paper with a small paint brush or cotton swab. Once the water soaks in, gently tear the paper. When the paper dries, you will not be able to see the water marks. Using water will make it easier to tear shapes such as circles and hearts.
To tear intricate shapes, sketch your design first. Brush with water to weaken the lines. To make it a little easier, use a scoring blade or stylus and firmly push against your cardstock to weaken it. Tear you paper along the lines.
Remember that different papers result in different looks. Heavy cardstocks are usually died and the color will stay the same with the tear. Patterned paper typically has a white core or light colored edges vellum is so shear that the edges are not visual. Try adding chalk to the edges to give extra dimension. By trying these few techniques you will be amazed at the different looks you will add to your pages.
Scrapbooking by Close To My Heart Consultant Marcy Larsen. Scrapbook Layouts, stamping techniques and more at marcylarsen.com
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