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Custom Tissue Paper Breathes Life into Upcycled Furniture, Thanks to Roycycled Treasures!
Custom Tissue Paper Breathes Life into Upcycled Furniture, Thanks to Roycycled Treasures!

We love our custom tissue paper customers, since they are so often creative people who love to make their interesting products special! Just when we think we’ve found the most inventive use of custom tissue paper, another comes along that takes a whole new twist on the capabilities of custom tissue paper. Digiwrap customer Roycycled Treasures works in the upcycled furniture business—but she does more than takes the shabby and makes it chic. She creates works of art—and a key ingredient to her process is her custom-designed tissue paper that she uses to decoupage everything from old door fronts to desks and trunks and everything in between. She both upcycles her own projects and designs a popular line of large-scale tissue paper for others to use on their decoupage projects—check out the designs on her store.

We sat down with Royce to understand her path to designing custom tissue paper and upcycling, to find out why Digiwrap tissue paper works well for decoupage, and to get an idea of what inspires her obvious creative genius!

Photographs show Roycycled Treasures tissue paper designs, used on projects of various makers across the country! Click most photos to be linked to the upcycler’s website. 

How did you get into furniture upcycling?

I’ve always been crafty. I used to deal with papier-mâché deer heads. I shipped them all over the world—and then Hannah Anderson ordered 50 of them for a store. That was the last I made because it’s so time consuming. When I was done, I started looking around for things to do. I started doing small furniture pieces. I was looking at a desk I had painted white and thought it would be cool if I could get script on the drawer faces—I love ephemera. That idea started all the trouble. I started scouring the Internet looking for script tissue paper. But the script wasn’t anywhere on tissue, so I stumbled onto Zazzle, where you can design your own tissue paper that Digiwrap prints, and I made me some. 

From there, I had a vision—but the products to execute the idea didn’t exist. The issue with decoupaging furniture is that you can find small tissue with small patterns, and when you put that on a piece of furniture, it doesn’t have as big of an impact. So I decided to make designs that were bigger so they would have a larger impact. I started a line of designs on Zazzle that were scaled for larger decoupage projects.

What is your design background?

I don’t have a background in design at all. I’ve just always been creative and my mind works the way it works. I’m trying to be better now and am taking courses. It’s funny because a lot of the things I’m learning I was already applying to my own designs—it’s just how my mind balances things.

At first, I would use my designs for myself and save it on Zazzle—I have a very specific aesthetic. I like “the weirder stuff”—a very steampunk feel. But I have a lot of friends who upcycle and repurpose. One friend likes a farmhouse style. She was like, “I need some chickens and country stuff. Help me out.” After designing some for friends for about a year, I realized there was a market for it—I thought I would see what happened. Then I started listing my designs 3 years ago on Zazzle. It’s really just taken off in the last year and a half. A lot is because I’ve been pouring more effort into my business. Once I started selling my designs, my customers would make requests—floral, butterflies. That has led a lot of my designs.

What are you passionate about?

I love teaching and I am inspired by my students. I work full time and take care of my mom full time. I don’t have time to do all the pieces I used to. Moving forward, I’m looking to do more designing and instruction. I do tutorials and teach others how to do furniture upcycling projects and decoupage. Teaching a class and watching that “aha!” moment is like gold. I love helping others just coming into the industry. And my customers are so much more talented than I am. They are awesome.

I’m also looking forward to experimenting with products. I’m always going to have a project going because I have to—I really do—I have to create. In my day job I do a lot of left brain lifting. When I come home, I have to create.

How do you decide what to upcycle next?

You’re going to laugh at me but it’s the truth: the pieces tell me what they want. Sometimes I don’t agree with them and try to do something different, but it never works out! So a piece will speak to me, and I will buy it and make it new. Sometimes I take something old and change it into something else—I’ll take the bottom of a trunk, put legs on it, add a top, and make it into a console table. But truly, my projects tell me what they want. I recently finished a project, but it didn’t agree with me that it was done, so I started working on it again this week—and it’s turning out totally different!

Roycycled Treasures

What inspires you when you are designing something new?

It depends. It’s always different. I collect ephemera and have an attachment. My friends think I’m crazy, but I might come across an invoice from 1890 with a cool header, and my mind starts mulling over possibilities. In the 1800s, typography was an art form. People would take it very seriously to show off what they do. So ephemera moves me creatively the most. Sometimes I’ll see something beautiful, like an old book, and I’ll think, “Ooo, I wonder if…”. And the more I create, the more ideas I have. I’m working on a design right now that has prompted other ideas. So instead of one design, I have 4 designs, and these all spark others. The inspiration comes and goes in cycles, also. I’ll be in a mode like this and create, and then I won’t for a while.

Do you have tips for anyone interested in trying their own decoupage for the first time?

Be prepared to be patient. You may not do it right the first time. A lot of people try it once and are discouraged. But you can get the hang of it, and then it’s not that hard. It’s a beautiful way to personalize your environment. The things in your home that you love can truly be made yours. If you are just starting, I encourage you to practice with inexpensive tissue and materials. At first, try on a flat surface or an old cabinet door or a piece of wood. Try on something you’re not in love with, so if something goes bad, it’s not a huge deal.

Tracy Johansen

Why does Digiwrap tissue paper work well for decoupaging furniture?

I love the paper. The print quality is phenomenal. I love the fact that it doesn’t bleed at all. When I’m applying with a varnish, I don’t have to worry about any kind of bleed that will affect the design. Also, the 18# paper is perfect for decoupage. And you can use 10# if you have experience, but it is easy to get a wrinkly mess with those sheets if you don’t have experience. 18# is the perfect weight because you still get to maintain the benefits of decoupaging, but it’s heavier so easier to manage. And 20” x 30” is the perfect size to give an opportunity for scale. I can produce things that really make an impact. Also, since it’s digitally printed, my design options are limitless.

I am really grateful for Digiwrap. I don’t know if they realize it or not, but, creatively, it’s not always possible to take what’s in your head and make it happen. But I can with this product—because it’s not a regular printing press with 3 colors to choose from…it’s limitless. I feel like as a designer, I can create anything I want to, which enables me and other creatives to make beautiful pieces of functional artwork. The designs empower other creatives to do more. That’s huge! I’m grateful to be a part of that.

Are you interested in Royce’s designs for decoupaging furniture? Check them out on her store.

Or, design your own tissue paper here

Digiwrap Offers New Online Store Discount

We are happy today to announce an all-new store that makes the process of ordering your custom printed tissue paper and gift bags easier. The new site offers an intuitive ordering process so you can easily customize and order what you need. And new to the online store—custom printed gift bags! Previously these were available only through Zazzle. Now you can order them in bulk directly from our online store.

To celebrate the grand opening of the new online store, we are offering customers a 25 percent discount on your first order in the new store when you use the code DigiStore2017. This discount is good for the remainder of the year!

New site features:

  • Order custom-printed tissue paper, custom-printed gift bags in several sizes, or plain tissue paper cut to exact size specifications
  • Easy step-by-step ordering process
  • Customize using photo upload
  • Customize gift bag orders down to color of the handle
  • Choose from step-and-repeat patterns or fully custom photo or design upload
  • Create an account to shop faster, be up to date on the status of your order, and keep track of the orders you have previously made
5 Packaging Tips for Small Businesses or Handmade Items

At Digiwrap, we love the idea of prioritizing presentation. As one of our crafty customers put it, “I want to visually communicate that my item is special and that I’m handing it over to the buyer in a special way.” When your buyer submits an order online or makes the decision to make a purchase in person, your packaging can affirm the decision for them. There will be no buyer’s remorse if they open the shipping box, or if in person they are handed the purchase, and it feels to them more like a gift than a transaction. Your packaging can do that work for you—elevating your product to a new level.

Here are a few tips for creating packaging that works:

1. Keep it simple. You won’t be able to sustain packaging if it involves a long process or a huge expense. With packaging, often less is more. We’ve seen clients do amazing things with just a few sheets of custom tissue paper and twine.

pinch-of-spice

2. Consider your brand. What does your brand stand for? Work the essential elements and feel into your packaging. This may mean designing a logo tissue paper (which keeps with the simple theme above.) Or maybe your brand is about whimsy, or nature…work these elements into a custom tissue paper design that stands out as original.

banner-pjs

3. Protect your items—beautifully. You know you need items to be wrapped so they don’t break during shipping or the ride home. So why not beautify the padding? Custom tissue paper is great for handling the job of keeping your items safe for shipping.

PaperCloseup

4. Get outside advice or help. We’ve seen clients turn out incredible packaging and ideas that they likely couldn’t have come up with on their own. Youcould consider a designer who can put together a custom tissue paper design, or even a brand development company like Postfilm, which one of our clients used for her photography packaging.

Jen Osojnicki

5. Encourage repeat business. You accomplished the most difficult part, which was getting them as a customer in the first place. Encourage more business both through your stunning packaging, and through a reminder of how they can find you again next time. This may be a business card, or it may be as simple as your website address or shortlink listed on the tissue paper.peppersprouts_cheesemarkers

Ready to design your custom tissue paper? Learn more about ordering.

Solid Colored Tissue Paper Price Change: More for Less!

At Digiwrap, we pride ourselves on our high quality and amazing selection of solid-colored tissue paper. We also always strive to deliver a great value to our customers. So we are happy to announce a price change to our solid-colored tissue paper that is in the customers’ favor. Now you can get more for less!

Check out the new pricing grid below:

pricing plain tissue paper

The pricing above reflects a huge discount from previous prices, especially when ordering in higher quantities. Keep in mind that we can cut to a custom size for your order. The size can be anything that fits within 20″ x 30″.

We know when it comes to tissue paper, you often have something specific in mind. Whether you are planning a wedding, corporate event, fundraiser, or you are packaging items for your small business, the color matters. We want to help you realize your wedding favor vision, or match your brand colors, or coordinate with your product or store. We offer more than 75 different shades of solid colored tissue paper, from Raspberry Fizz to Zippy Grape to Burnt Sienna. We offer 13 blues, 10 purples, and a whopping 16 greens. Check out the tissue paper color options now!

Order your solid-colored tissue paper today!

Awesome Wedding Custom Tissue Paper Used for Hotel Favors

We love to see our personalized tissue paper put to good use. One of our favorite uses is for weddings—couples can create a design with their name, wedding date, and a special message and use the tissue paper to make any favor personal and memorable! Recently we had the pleasure of seeing the results from a Downers Grove, Illinois customer who had a super fun New Year’s Eve wedding.

Eric and Katie Stein were married December 31, 2014 at St. Scholastica Church in Woodridge, IL, with a reception following at the Bolingbrook Golf Club in Bolingbrook, IL. The wedding sounds awesome, with a balloon drop at midnight to celebrate the New Year. Also, Eric likes cigars, so they also set up a cigar bar with different types of cigars “named” after each of his groomsmen.

They had several guests staying at a nearby hotel, so they thoughtfully put together hotel favor bags with water, Tylenol, and chips, cookies, and nuts. They added a personalized Do Not Disturb sign, and then added total finesse to the gift by using custom tissue paper designed with their name and wedding date. The simple touch took the thoughtful gift to the next level.

Wedding

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Congratulations, Katie and Eric! Way to kick your marriage off with style!

If you’d like to order custom tissue paper for your wedding, check out our predesigned wedding tissue options!

4 Etsy Branding Tips: How to Encourage Repeat Orders

Often tips for selling on Etsy focus on optimizing to be seen, but there is another place entirely that is worth taking a look at—repeat customers. If you have gotten to the point of receiving an order from someone, retaining them as a customer can be extremely valuable! The hard work is done—they found you and made a purchase. Now the trick is to help them to remember you and encourage more purchases. Check out the four tips below to make your shop memorable, and to leverage your existing customer base:

Make the Delivery Special. If people are buying a handmade item, they expect it to be slightly different from just any purchase. The act of shopping on Etsy satisfies their desire for something special, and you can help carry that feeling all the way through the delivery. Package the item using custom tissue paper that includes your shop’s brand. You can design and order small or large quantities of custom tissue paper at Digiwrap.com. This will visually communicate that your item is special and that you are handing it over to the buyer in a special way.

Print Business Cards. Often, people shopping on Etsy are buying gifts. Print business cards with your shop’s name and link, and possibly with a “To:/From:” field included, so the buyer can easily include that with a card to indicate where they purchased your product. That way if the buyer loves it (and you know they will!) they can check out your shop and order more.

Use Your Shop Shortlink. Every Etsy Shop automatically has a short link, which is your Shopname.etsy.com (so, for example, if your store name is Pinch of Spice, the short link is “PinchofSpice.etsy.com”). Printing your shop’s short link on custom tissue paper and your business cards allows people to easily return to shop for more!

Provide Great Service, and Then Encourage a Review: Of course, it’s important to offer great service from order, to turn around time, to great packaging. (You won’t get repeat business if you don’t focus on creating a great all around shopping experience.) Follow up with your customers after the delivery is complete to request feedback on Etsy. Buyers often don’t know that they can leave you feedback, and often people don’t think to do this (unless they have something bad to say). So a quick reminder to say, “I hope you enjoyed the experience of buying from me. If you get a few seconds, I would love you to leave a review on Etsy,” just might encourage those valuable 5-star reviews.

May the repeat business be with you!

Order your shop’s custom tissue paper today! Create a custom design, or simply order a repeat logo pattern!

pinch-of-spice

Handmade Packaging Done Right: Peppersprouts

When you are looking for unique, personalized, or handmade gifts, you turn to Etsy. What we love most about Etsy is the very real people behind every shop. These talented crafters, artists, and designers create beautiful products. We love to help Etsy shop owners to retain their special, handmade feel by creating custom tissue paper for their packaging.

Since we love Etsy shop owners, we’ve decided to occasionally feature a few who have put our custom tissue paper to good use. While searching for holiday packaging and advent calendars, we discovered modern woodland inspired works of art at Peppersprouts by artist and designer Jen Pepper. We fell in love with everything in her shop, from her keepsake gift tags to her ornaments to her coasters. We love the animals she’s brought to life. And we especially loved her incredibly planned, designed, and giftable packaging. We sat down with Jen to discover what inspires her, success tips for Etsy sellers, and more.

Why are you passionate about your shop?

I started Peppersprouts as a creative outlet when I was working full-time as a graphic designer. I just really loved designing something that people found unique and wanted to put in their homes. I am a bit of a homebody, so designing homegoods came pretty naturally to me.

What inspires you when you are designing something new?

I tend to come up with ideas really randomly. Either in a day dream or just walking about and something in nature or a shop window sparks my interest. I try not to be bound by just one material and hope to add some more illustration work next year, as I love drawing on paper just as much as the computer.

peppersprouts_cheesemarkers

Why is presentation in your packaging important?

Packaging is everything, especially when you are selling to small shops that will display your work on store shelves. My packaging has really evolved in the last few years, and I am always looking for new ways to package my work. Sometimes a simple cotton bag does well, but sometimes I find myself having to design a custom box for my work, like my coasters. I feel that a customer should have a really great overall experience, and that includes how the work is presented in shipping too.

peppersprouts_ccoasters

Do you have a success tip for other Etsy shop owners?

Find something you love to do and keep doing it. If you don’t love what you are making, or even how you made it, chances are you will get bored with it. Be original and unique, and just be you.

What do you do for fun?

Like I said I am a bit of a homebody. I love watching Parks and Rec and Harry Potter marathons. But I always love just exploring places in New England and Letterboxing. Letterboxing is just really so much fun—it’s like geo-caching but with hand carved stamps and a log book that you collect stamp images in. [We didn’t know much about Letterboxing before hearing about it from Jen, so we looked it up and found out more here. Very interesting stuff! And based on her art, it seems like exactly the kind of creative hobby she’d be into!]

If you are a handmade shop owner, order your own custom tissue paper here to improve your packaging today!

Wreck It Ralph Birthday Party Theme Comes to Life with Custom Tissue Paper

When you are planning a birthday party, you might be surprised how easy it can be to pull together a theme to remember. It can be just one small detail that puts the party over the top, making it memorable, magical, and fun for your child. And if that detail is tissue paper, you don’t have to be crafty to pull it together. Just check out the Wreck It Ralph themed party created here.

“I am not a Pinteresting mom,” said Mollie, the mom responsible for this shindig. “I like to keep things simple with minimal effort, but I also like a polished finished product. I like to do just enough, but still impress.” Mollie ordered custom tissue paper with a brick pattern. She wrapped empty boxes of varying sizes to elevate the food on the table, wrap party favors, and she even came up with a simple building-towers-and-knocking-them-down game for the 2 to 4 year old kids at the party.

You can order this custom-designed brick tissue paper here. And you can even add a name!

table

table-side

cake

game

Could custom tissue paper be just the thing to pull your party theme together? Order your custom tissue paper today.

You can even order this brick paper!