Befor and After

This is the same piece and I like it both ways, it is also one of my first drawn tree...no more printed templates! I started with a painted grey canvas board, then began layering torn pieces of various fiber papers on top. I used a combination of white, greys and blues. A big part of what I do relies not only on the paper, its texture, thickness, colouring and rigidness but also how the paper reacts to the glue and uv gloss. Fiberous papers that are uneven in thickness are great for clouds not only because of the soft torn edges but also because of the way it reacts to glue/gloss. It really amps up the "visual texture" of the clouds.

Papers Used:

Stormy Sky - textured mulberry, mulberry tissue, lace paper, tissue

Ground - textured mulberry

Tree - Standard brown cardstock

Leaves - indian batik, marble paper, scrapbook paper

Techniques:

A lot of layered torn paper

drawn and handcut tree

paper punching

The Next Flower

I love this flower. I used exactly the same technique and templates on this one as the one I made for my mom (see The First Real Paper Creation) but used different papers. This one is a simple 12x12 and is now framed in a 12x12 deep mahogony shadow box and hanging on my wall.

Doing the center of the flower in yellow really amped up the textural quality of this piece and over all I find it much more striking that my previous flower attempt. The use of mulberry and modge-podge for the petals resulted in a much more "alive" feel to the flower and quite frankly the mulberry (100gsm) was much easier to work with.

Paper Used:

Background - 12x12 scrapbook paper on cardboard (I DO NOT recommend cardboard - it bubbles which is why I never sold this one)
Flower petals - ivory 100gsm textured mulberry
Centers - standard yellow cardstock (2 1/2 feet long bu 1/4" wide)
Leaves - alligator paper (sorry don't know what it is officially called)
Branch - packing paper

Techniques:

Center - quilling
Petals, branches and leaves - handmade templates, handcut pieces. Leaves were layered with coats of modge-podge and then folded/shaped. Leaves are folded and inserted into hot glue down the center fold before attaching to piece to give it a permanent raised effect.

Lessons learned:

As mentioned above - I used a 12x12 piece of cardboard as the backer for this piece but a lot of modge-podge and other glues are necessary to make my pieces. Attaching the background paper to the cardboard caused the carboard to bubble. You could probably use spray adhesive but I tend to avoid these kind of glues for my projects because I can't afford for any of the paper to start pealing.

The Next Step

This was the first big piece I did after starting on this journey. The background was handpainted and layered with tissue. I loved the paper I used for the clouds....it worked perfectly but alas, I can no longer find it anywhere :(

Paper Used:
Background - tissue
Grass/hills - tesxtured mulberry
Leaves - indian batik
Tree trunks - standard carstock (painted)
Ground cover flowers - indian batik

Techniques and tools:

Collage (torn paper)
template and handcut trees
punching (leaves)

My first Winter Scenes

In the beginning I started with painted canvas boards and layered tissue on top for the background/sky. I have since switched mostly to doing paper backgrounds but think the layered tissue has its uses.

Also, in the beginning I did not draw my own trees. I generally took a picture or template of a tree on the computer and printed it onto various colours of cardstock and then handcut it. The trees shown were not hand drawn. I was disapointed by the lack of freedom it gave me and did not like being limited to printable paper. As I continued working on my projects I had more and more of a desire to start using handmade and specialty papers. This led to me discovering that I can draw - that my insecurities led me to give up at a young age. I now freehand all my trees and branches and have begun studying drawing as a way to further my own work.

Paper/Materials Used:

Background: Paint layered with tissue on canvas board

Trees: standard black cardstock

Moons: ivory textured mulberry

Snow: smooth mulberry and silk paper

My First Real Paper Creation

I made this for my Mom and this was the first paper art project I ever did. I have only done this kind of flower one other time and the progression was awesome. Enjoy landscapes more but will explore these again in the future and see where it takes me.

Papers used:

Indian Batik (2 shades of green - background, branches)

Lotka paper (red flowers)

Alligator Paper (for the leaves - don't know exactly what it is but it is glossy and has an alligator texture)

Standard cardstock (black flower centers)

Techniques used:

flower centers - quilling

flowers - handmade templates, layered modge-podge on petals, molding/shaping

leaves - handmade template, folded into hot glue to keep leaf shape

branches - drawn onto batik and handcut

Cards

A sunset card for a coworker
A Congrats card for my cousin and his new bride.
I can't remember who this one was for... ;o)
A very special birthday card from a wonderful friend!