Coloured paper sticks in our memories from our time at school. Crafting, cutting, sticking, and building stuff is part of our childhoods, and there’s so much you can do with it that it remains a fantastic medium into adulthood.

You can get sheets in primary colours, pastel colours, black, brown and grey in packs of ten to 250 sheets. You’ll save money buying in bulk, but it’s important to estimate your usage, so you don’t create excess waste.

This ultimate guide covers everything you need to know about crafting, using, building with, and buying coloured paper.

Let’s jump in!

What to make with coloured paper

It’s ideal for arts and crafts projects like paper lanterns, accordions, kites and shapes. Gluing two different colour sheets together will give you a bi-tone paper suitable for two-sided crafts like paper aeroplanes and hanging decorations.

Here are a few quick creations anyone can try:

• Paper lanterns
• Wreaths
• Accordions
• Animals
• Marble runs
• Kites
• Racing cars
• Paper bracelets

Most craft guides are written for children, but you can also find adult ideas with more complexity. Check out this article for ideas.

What to do with coloured paper

It’s available in different weights, from thin tissue paper to rigid cardstock for structural models. You can do all sorts with it, such as:

Draw on it

Black paper is amazing to draw on with white and metallic inks, and you can draw on light colours with rainbow ink.

Scrapbooking

Scrapbooking is the easiest of all uses for coloured paper – simply get a scrapbook and cut out paper to make entries.

Cardmaking

Coloured paper is suitable for cardmaking providing you use a rigid paper for the card itself, and you can then use thinner paper for the interior.

Paper-mâché

Coloured paper is the best way to make a coloured pulp for paper-mâché, letting you create colourful models and decorating objects.

Paper layering

Paper layering involves making basic or detailed images with layers of paper, from simple geometric designs to detailed artwork.

Dyslexia (coloured backgrounds can improve reading fluency)

Some people find that reading from paper that’s coloured reduces dyslexia symptoms by reducing stress on the eyes and bringing order to jumbling.

Why does coloured paper help dyslexia?

Research has proved that people with dyslexia find reading from white paper sheets difficult, and many schools now use pastel colours to help people with dyslexia read and keep up with other students. But why?

It is thought that colourful paper reduces stress on the eyes, helping dyslexic people make sense of words on the sheet.

However, these effects are controversial in the scientific community. This study ruled against coloured overlays for helping with dyslexia, but shaded paper sheets are another medium and need more research for a definitive answer.