Handmade paper - large, medium and small

A full day of papermaking with friends!!

I started the day with a couple of friends and we made medium sheets using several different batches of brightly coloured pulps - blue, pink, turquoise and yellow - accented with paper confetti!! I put the paper onto screens which I placed outside on the patio to dry - it was HOT here on Friday!!

Took a break for lunch and checked out my friend's brand newly finished craft room!! It is great -LOTS of beautiful antique white cabinets with black handles, a nicely mottled black wrap around counter top and sunshine yellow paint! An easy clean flooring that looks like white washed wide pine boards on the floor!! The large windows have beautiful blinds and let in a lot of light. She is just starting to move in all of her craft stuff and then will be spending a bit of time getting it all sorted out!!

In the afternoon, I had a small friend over to make small sheets of handmade paper!! She really enjoyed the process and took home 3 sheet of each colour which we will use later for making cards!!

After supper, I finished off the leftovers and the one batch of blue we did not get to in the morning using my large mould and deckle!!

The paper is all dry and needs to be pressed. I love the colours!!

I used scraps of SU cardstock that has been donated to me by two SU demos which they have collected from their demonstrations and home parties!! You can check out their websites here and here! The new catalog came out on July 1st and you can check it out here!!

My sister will be visiting soon and I am looking forward to making a few more sheets with her!!

Therese

Beeswax collage - friend

Been playing with beeswax again!!

I bought myself a mini iron a couple of weeks ago knowing I wanted to create a little beeswax collage for a friend of mine. I started by gluing several pieces of white embossed cardstock to a 4"x4" square of masonite. A shopping trip through my stash for collage items yielded the following - a striped tissue in green, gold and red, a yellow tissue on which I stamped "friend" (SU) in green, some music sheet, a short piece of lace and a deep red handmade paper from which I cut out a heart.

I applied melted beeswax (mini crock pot) over the textured cardstock with a natural bristled brush and laid the striped tissue paper in it. I used the mini iron to embed the paper into the wax - worked so well!!!!! The mini iron allows you to add heat just where you want it and immediately heats all the layers through which embeds them into your collage. I added the yellow friend tissue paper to the left of it and the torn sheet music to the top and used the iron to embed them as well. Added the lace in the same fashion leaving the ends sticking out the sides and added the red heart. I decided the heart needed a bit of texture so used a scroll stamp (SU wheel) over the melted wax, let it cool and then gently pulled it off. Great texture!! Decided to add the same texture to the bottom of the collage. Had a bit of trouble because the wax was sticking to the stamp** but just reheated and tried again and got a good impression. I applied mica powder ( Perfect Pearls or Pearl EX) to the textured wax which nicely highlighted it. Added some to the heart as well. Thought the collage needed just a bit of something 3D near the word Friend so added a plastic butterfly charm!! Just what I was looking for.

I trimmed all the papers to the edge of the masonite tile using an exacto knife and added beeswax along all the edges to finish them off. Used the mini iron to set them and add a bit of texture then applied some mica powder to the front and sides of all the edges.

I drilled a couple of small holes at the top, threaded through a wire hanger with some ebeads and tied on a copper ribbon!!

I am very happy with the way it turned out!! Looking forward to making a few more of these this summer.

Therese

**If you try to pull the rubber stamp off before the wax has completely hardened it will take the wax up with it. I will consider using a spritz of water or some embossing ink on my stamp before applying it to the wax to prevent sticking the next time around. Will let you know how it goes. You can also place your collage in the fridge or freezer to ensure that the beeswax has solidified completely. To remove wax from your rubber stamp heat with your heat gun for a few seconds and blot with paper towel to remove the wax.