Papercraft

The term papercraft is usually associated with any craft which mainly involves paper.  Sounds simple!  Well basically it is, the main papercrafts that people know are cardmaking, scrapbooking, decoupage and paper tole (which can be known as 3D decoupage).  But there are many more due to the number of ways you can use paper.  Paper is a poular media to use in many childrens crafts as it is inexpensive and easy to get hold of.  It is also easy to change the appearance of paper by using a vairety of items such as pens, pencils or paints which makes it the number one choice for school crafts.

Some of the papercrafts mentioned above are actually classed as mixed media crafts due to the use of ot he materials in the crafts.  For example, in scrapbooking and cardmaking it is not uncommon to use fabric or fibres as embellishments to enhance to look of the item.

There are many magazines available to buy just on paper craft and usually include pages and pages of projects that can be done with only basic materials and skill.  These magazines are very popular with parents and teachers, especially when there is a special occasion coming up such as  Easter, Halloween or Christmas, as the magazines will usually dedicate to months magazine to crafts relating to the special occasion.

Papercraft is also another word for the craft of Papermodel, which in broad terms is the art of constructing models from card stock or heavy paper.   The hobby was made popular during WorldWar II when paper was the only material readily available, and although the popularity did diminish a bit since then it still had a strong following and was always another favourite for school crafts.  However the popularity has increased again in recent times due to the availability of the internet where people can now get model plans and instructions for free, which can then be downloaded and printed at home, and even resized to meet the personal requirements of the modeller.  Due to theadvancements in computer software there is now no limit to the models available to make, which can range from the very real cars, planes and buildings, to fictional spacecraft, animals and vehicles.

For any papercraft you will need to collect together a papercraft toolkit.