don't underestimate the power of lamination - but it has to be good.  If you are following the leaf idea, here are some possibilities, depending on the size and thickness you want.
Take two pieces of thin card a little larger than the leaf you want to make.  Glue them together strongly.  This will either be with impact glue, spirit glue (hey, we're getting supernatural here ) or PVA.  It is essential they are held tight together while drying.  This can be on a curved surface held by masking tape, elastic, string etc.
This might be enough for your needs or you can paste a layer of paper over the cardboard.
A more delicate possibility is to laminate about six layers of newspaper type paper but press it down really firmly (with a roller or back of a spoon or something).  When fully dry, cut your shape with a sharp knife or scissors.
The paste must be about 70% Methylated Cellulose (wallpaper paste e.g.) and 30% PVA to give a consistency of thick cream.
DavidO

Along the same lines, I'm wondering if this will work.  Take a thick paper (specifically, waterpaint paper which is quite thick and stiff to begin with) and soak it well in wallpaper paste + PVA. Let it dry. No other layers or other embellishments.  Then you Gesso it, paint it, and seal it with  polycrylic.  Will this stiffen the paper enough to withstand moisture in the air and temperature changes?

It won't get handled very much so I'm figuring that this procedure will be sufficient. Any experience/thoughts on this?

These are gonna be butterflies on a mobile.

OOOOH!  Them's really pretty!

Yeah, you can do that with paper mache. No problem. But like I said, I wouldn't make bracelets, 'cause the paper would wear with various things that the wrist would come in contact with.

I'm working on a experiment right now. I got a single piece of paper that I soaked in glue to see if that would stiffen it. It looks like it's gonna work. You might try that approach. You could also emboss the paper, or build small slight domes on the paper with Creative Paper Clay. Then color away with paint and coat 'em with varnish. They'll be very pretty!

Wow!  Those are quite impressive! I made jewelry last summer and that was pretty fun! But these are very different from anything I've seen, and they're worth a go!  DO IT!  Different sells!

Nice pics

Depending on how thick you want your leaves you could make sheets of kitchen towel paper by layering several sheets on top of each other gluing and pressing down each sheet with a household paint brush when you make these sheets thick enough you can sand them just like wood. You could also make small discs using pulp and use  a lid or cap as a mold.

I'm making jewellry at the moment mainly bangles and necklace's have alook in the gallery uk flag Susan Oldfield

Sue

Laminating as far as I'm aware of is the gluing of several sheets of paper or thin card together to make a stiffer paper or material to work with.  How thick you need depends on how many layers of paper you glue together.
As for the kitchen towel paper, I use good quality paper to start with as the cheap stuff falls apart and flufs up.
Take a board cover it with cling film so the paper does not stick to the board when its dry.Then using a paint brush and a pva/water mix paste down the first so its flat then add another and so on until you have the thickness you require. When dry cut and shape, sand to how you want.
You can use other paper and paste and glue so try a few and see which works best for what you want. To me its all about trial and error somtimes more error than anything else .
As for embossing paper never done it with papier mache but Iknow you can get round head tools and soft blocks maybe someone else can help you there.

Sue.

Talk about having a dim moment :oops:  embossing just add string or whatever you want to use to make a raised surface you could even make the pattern in between the layers as you go.

Bye

You might want to use watercolor (WC) paper rather than cardboard for your pieces, at least in the beginning.  Arches brand is decent, and usually available at most craft places. Avoid ProArt -- it's awful; it used to have a purple cover, but I'm not sure what it looks like now.

WC paper is already textured (one side usually more than the other). Hot-pressed is smoother, cold-pressed is rougher, depending on your taste.  Soak it in warm water for a half-hour or so if you want to form it or sculpt it.

You can also use the paper towels for pressing into designs.  Candy molds can be useful for this, as they're usually small.  Press the paper into the mold form with the eraser on the end of a pencil, but not an old, dry eraser.

As mentioned above, laminating is just gluing layers together, whether they are paper, cardboard, cloth or wood (plywood is laminated, for instance). To reduce curl, you might want to layer the material crosswise to the last layer.

The metallic paints and powders are lovely for jewelry.

Sue

I just wanted to say Thank you to everybody here.

I've never been on a site that is so helpful and willing to share.

Thanks!