Woven papers

I have so many papers that I decided to see what would happen if I wove them.

It's not the traditional weaving.

I made slits in a paper and wove strips through the slits.

This makes them 2 sided. Now I need to use them for something.

Painted Papers

The last two weeks I've spent a day at a friend's painting with her. We really accomplished a lot. Now I need to do something with them.

This one is Gold Gesso mixed with print paste and combed with a texture tool from the hardware store.

Red is another color gesso comes in. This one also had print paste and using a stencil, I lifted the paint with a damp sponge to create the flowers.

Another stencil and wet sponge. One of my favorite stencils is one with 3 grids of different sized squares.

Here are just a few drying in my special drying room-the downstairs bathroom.

We also did some washes and had great fun. Doing the painting with a friends really generates idea as you check each others work.

This morning I was able to rescue the little lizard that came in yesterday.. We don't often see them in the damp NW, and I think it was cold in our "unseasonal" weather-it seems more like fall than spring. I kept trying yesterday but couldn't figure out a way to move it without hurting it. It was between the wall and a major piece of furniture that I couldn't move. I thought of vacuuming it but couldn't find it when I was doing that-didn't really want to try that method because it would be hurt. I couldn't grab it where it was. This morning is was in an area where I could put a towel over it to gently pick it up and take it outside. I'm glad.

Painted Papers

In January 3 of us got together at my house to paint papers. We'd paint part then pass it to the next person. This month we went to the next house and added to the papers with rubber stamps, pens, pastels, and stencils.

To this I added the rubber stamp spiral. It's one I made using kids' sticky backed foam on an acrylic block. It was cut with a decorative blade in the rotary cutter than curved into a spiral.

This is stamped in the green background with a plate I made from styrofoam left from the takeout box. I then inked around some of the small shapes with a silver gel pen. The silver one I seem to use over and over.

I have a commercial flower stencil that I use a lot-like flowers. Marking pens work well with stencils and don't make the mess paints do. However, when you wipe them off, more paint is transferred to whatever they are sitting on.

Marking pens through a stencil again. I was recycling old microfich film and cut the curves with an Exacto blade.

This one I liked so well that I didn't touch it. They will go in a book probably. The others were doing post cards, but I'm more likely to do fabric post cards.

Book, Painted Papers

I used a piece made in the Ratty Tatty Papers workshop from Dale at http://www.thethreadstudio.com/ to make a book cover. The flower is actually a napkin; the background felt. It is also randomly foiled.

This is the back.

Two friends were over on Monday, and we painted papers. They are drying in my studio bathroom. It's the warmest place in the house during this rainy season, and one I can close off.

We had a lot of fun. One would start a page, then pass it to the next person to add something until all three of us had worked on it. Now the hard part will be dividing up the results!

Painted Papers, gift

On Wednesday a friend and I painted paste papers. You use thickened paint and texture it in a variety of ways. For the first one, I put a stencil on it and lifted some of the paint with a paper towel. Then I put more paint on it through the stencil using another color. 

The second one just had leaves stencilled on it in a second color.Bubble wrap pressed into the wet paint made the circles.After putting the stencil on this one, I lifted some of the paint with a paper towel then scraped the background with a comb.

I like the pattern made by scraping a comb through the paint.

See what she gave me- a piece of fused glass that she made. It has a channel in the top for a cord. I want to design a necklace using it. The colors are much more vibrant in person. Altogether a pleasant day.

Painted Papers

A friend invited me to her house to paint paper for a book. Here are just a few of them.I was using up some of the small bottles of Jacquard fabric paint that I have, because they tend to dry out.                    The paper is Stonhenge-a nice paper to work on as it doesn't buckle when wet.

I tried to keep them in the same color range for the book, but my love of color made me branch out and do other colors.

Saturday is the second anniversary of my blog, so I need to find something to have as a giveaway. I'm open to suggestions.