Saturday, November 16, 2013

TUTORIAL ON USING DECORATIVE NAPKINS IN YOUR COLLAGES

PAPER NAPKINS, AUTUMN LEAVES, & A COLLAGE - PAINTING

It's so easy to use store-bought imagery in your work, and this lesson is extra-cool because the paper napkins can be quite translucent! 

collage, mixed media
I bought these paper goods in two sizes for a little variety.











To make the imagery translucent, you need to separate the top, printed ply from the rest of the napkin. 
The edges are micro-perforated to hold the layers together, so I tear those off first.
lesson, make
I usually discard the edges.










advice, tip
Peeling off the top, printed layer!
mixed media, advice
The printed sheet was too busy before!
I used a sturdy sheet of commercial scrapbooking paper as my background for this painting - collage. I added areas of acrylic paint to not only make it my own, but also allow the tissue-like leaves to show up better.
TIP: Napkins with a white or light background work the best! Apply acrylic polymer fluid both below the napkin shapes and again on top.


how to, method 
I also used text and pictures from an old book.









I felt the piece needed more, so I "blew" some branch-like lines with a drinking straw and ink. I also painted in my own version of a bird in flight.


art activity, collage
The finished collage - painting.
Thanks for viewing this post!


4 comments:

  1. Very beautiful work. I have seen napkins used in art journaling but, yours are so different. The leaves look like they are just floating on the page and the straw lines just add to the leaves. TFS
    Barb
    NC

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  2. Paula,
    I enjoyed viewing your Web site, and thought you might be interested in seeing my altered book called, "Let's hear it for the Girls." You can find it on: https://elainesartportfolio.shutterfly.com/448 It was created from a childs board book. It's very small, but some of the images I used reminded me of the same types of images you have here. Let me know if you agree. Elaine Rosenberg

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  3. I've just found your blog and spent a few minutes looking through it. I'll be reading lots more of it in the future and look forward to your future posts. I love your sense of humor and look forward to learning many things as I follow you. I've been "playing" at various types of crafting most of my life and now in my retirement years I'm trying to find out if there really is a creative child down deep inside trying to express herself or perhaps I'm just a hoarder of crafting materials as my family has always claimed. Only time will tell.

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