Just Rip It!

Do you ever get tired of trying to line up decorative scissors and yearn for something simple? Try ripping your paper. That's right...just rip it! Torn paper adds texture and dimension to a scrapbook page, or any paper project for that matter. Plus, it's so easy!

Tearing paper is simple, but here are some extra tips:

	For a "natural" tear, just place both hands at the top of the paper and rip, without moving your hands. This gives you a very pure tear without you controlling it.
	For a controlled tear (for example, when you are trying to rip paper in a specific shape), make short little tears, moving your hands down along the tear to make it conform to the shape you want.
	Most torn paper has a right side and a wrong side. One side will look more textured and frayed. This is especially true if you are ripping cardstock that has a white core. Choose which side gives you the look you want.
	You are not restricted to ripping cardstock alone. Try ripping patterned paper, vellum paper etc.

Here are some ideas about how to use torn paper on your next layout.

Use torn paper to mat your photo. Instead of cutting your paper with scissors or using your trimmer, just rip it instead. You can also rip mats for your journaling, page titles etc. In this example, the scrapbooker ripped little squares of cardstock to use for each letter in her title. The creator also ripped the "sand" in her layout.
That brings us to our next idea...using torn paper to create "scenes" on your pages. Torn paper would make excellent sand, snow, snowmen, waves, grass, mountains, trees, waterfalls, and more. Use the suggestions in the tips section above to achieve control in shaping your scene. This scrapbooker used torn paper for the snowman, his nose, and the snow on the ground.
Rip backgrounds. Not only can you create scenes and objects with ripped paper, but abstract elements as well. For example, just layer torn paper strips to create a background, as in this dirt layout. Or try using vertical strips of paper to get a totally different effect. You could also rip borders, side bars etc.

Using torn paper in your layouts is fast, easy and fun. Anyone can do it. So, Just rip it!

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