Pages of Style #4: Scripted Scatter

Welcome drinks table with Confetti

One element I have already made for the wedding is confetti - one evening while Better Half was at work I settled for a quiet night in with chocolate, a good movie and a selection of different sized punches. I turned a whole copy of the Shakespeare play into heart shaped confetti, which I am now adding to with the off-cuts of handmade petal paper from the invitations.


There's plenty of ways of using paper confetti through out an event - it can my mixed with natural petals (I'm getting some from Shropshire Petals who have a fantastic selection) and used at the traditional moments, scattered by flower girls before the bride and for 'that' photo. How about to decorate tables? A more subtle approach is to only use it on addition spaces - the table you set up the welcome drinks on, around the guestbook or postbox for cards, even to line the edges of a flight of stairs with hurricane vases containing candles.

Dove Shaped Confetti

The obvious choice of shape is hearts, but there are endless options of punches: how about bird shapes of To Kill a Mockingbird? or a selection of different flower shapes? A Christmas Carol punches with holly leaves, stars and presents? Or Alice in Wonderland as rabbits, hats, cats, flowers, bottles etc? Not to mention butterflies, balloons and snowflakes, the list of possibilities goes on and can be adapted to any theme. Another way to mix it up is to use 2 or 3 different sizes of the same shape.

I love confetti as decoration, but sometimes I feel it's become over done. To mix it up and to add another dimension, you could make 3D elements to be accompanied by traditional 2D shapes. To make the butterflies below, I punched the shape from pages of Romeo & Juliet and coloured paper. I then folded the top shape long the two sides of the 'body', so the wings were lifted, adding PVA glue along the 'body', line the two shapes together and allow to dry. This looks great, especially when the book page alternates between the top and bottom layers.

These 3D shapes could also by glued to wire and used in flowers, or used as detail on your invites or menus.

3D Butterflies with colourful confetti

The 3 punches I have used: Woodward Mini,
Regular & Large

The best quality punches I have come across are from Woodware and are available in a selection of sizes Mini (1cm), through Regular (2cm) which would be the ideal size for confetti, all the way up to Super Duper (7.5cm). Many local craft stores and online retailers stock Woodware and the different sizes are colour-coded for ease.
Be careful not to use thick card or paper, as the pressure needed to make the shape can break the punch, I have already had to replace a punch as it can struggle with the handmade paper.

Confetti Cones

Another way to include your book of choice, without spending hours punching holes in the pages, is to make cones to hold rice-paper or petal confetti (remember to be kind to the environment, the metalic stuff doesn't decompose, can hurt wildlife and is a hassle to clean up). It it really easy: simply add glue of double sided tape along one edge of a page and roll until your desired shape.
As with all these ideas you can use any paper to make cones - a version I really like is to design and print a double sided square/rectangle, cut it out, (stain with a used teabag , if you want an aged effect) and roll as before. This way you can select your favourite quotes, use a variety of fonts and                                                                             each cone will look as good as the next.

I have to admit, I am really enjoying exploring what can be made from paper
Join me soon for more ideas.

TTFN ~ Kate xxx