Supplies

– waterproof surface

– paint brush (1 or 2” chip brush is fine)

– cottage cheese container (or equivalent)

– white glue mixed with water (50-50)

– papers

acrylic paints and inks

– spray bottle

brayer (optional)

Note: lightweight papers such as rice paper, tissue papers, and deli wrap work best when mounted on heavier papers such as copier paper, brown paper bags, shelf paper, newspaper etc.

Two Layered Paper

You will be creating two layered paper from a base paper, and a topper. For the top layer, use a piece of lightweight paper (deli wrap, tissue paper etc.) and crumple it into a ball and then uncrumple it. Do this ten times to break the paper’s fibers and create lots of creases. I use copier paper for a top layer because it crumples nicely and gives a good effect.

Next take the base paper and paint the glue mixture on it. Then apply the crumpled paper spreading it flat but preserving the wrinkles. The brayer helps here. You could also use a bottle or rolling pin to bond the two layers.

At this point apply a thin coat of paint or ink right on top of the crumpled sheet or you can wait until it has dried. The water on the surface will further dilute the paint. If you wait until the paper has dried, you may want to mist the paper before painting. Experiment to see what works best for you.

Let the paper dry. These make great gift wrap, cards, and book covers.

One Layer Paper

Use a spray bottle to wet heavier papers. This helps you to wad it into a ball. Crumple and uncrumple the paper ball ten times. Lay the paper flat on your waterproof surface and paint on the color. Let dry.

This is a single layer of a recycled brown paper bag from Trader Joe’s. After wrinkling, I spritzed the paper and painted an underlayer of dark blue. When it dried, I added a layer of gold acrylic paint that had been thinned. Makes for a nice gift wrap.

If I were using tissue – I would create two layers because the tissue is so fragile. I would put the tissue on top of newspaper or some other paper that has a little weight to it and won’t fall apart when it gets wet.