I’ve been meaning to join in with the monthly ‘ScrapHappy’ blog share for years – so many opportunities have come and gone and I never quite had my act together. But at last the time has come!
So here I am, joining in with Kate over in Chiconia and all the other scrappy people all over the globe because I’ve been making bookmarks with my painting scrap paper. Sometimes I make cards or notebook covers with the output too, this time it has just been bookmarks.
When I paint I generally have bits of scrap paper lying about on which I wipe my brushes. It might be plain copy paper, it might be kitchen towel paper, it might be baby wipes used to wipe away paint on the canvas and expose a bit of the under layer, sometimes it’s a bit of proper heavy duty mixed media paper that went wrong.
Here’s some examples – because of course I hadn’t photographed the actual papers I used here before beginning the process of change –
No matter what it is there comes a time when the wiping is finished and the paper is full and of no further use. Once I used to bin them and grab a fresh sheet and start over. Then one day, when a full sheet was dry and I was about to chuck it out I looked again and thought that has potential and it didn’t go in the bin. Ever since then I have saved those sheets and when I’ve got nothing better to do with my time I gather them up and begin to play.
Sometimes I lay down a bit more paint through a stencil, sometimes I grab a stamp and make marks that way. Sometimes I pick up sharpies or gel pens or crayons and start to doodle. Doodling is my favourite occupation.
These ones were mostly made by laying down stencils and paint on the gelli plate and layering until I liked what I saw – or I ended up with sheets of virulent looking colours or oddly disposed messes – but look what happens when you cut them up and frame them out:
‘Framing them out’ refers to the noble art of edging each piece with black ink which all card makers and mixed media people are very familiar with. One is fully edged in the photo below, the other is partially complete
Next comes a backing – here’s the box of paper and card off-cuts that are utilised for this part of the operation. They themselves are leftovers from card making and die cutting and sometimes are leftovers from other gelli print making sessions.
I lay down a few different backing colours to see what I like. The process is generally careful for the first two or three, then it’s anything goes and lets see what happens. The photos below are the same painted piece on different colour backings. Do you have a particular colour combo you would have gone with?
And finally after a couple of days here is a sampling of some book marks – this is a mere fraction of the amount I made in this session. I have bookmarks for Africa!!
The finished painted pieces are texture rich and interesting. I make them smaller than I used to because I have learnt from my friend Derrick that it is fun to leave the bookmark in a book when you have finished reading it. Especially if you note the date on the bookmark. They aren’t for keeping, like books these are made for sharing round.
Thanks for coming by today, I’m so happy that you did!
If you want to see what the other scrap happy contributors are making, follow these links and I’m sure you will find the rest of the contributors
The Contented Crafter 