Meet your dream plate and fall in love with a faster, friendlier approach to printmaking. For artists and crafters who love the creative possibilities of monoprinting on gelatin but not the prep time, mess and inconvenience that comes with it, the Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate is a dream come true! It's durable, reusable, stored at room temperature, and ready to get creative whenever you are. Simply apply paint with a soft rubber brayer, make your marks and pull your print. It's that simple! Wipe the plate down with a spritz of water and a paper towel, and you're ready to go again. In this premier guide, artist Joan Bess--inventor of the concept for the Gelli plate--unleashes the fun through more than 60 step-by-step techniques. Create intriguing patterns using tools like sponges, textured rollers and homemade combs. Learn how to incorporate stencils and rubber stamps. Experiment with metallic paint, dimensional paint and gel medium. Become a texture-hunter, creating a wide world of effects using embossed papers, natural objects, rubber bands, lace, corrugated cardboard, metal tape, die cut letters...anything goes! Even beginners can enjoy immediate gratification--just grab a textured surface, smoosh it into your painted Gelli plate, and you'll have a stack of amazing prints in no time. For experienced printmakers, the inspirations in these pages will push you to experiment, adapt, combine and layer. It's easy, fun and totally addicting! Printmaking just got easier! • Expert tips from the creator of the Gelli plate • 60+ awesome step-by-step techniques • Ideas for incorporating stamps and stencils, using ghost prints, salvaging uninspired prints, and more • 26-page gallery shows the many wonderful ways artists are incorporating Gelli printing into their work
This is where painting meets collage! You can create beautiful art with amazing depth and texture, using easy collage techniques and paper you paint yourself. Popular workshop instructor Elizabeth St. Hilaire makes it fun and simple no matter what your skill level! Start with materials you probably already have--fluid acrylics, stencils, a few household items and paper--and hand-paint your personalized paper palette using basic techniques anyone can do. Then move through each step of composing your own work of art. You'll find beautiful, meaningful examples of the how and why on every page. You'll learn how to: develop your composition, how to work with simple shapes, important lessons on value and much more. • More than 30 techniques for painting your own decorative papers • Step-by-step instructions for creating your own painted paper collage–from underpainting and directional ripping and tearing to auditioning your papers and combining collage with mixed media • A spectacular gallery of paper paintings to inspire and dazzle--still lifes, figures, animals and landscapes
The astoundingly vibrant three-dimensional paper artworks in this book will stop paper art fans of all levels in their tracks. After the initial amazement, enjoy trying this method yourself, expanding your skills at your own pace with highly regarded artist Yulia Brodskaya's guidance. Using two simple materials--paper and glue--she's perfected the placement of carefully cut and bent strips of paper to "paint" images. Brodskaya offers not a predictable project book, but instead practical tips on how to work with her method in various ways of your own. See how this method gives new impact to lettering, nature themes, portraits, larger pieces, and experiments. Learn how to choose colors, the importance of testing compositions, which part of the image to start with, and when to consider it complete. Inspiring for its artworks alone, this is also a colorful starting point for anyone interested in working with paper, and full of practical ideas for artists who want to advance their creative thinking.
Paper Flowers are Always in Season Make playful party decorations, luscious bouquets, and sophisticated floral centerpieces with inexpensive tissue and crepe paper. Paper to Petal walks you through the easy basics of transforming simple materials into a vibrant display of fanciful handmade blooms suitable for every occasion. Design experts Rebecca Thuss and Patrick Farrell inspire you to get creative with their time-tested techniques. Customize every petal, leaf or stem to go dramatic or delicate; mimic nature or fashion your blossoms in any color you can imagine to make something uniquely personal. You’ll be amazed how easy it is to produce these gorgeous flower projects. These exquisite blooms never wilt, are always in style, and are endlessly fun to create, share, and give to everyone you love.
Decorate the home with the 25 fun and fabulous eco-friendly papercraft projects featured in this inspiring new collection. Conjure up tea light lanterns, vintage flower lampshades, or decorative bowls--all made from paper, both new and recycled.
"Make every card, tag, gift wrapping, ornament, and tabletop décor a feast for the senses with inventive punched and layered shapes, cut letterforms, quilling, accordion folding, iris folding, tea-bag folding, and origami"--Page 2 of cover.
Make decorative, simple do-it-yourself projects with this friendly guide to paper crafting. You and your family will love to spend hours making beautiful paper art, jewelry, and decorations with All Things Paper. This easy paper crafts book comes with simple-to-follow instructions and detailed photos that show you how to create colorful and impressive art objects to display at home--many of which have practical uses. It is a great book for experienced paper craft hobbyists looking for new ideas or for new folders who want to learn paper crafts from experts. Projects in this papercrafting book include: Candle Luminaries Citrus Slice Coasters Mysterious Stationery Box Everyday Tote Bag Silver Orb Pendant Fine Paper Yarn Necklace Wedding Cake Card Perfect Journey Journal And many more… All the projects in this book are designed by noted paper crafters like Benjamin John Coleman, Patricia Zapata, and Richela Fabian Morgan. They have all been creating amazing objects with paper for many years. Whether you're a beginner or have been paper crafting for many years, you're bound to find something you'll love in All Things Paper. Soon you will be on your way to creating your own designs and paper art.
Description The Mexican tradition of paper crafting dates back to pre-Hispanic times when the Aztecs made paper from tree bark, called Amate. With the Spanish conquest brightly colored tissue paper or Papel de China arrived on trading boats from the Phillipines and was used in paper crafts. Pinatas, papel picado and paper flowers are important in the festivities of Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos and are also used to decorate birthday parties, weddings and baby showers amongst other celebrations. From the beginning of Happythought we have been inspired by the beauty and simplicity of these Mexican paper crafts. We have really enjoyed trying our hand at creating our own, with satisfying results! Now we have put together four of our favorite paper craft tutorials for you try in one book. The techniques we have used are not always traditional - the projects are designed to be easy to make and use materials that you hopefully already have at home or in your craft box. The crafts are also designed with little fingers in mind - most of the activities are easy enough for a child to complete, with a little adult supervision! Tutorials How to make a paper star These stunning ornaments are partly inspired by Mexican star pinatas and partly by the beautiful Moravian tin star lanterns made by Mexican artisans. You could also attach your star decorations to a string of fairy lights to make a garland of teeny-tiny star lanterns. We have provided three colorful templates for you to use, or why not create your own using the black and white template as a starting point? How to make paper flowers These simple paper flowers are fun to make and so easy that the whole family can get involved.They can be used to decorate a party or Cinco de Mayo celebration, arranged in vases or as a centerpiece at a wedding, or placed on an ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos.You could also attach one or two flowers to a bobby pin or hair band and create a decorative hair piece! How to make papel picado Papel picado means 'punched' or 'perforated' paper, and traditionally papel picado are made from colored tissue paper and cut using chisels.We wanted to simplify the perforated paper technique so that you could create papel picado with household scissors, and after a bit of experimentation we came up with this easy method of producing your own stunning papel picado. We made ours using crepe paper as it comes in lovely, vibrant colors and we found it much easier to handle than tissue paper, which tends to tear. It also means that your papel picado last longer so you can use them again next year! How to make a mini pinata Ever since we moved our family to South America, we have all fallen head-over-heels for pinatas, so it wasn't long until we felt compelled to try making one of our own.Traditionally, you beat a pinata with a stick until it exploded and all the yummy, shiny contents fell to the ground. Now days, as a safer option, pinatas often come with a string which you pull down on to release the contents. We wanted to make a fully functioning mini pinata, so ours too has a pull string. It's been tried and tested by our children, so we can report that it works beautifully! Templates If you would like to use the templates shown in the tutorial photos they are all free with the book to download from the Happythought website. We have also included templates in this book which you can photocopy and scale up to use for your projects, copy by hand or use as inspiration for your own designs.
