Bet and Sally, so inspired by the work of mixed media artist, Traci Bautista, and her hand made paper and journals, planned a day to make beautiful papers to be used later for our own journals.
We watched Traci's video, purchased supplies, gathered equipment...... and started drawing and creating designs on foam (the kind from a kneeling garden pad purchased from WalMart or Target worked best).
We used a wood burning tool to carve our designs (the smell wasn't too great so we worked outside for that part of the project). It took a little practice to get the hang of carving, but after a short time we were pros at it, whipping out piles of stamps!
Paper towels and newsprint are what we used to make our colorful papers. Using liquid water colors (purchased on line from Discount School Supply ) we dipped the corners of folded or crumpled paper towels into cups of watercolors. Continuing to turn the paper and dipping again and again created a tie-dyed effect.
Then laying the unfolded wet paper over another dry paper towel or newsprint and using a brayer, we made impressions using any objects that could be pressed into the wet papers. We especially liked the thick textured, dimensional wall paper (found at Frazee Paint Stores). We also used the stamps we carved to press down on the wet papers, creating beautiful designs on the dry papers beneath the wet ones.
Several impressions can be made from one wet towel and each print is different. "Skrinching" the towels into different shapes and brayering over each one resulted in totally different, interesting patterns.
While the paper towels were still wet, we gently pulled apart the sheets. Then layered the wet towels on newspaper to dry. It was so exciting watching the different designs emerge and not knowing what the folded and dipped papers would look like until we opened them up! We created beautiful papers! Awesome papers!
Next we plan on sewing our papers together with other ephemera, making them into unique journals. We hope to have another "Traci Day" soon to finish making our books so be sure to come back to see them!
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