I have really had fun making my cards, teaching a few workshops sharing these with others over the last few months. I always enjoy working with watercolour paper and paint and creating my cards, then adding other simple touches to each individual card. I have made them into gift for friends for birthdays and Christmas, even a few sets I have made for raffles for a local charity I support. I also made a few art journal pages, after a visit to an art shop I discovered some mixed media paper, I bought a full sheet to try out with the intention of using this to make my cards with, I thought it worked out less expensive that the watercolour paper I usually buy.
I was a little reluctant to cut into the sheet so I decided to cut into three pieces, that way I could save some big pieces if it did not work out. Each piece was 10" x 22", so I folded one piece over to make a smaller working area, this made a 10" x 11" working area.
I had about six Inktence Blocks I bought ages ago so I decided to see how they would work on this new paper.
I was really happy, although the mixed media paper did not like too much water I found that using the blocks dry on the page and that a wet baby wipe gave really good results, changing the colours and blending them nicely. The paper curled slightly, but I kept putting my hand over the top and pressing it down while it dried, which was only a couple of minutes. After letting this dry I again applied another layer of Inktence blocks over the first dry layer and again using another baby wipe, I was quite happy with the colour intensity as well as the colour depth it achieved.
I was a little reluctant to cut into the sheet so I decided to cut into three pieces, that way I could save some big pieces if it did not work out. Each piece was 10" x 22", so I folded one piece over to make a smaller working area, this made a 10" x 11" working area.
I had about six Inktence Blocks I bought ages ago so I decided to see how they would work on this new paper.
I was really happy, although the mixed media paper did not like too much water I found that using the blocks dry on the page and that a wet baby wipe gave really good results, changing the colours and blending them nicely. The paper curled slightly, but I kept putting my hand over the top and pressing it down while it dried, which was only a couple of minutes. After letting this dry I again applied another layer of Inktence blocks over the first dry layer and again using another baby wipe, I was quite happy with the colour intensity as well as the colour depth it achieved.
Rather than cut this up into card backgrounds I use stencils and a dragonfly stamp to embellish the space. This then became my front cover for an art journal, I folded the other two sheets the same, placed them inside each other and stitched them the same way I made my little bright books. There are twelve pages in all, working with Inktence blocks, stencils and some embellishments. I will be teaching this in May. I am now on my second art journal, the same size 10" x 11" also with 12 pages. I love the size of the page as it is easy to work with and twelve pages are not overwhelming to complete. The average price for the full sheet of mixed media paper is $8.50c - 30" x 22". I found a big ball of crochet cotton I found at a second hand shop and used this to sew together, For this size journal and twelve pages for just under $9 works out reasonable.
I have tried other mediums, paints on this paper and they all seem to work well, it does not like water too much so do not water the paint down, so watercolours are not a good idea.
The paper is called; Beta Series - Art Paper - Multi-Media. Archival Quality, extra heavy weight paper. 180lb. Natural white - cold press. 22 x 30 in (55.9 x 76.2 cm) By Stillman and Birn.
I have tried other mediums, paints on this paper and they all seem to work well, it does not like water too much so do not water the paint down, so watercolours are not a good idea.
The paper is called; Beta Series - Art Paper - Multi-Media. Archival Quality, extra heavy weight paper. 180lb. Natural white - cold press. 22 x 30 in (55.9 x 76.2 cm) By Stillman and Birn.