Dictionary Page Art....for those who can't draw

Drawing images on top of old dictionary pages is very pretty and very popular now in mixed media. If you're not familiar with it, look here. I haven't made any for one reason...I can't draw.

Then I saw this Book Page Art from Your Printer and now I wonder "why didn't I think of that myself??"  The premise is so simple, simply print images that appear hand sketched onto actual pages from old books.

So I opened my graphic software, found some images that look hand drawn, and printed them out on old pages. Worked like a charm!

Then I ran out of old pages that would fit in my printer. So I googled "dictionary pages," then went to "images" there were tons of images of dictionary pages. I found a few I liked and took those into my graphics program (respect copyright rules and such). I used those images as my bottom layer, put a sketched type image on top and printed. 

This is an image of a dictionary page as well as an image of a rose. I dropped the transparency on the rose so you could see the text through it so it would look hand drawn.

I loved the result so then tried other types of text behind the images...

This was an image of old, yellowed, text, under the bird image.

Then I tried for the 'colored pencil drawing on dictionary page' look...

This was an image of a dictionary page layered under an image of the flowers. I lowered the transparency of the flowers so the text showed through. Then printed this out on my printer.

I've tried all sorts of combinations of "real" pages from old books and even a "ledger" looking page from some old mutual fund prospectus and they all worked fine as long as they were cut to sizes my printer could handle. I've tried many types of images as well.  I prefer the hand drawn look and to make it look more like I've drawn with colored pencils, I drop the transparency a bit on that layer. I've found that once these are included in a collage it's even harder to tell they were printed rather than drawn. There are plenty of free images and free graphics software out there so give this a try.

Dryer Sheet Collages with Beading and Embroidery

Dryer Sheet collage with beading, embroidery and stumpwork Dragonfly. (My photography skills are horrible but I hope you can get the idea.)

Many times I've looked at one of my collages and thought about adding beading or hand embroidery accents (two passions from my past). I tried on a couple occasions but getting a needle through all the layers of paper and glue was really tough and I'd end up with a very sore fingertip from trying to push the needle through the layers. Even if I succeeded a time or two, when I'd pull the thread through the holes it would just cut and tear the papers and the collage would rip so I gave up the idea of adding beads or threadwork to my collages.

One day I found Kristen Watts Mixed Media Dryer Sheet Tutorial and I tried it. She uses dryer sheets as the base for a collage and glues papers on top of them.  I made one as she instructs and it turned out fine. But I must admit, I didn't really understand why you needed a base from a dryer sheet...I've always just glued my papers together, with either no base (just overlapping the papers) or paper as the base.

The technique was soon forgotten. The dryer sheets I had collected to try her technique sat crumpled on my worktable. One day I grabbed some and used them to sop up some extra Dylusions overspray on my craft mat. A couple days later, I went to move those dyed dryer sheets and I started wondering would a dryer sheet hold up to the needle holes, thread and beads?

Turns out, the answer is no. Not as is anyway. It's not strong enough to withstand the holes, thread, and beads. It rips and tears.

But the idea persisted so I started to experiment. After a few wrong turns, I got it and it's now my newest passion...dryer sheet collages embellished with beads and embroidery. (What's got me even more excited is that I can flop on the sofa or in bed and embellish these collages while watching tv...sooo much better than always being confined to the work table.)

Here's how...
Start with a dryer sheet that's already been through the dryer as this makes them more airy and wispy.

wrinkled and used is just fine, they resemble handmade mulberry type papers

1. Add color to it. I've tried many ways...sopping up overspray, spraying directly with spray inks/dyes, painting with acrylics, etc.  You can spray multiple colors and let them run together. I've sprinkled mica powder on them and mixed mica into the paints/dyes. I've rubbed Inka Gold colors on them...everything I've tried works and it's a blast. I've even ironed on painted Wonder Under (Bondaweb). My favorite way is to spray directly with things like Colorwash, Dylusions or homemade sprays made from food coloring. Spray dyes/inks preserve the airy, transparency of the sheets, while acrylic paint makes them stiffer and more solid in color, but both have a place in my collages.

my stash of colored dryer sheets

2. Let them dry or the next step will be horrible as the colors/paint runs.

3. Put down a piece of freezer paper, shiny side up. Take your dried, colored, dryer sheets, either whole or ripped into pieces, and lay them out the way you want your collage to be.

I decided to use these two painted dryer sheets. These were painted with a combination of dye/ink and metallic paints with some areas left unpainted.

 

I then ripped the two dryer sheets into pieces and laid them out on freezer paper the way I wanted them.

4. Add anything else you want like paper or fabrics that you want to be Mod Podge'd into the collage. I've got some interesting fabrics that aren't at all like fabric, more like netting, that I use a lot. I also like using painted drywall tape, lace pieces that I've painted, papers and such.

Here's some lace and specialty fabric pieces I've pulled out to use in this collage. I don't know what these fabrics are really called. I went up and down the fabric aisles at Joann's and found them, then used a discount coupon to buy 1/4 yard...which will last me ages as I only use small pieces here and there in these collages. The netting type fabrics were blue...so I spray painted them other colors.

Now I've laid out the fabric and netting on the torn dryer sheets about where I'd like them.

5.Then paint the pieces down with Mod Podge just was you would if they were pieces of paper. (I'm going through some Mod Podge nowadays so I always buy it when the 50% off coupons from JoAnns and Michaels comes out.)

Start painting (or pouring) on the Mod Podge. When you first start you have to sorta hold the pieces down with one hand until they're saturated and heavy enough to stay where you want them.

6. Allow the whole thing to dry on the freezer paper.

7. When it's dry, peel it off. It will come up very easy. The back, the side that was on the freezer paper, will have a sheen to it that the top does not. I assume that is from the freezer paper. I only use matte Mod Podge so I don't know what would happen if you used gloss finish. The finished collage is very flexible, it can be rolled up with no problem.
    You'll also notice that any Mod Podge that was on the freezer paper but not on the collage, will dry and be attached, like clear plastic edge pieces. They come off easy so don't worry. When I first saw how dried Mod Podge does this, it gave me the idea to use open spaces in my collages and it works great! This is why I can use netting and such with "holes" in it and still have the collage stay together...this layer of dried, clear, Mod Podge holds it all together and allows you the empty spaces but still gives the dryer sheet enough strength to withstand all the needle holes and thread.

The dried collage is strong enough to take the needle, thread and beads without tearing, while still thin enough that you can get the needle, thread and beads through it. And very flexible! See the dried, clear, Mod Podge along the side? Just pull that off.

The finished collage, prior to embellishing...

Closeup of the finished dryer sheet collage with some netting on it.

Here's one that I've started to embellish with beads....

I had this netting which was blue. I took a can of gold spray paint and sprayed it lightly. I Mod Podge'd it to the dryer sheets. When it was dry, I started to put beads at the diamond centers of the netting. It takes the thread, needle holes and beads beautifully.

This dryer sheet collage I added paper, specialty fabrics, and drywall tape during the ModPodge stage. I intend to go in and bead and embroider it in some places....

The design in the top right corner is on a dryer sheet. I laid down a stencil and sprayed ink/dye through it. The dryer sheet took the design beautifully.

See the open spaces in that collage? There's no dryer sheet or paper or anything in those spaces, just dried Mod Podge.

Here's a closeup of some open areas in another dryer sheet collage. It is still strong enough to hold up to lots of beading and embroidering and gluing and attaching of focal points and such.

I've also torn uncolored dryer sheets up into pieces and glued them down on paper for use as a background in mixed media pieces. I've tried coloring them first, as well as coloring them after they were glued down with spray dyes/inks. It's an interesting effect, sorta looks like mulberry paper with a fabric feel. The paper backing makes it too thick to use a needle and thread on, but it works for other types of mixed media projects.

Torn pieces of dryer sheets glued to paper.

I tried this technique with a bunch of dried up baby wipes. They took the ink/dye's wonderfully, looking almost like tie-dyed, but after collaging them together with the Mod Podge, I found them heavy looking compared to the dryer sheets. Not sure what to do with them now. Anyone have any ideas?

Old dried up baby wipes sprayed with inks and dyes. Too thick for my purposes but might find a use for them someday.

I love making dryer sheet collages. Hope you enjoyed this post, have fun!

Make your own printed tissue papers

I use a lot of tissue paper in my mixed media collages. I've bought a big roll of Tim Holtz's Idea-ology and two rolls of Hazel and Ruby's printed tissue paper. I used those rolls of tissue paper so many times I grew sick of the text and images on it....and I'd barely used 1/4 of the rolls. How many butterflies or quotes can you use in your art before you're sick of the same butterfly and text???

I then ran over to a party store and bought printed tissue napkins in new designs....and I got sick of them after only a few napkins were used.

I'd love to find another artist/crafter who uses printed tissue papers so we could trade (anyone out there in Tampa?) but until that happens, I had to find a solution that would not keep costing money only to end up in a drawer after a few uses.

The answer was to start printing my own.

I googled how and found many sites that explain the process. It varies by printer. For my printer, all it required was cutting a piece of tissue paper slightly larger than a regular piece of paper (8 1/2 x 11") which is called the "carrier sheet," wrapping and then taping the tissue paper onto the carrier sheet, and sending it through my printer. I used a piece of cardstock as my carrier because it was stiffer and that made it easier to tape the tissue paper to it. Works beautifully. Google how to print on tissue paper and your printer and you'll find directions.

I taped a piece of tissue paper to a piece of blue cardstock. That's all it takes.

Finding the images to put on the tissue paper took more work.

For the type of tissue paper I wanted, you need photo editing software (Photoshop, PaintShop Pro, etc.) or go to one of the free, online, graphics programs that are out there nowadays.

I've used clipart, I've printed my own text, I've used digital scrapbook templates, brushes from my graphic programs, scans of things I own, etc. There is no limit to what you can use. I like to combine things....a layer of text over a layer of images. Most graphic programs have effects that will combine, mirror, and rotate your images which will give you even more options. You can then change the color of the image as a whole or just part of it. You can print in black and white or full color. You can change the size of everything to be just what you want.

Here's a few I've done..

These were my first attempts, simple, basic, and printed with black ink.

Then I started layering images...a layer of text over a layer of music and a fleur de lis.

Then I started to get fancy. I added layers of text and a sepia tone.

Soon I started printing images in full color.

No matter what type of collage I'm working on now, I can have custom made tissue papers for it. I save my digital collages now so just in case I do want to use them again, I've got them (that's what I'm showing you here is my files).

Now here's some resources and tips for making your own...

Lorem Ipsum Oh, how I love Lorem Ipsum. It's a text generator. It gives you paragraphs of text in any language! Want some French text to add to your images? This is where you get it. Ditto Vietnamese or Danish or Russian. You pick a language, tell it how many paragraphs to generate and voila! Then copy it off of the page and paste it into your image and print. So simple.

I was doing an Asian piece so made this digital collage. Printed it out, ripped it into pieces and used it in the collage.

Digital scrapbook overlays and "color yourself" images are perfect for turning into tissue paper prints. They're usually greyscale so you can recolor them any color you want. You can resize them to make the images as big or little as you want. I use them constantly. And almost every digital scrapbook company has freebies. There's tons of sites, here's one, Best Free Digital Scrapbook, but there are tons more. Just google something like "free scrapbook papers" or such. Remember, look at the designs more than the colors as you can change the color of anything prior to printing.

Google Images. No matter what type of image you want to put in your collage you can now. Google whatever you're looking for and then click the "images" option and you'll get pages and pages of images of it. Make sure to add the word "free" in your search and watch out for copyright and royalties.  I've used images individually and then layered them with other things like in this one..

Clipart butterflies layered over lorem ipsum text in French. I don't use the whole page as is, I tear it into smaller pieces so in use it's prettier then it is as this file.

You can make printed tissue paper with realistic images on them as well....

I made multiple copies of this bird, in different sizes, all on one sheet of tissue paper.

So, if you're like me and get bored with the same old designs, try making your own. It's really very simple and, in all honesty, making the images to print is just another form of mixed media collage (that you can do while watching tv in bed, lol) and is great fun itself.

Free stuff for Mixed Media

One of my biggest pieces of advice for mixed media artist is...make friends with an interior decorator.

You would not believe what kind of stuff they throw away...fabric sample books, wallpaper sample books, trims and cording, large pieces of wood, heavy chunks of marble, ceramic tiles, and more.  The manufacturers of these things give every decorator samples of their products. Then, when they come out with new collections every so often, they discontinue the old stuff and tell the decorators to throw it away. So every single interior decorator, in every home improvement store, in every furniture store, in every paint store, in every city, throws this stuff away! It's insane!

This was 3/4 of the haul from one place, one time!

Any place that sells wallpaper, paint, furniture, drapes, etc. has manufacturer's samples that will sooner or later be discontinued and replaced with new items. Home improvement stores like Home Depot, paint stores like Sherwin Williams, large chain stores that sell custom drapes like JCPenny, furniture stores like Ethan Allen, they all have design centers and those centers have samples. And those samples will sooner or later be garbage.

It's been my experience that some decorators feel horrendous guilt at filling up the dumpster with these stuff and are very glad to give it to someone who could use it. Other decorators are annoyed by me and my request, I'm not sure why. But keep asking. It took me a few tries before I found my connection. My connection now calls me when they have stuff to go. They pile it in a corner and I go pick it up. I try to be very considerate and get there within a day as I don't want them to wish they had just tossed it rather than being forced to trip over it for a day or so. I get way more than I could ever conceivably use, so I get first pick, my artsy friends get second pick, and I Freecycle what's left over.

Here's an example of what I've done with some free supplies...

 The piece is mostly painted fabric. I took some discarded fabric and painted it with stencils and spray paint then sprayed webbing spray over it. Took part of that fabric and made it the background, the rest I rolled up into the tubes. I glued the tubes onto the various paper mattes, which were out of a wallpaper book. So the only part of this piece that cost me was the paint, glue and webbing spray, the rest was free.

This piece, too, was mostly free. The only aspects of this piece that weren't from a decorator is the layer of Gutter Guard (sprayed gold), the seven beads separating the fabric tubes, paint on the cardboard and the glue holding it all together. The rest of it is fabric from the decorator and a layer of corrugated cardboard from an old box.


So go find a decorator...just not mine, please.

Supplies from hardware stores

Some of my best mixed media supplies come from a hardware store. Here's some of my best finds...

Drywall Tape

Have you heard of drywall tape? It is hands down my most favorite thing to use in collage! If you're not familiar with it, it's a roll of perforated paper with an adhesive backing.

It's two inches wide and there's about 50-75' of it on the roll, a massive amount. But wait, there's more! The white side is thicker sturdier paper with an adhesive on the back. The backing is brown, light weight paper without adhesive, sorta slick. Both pieces can be used, so you actually get twice the amount of paper. The whole roll was somewhere around $10 or less (can't remember exactly) at Lowe's in the drywall department. 

I take pieces of it, either piece, either side, and spray paint it. I like to spray paint it as it's quick, easy, gets in all the holes and dries very fast here in Florida. My favorite color to spray is metallic gold (also from the hardware store). Then I use matte medium or ModPodge to glue it onto my collages. Love this stuff! I've used it for borders, as accents, even as stencils and mats when spraying other paints. I've used it to press impressions into joint compound (modeling paste for some of us, lol) and spread joint compound over it (and then removed it) as if it were a stencil. There's so much of it and it's so cheap you can't go wrong.

Mesh Tape or Scrim Tape

This is a yellow or white, fiberglass or plastic, adhesive mesh. I am currently out so have nothing to show you so here's a link to it. It comes in a large roll, is easily cut with scissors, takes spray paint beautifully and, most importantly, is only a few dollars for 300' of it! I love it, which is why I'm out.

Gutter Guard

Gutter Guard is a roll of black plastic used to keep leaves out of roof gutters. It's about 5" wide and you get 20' of it in a roll and it has this interesting diagonal pattern to it.

Again, you get a lifetime supply of this stuff, the roll is huge, and it's a few bucks, no joke! Don't believe me? Check it out here. I got mine at Lowe's in the outdoor building materials aisle for about $5.

It cuts easily with scissors. Lover of gold metallic, I cut small pieces and spray it gold and use in collage.I've also used large pieces as a layer in wall hangings. 

Joint Compound and Spack

For about $15 you can get a gallon of joint compound. I use both joint compound and spackling interchangeably. There is a slight difference when using them, spack is heavier and dries a bit smoother, but for what I do I have found the differences so slight as to not matter. I bought this big tub of joint compound from Lowe's for about $15 and got the tub of spack on closeout at Target for $1 (which is why I have both, lol).

I use this stuff in a number of ways. I spread joint compound/spack through stencils just like modeling paste. I also spread it directly on my pieces rather thickly and impress images and textures into it. Sometimes I spread it on very thinly and roughly to add visual texture to flat pieces. 

Joint compound can be colored before applying it, mix some with some paint or dye in a small cup then spread. I find you need to make it a bit darker than you want your final color. I've mixed Dylusions and ColorWash as well as cheap old acrylic paints with it. You can also paint or spray it after it's dried on your piece. 

If you get white spack, you can do the same thing, but some brands of spack have a color tint so that you can tell when it's dry..."goes on pink, turns white when it's dried"...and this really screws up the ability to get the right color when adding paint or dye.

Want to see what a real artist can do with joint compound? Then check out Paul Bozzo.

Metal Tape
I'm not talking about duct tape. I'm talking about Metal Foil Tape...like what some craft industry giants talk about and use. This is adhesive backed aluminum tape in a big roll...for a buck. I've had crafters try to sell me pieces of this, or even a foot of it, for considerably more then I spent for the whole roll of it at Lowe's! Go to the department with a/c vents and it's right there, 50' or more, for a buck! I've seen smaller rolls of this at the dollar store. 

You can color it, you can cut it with scissors, you can emboss it. There is a backing you peel off so it's adhesive if you need it to be (don't take off the backing till after you've cut and colored it or you'll be sorry).

The top piece was tape laid over various items then black paint put on and rubbed off. I got that idea from RachO113's great You Tube video on what to do with this as well as the mesh tape.The remaining examples were all colored with alcohol inks. The green one was crumpled and smoothed out, while the blueish one was embossed. All of these still have the backing on, when I get ready to use them, I'll peel it off and they'll be self adhesive.

Here's a collage using various hardware store finds...I'm not a good photographer, even worse scanner, but you get the gist, don't you?

Cooked Metallic Texture Technique

Mixed media texture technique using just paint and heat gun

You can create this incredible texture, which is hard to the touch, using just paint and a heat gun. 

The trick is to use metallic paint. Good ole, cheapy, acrylic, paint...but it has to be metallic.

Paint it on, pour it on, spread it on, however you wish, I've tried all the various ways and it works. But leave some areas thick, the texture will come from the thick areas.

After you've put your paint on, heat it with a heat gun. The thick areas will start to bubble up, some bubbles will get quite high, some will even "pop." The bubbles will go down as you move the heat gun to another area but the texture remains.

Keep heating until you have the texture you want.

It cools real quickly and leaves you with this amazing texture.