January Technique of the Month

Yes, I have done this before. I am doing it again, so I thought it would be a fun one for people to try - if they have not already. My fingers cannot type this morning - must be all the food I've eaten this week. There is a lot you can do with this fabric paper. You can add it to a mixed media piece. You can use it as a postcard. It is great as part of a background. You can do a paper quilt with it. Think of the possibilities! I am also told that if you iron it, it becomes less crispy and easier to work with. You can sew on this when it has dried. You can use it as a journal page or tip in. It is heavy enough where you could bind the pages into a journal.

Supplies you will need:

freezer paper

piece of muslin

text and printed paper - squares and rectangles

lace paper, handmade paper, wrapping paper - thin, not thick paper

old paint brushes

container

liquid glue like Sobo or PVA

water

white tissue paper

acrylic heavy body or fluid acrylic - will use as a wash

I used permanent green light and quinacrodine gold/nickel azo gold

I also used iridescent gold as a foundation wash on top of the muslin

1. Put the freezer paper on top of something like a layer or paper or plastic so you don't get paint all over. Lay out a piece of freezer paper slightly larger than your muslin piece. I used an iridescent gold wash ( heavy body paint with a little water so it would spread on the muslin easier). I used an old brush and painted the entire piece of muslin. Let dry.

2. Create a glue wash about 2/3 glue and 1/3 water. Depends on how thick your liquid glue is. You want to be able to spread easily without losing the glue properties. Give a section of your painted muslin a layer of glue wash. Start putting down the pieces of paper overlapping each other. You do not have to cover the entire piece of muslin. I liked pieces of dictionary pages, music pages, and other paper with strong designs so it would show through the tissue paper. Color does not matter that much because you will put a color wash on top. As you are putting down the pieces of paper, put the glue wash underneath and on top of the paper. It is okay if it creases a little.

3. Once you are done laying the paper down onto the muslin, take strips or pieces of white tissue paper and lay it on top. Put a layer of glue wash on top. I crumpled my tissue paper in another experiment and it was more opaque. I did not see the designs underneath as much. So, if you want texture, then crumple. If you want to see what you put underneath, then lay the tissue paper on there flat. BTW, I put my lace paper on top of the tissue paper so the texture of the lace paper would not disappear.

4. When you are done, give your piece one final layer of glue wash to make sure all your ends are down.

5. Take the colors that you want and make a wash. You want just a little color in the water. You can always add more color to the wash it disappears into your tissue paper. I did the green first. I used a brush and applied it to the entire thing. I used a little stronger wash of the nickel azo gold and put that on top of the green. I let it pool in places. Let dry completely.

6. Once it is dried on top, peel it off the freezer paper and turn it over. The underside needs to dry as well.

7. Once the entire thing is dried, you can iron it using some release paper between your fabric paper and iron to make it a bit softer. You can stamp on it using a permanent stamp pad. You can sew on it. You can embellish it. You can sprinkle a little embossing powder on top. You can use some gold leaf. You might want to take a stamp pad to the texture if you want to accentuate that. You can do with it what you want.

8. Let me know how your fabric paper turns out. If you want to see my fabric paper in more detail, then you can click on the pict to make it bigger.

Comments welcome. Original technique was from Beryl Taylor's book, Mixed Media Explorations.