Faux Paper Pleating Tutorial

Hello everyone! Aymee (southernbellescrapper) here! I am so glad to be doing my first blog post for Scrapbook Circle! This is exciting! Today, I wanted to share a technique that several of the SBC members had asked me about....paper pleating. There are so many ways to paper pleat and I have tinkered with many of them. But this is how I have been paper pleating lately and have found it so much easier for me. I hope it will be easier for you too.

Now, this is one of my first tutorials, so bear with me. I hope I can explain everything to you well. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment and ask me. I will do my best to help in any way that I can!!! :)


First, I wanted to share with you the layout that I had so many comments on asking me how to do the pleating so you can have an idea of what we will be reviewing in the tutorial. The red behind the die cut paper is my pleating.

Now, here recently, I have preferred to stagger my pleats, but this is just a personal taste. If you do not want to stagger them, you do not have to. You could just as easy line them up all in a straight row. Both ways look great!!! Whatever you like...go for it! I know it will be awesome!

To create this look on your pages you will need the following:
2"x2" squares (cardstock or patterned paper)
Bone Folder
Decorative Edged Scissors (if desired)
Ink (if desired)
Adhesive

Now, you can choose any decorative edge that you like or none at all. Again, it's pure personal preference. I have tried to do this with a border punch a few times and not had the best success. If the paper is thin, I believe it would work. But if you are like me, you like thick paper, and the border punch is just not feasible in this situation.

Step One:
Turn your paper over and fold in the right hand side as shown. Smooth the fold with a bone folder. How far you fold in is up to you. If you fold in more, your pleats will be smaller. If you fold in just a tad, your pleats will be larger. I personally just wing it and go for all different sizes.

Step Two:
Repeat same process on the opposite side. After I have each side folded over, I like to take just a tiny strip of adhesive and adhere each 'flap' closed. Again, this is just personal preference. You do not have to adhere if you do not want to.

Step Three:
Using your decorative edge scissors, cut the ends of the pleats.

Step 4:
I chose to ink my individual pleats with some Color Box Chalk ink to help each individual pleat stand out more.

Step 5:

For this next step, turn over whatever paper you are wanting to add the pleats to. Above, I added them to some decorative edge paper. But in this example, I chose a strip of patterned paper. Lay down 1-2 strips of adhesive at the edge where you will be placing your pleats. You will want to stagger the pleats evenly as shown.

Step 6:

Now it's time to fill in the spaces with the remaining pleats. At this point, you may stagger them as I have chosen to do or you can line them up evenly. Either way will produce a beautiful result.

Add to your layout and voila'....the end result.....

Now how simple and fun was that?! I hope you all will give this a go on a future papercrafting project! We'd love to see what you can do so be sure to post your ideas in the gallery here at Scrapbook Circle!

Have a beautiful day and Happy Scrappin'!!!