Painty Pages with Purpose: DIY Handmade Collage Papers Part One

Key Points

• The latest Paper Doll Chronicles episode teaches how to make vibrant, handmade “painty papers” for collage, paper dolls, and art journaling.

• The process blends creative freedom, self-acceptance, and mindful play to help artists reconnect with their inner creativity.

• Techniques include intuitive mark-making, layering color and texture, and repurposing old book pages, tissue paper, and mixed-media scraps.

• The tutorial is aimed at midlife creatives and art enthusiasts seeking self-discovery through expressive, no-rules art-making.

Introduction

Welcome back to The Paper Doll Chronicles! 🎨✨

This is Part 1 of a 2 part series: here is Part 2.

In this episode, we’re diving into one of the most joyful, freeing, and healing practices I know: making your own painty papers—custom backgrounds, textures, and color-rich surfaces you can use to create paper doll clothes, accessories, or art journal elements.

I call this DIY Painty Papers with a Purpose because it’s about more than just pretty colors—it’s about:

🌀 Giving your inner artist space to play freely

💖 Practicing self-acceptance as you let go of perfection

🌈 Reclaiming your creativity through joyful, intuitive expression

🔥 Making art that’s raw, real, and beautifully yours

These hand-painted collage papers become personal symbols of your growth, emotions, and artistic essence. When you turn them into paper doll clothing, you’re literally dressing your stories in color. Whether you use finger painting, scraping, scribbling, stamping, or splashing—this is a process of honoring your creative instincts and saying YES to the artist within.

💡 No rules. No right way. Just trust, color, movement, and play.

Grab your paints, scrap paper, old book pages, or anything you have on hand, and let’s make something beautiful—with meaning.

💫 👗 Want to share your painty paper creations? Tag me or use #PaperDollChronicles so we can cheer each other on!

✨ Next time we will turn these joyful pages into outfits for your Inner Muse.

Suggested supplies

• A variety of types of paper, book pages, tags, etc. Dip into your stash and see what you have on hand
• Gesso Acrylic paint - especially black and white plus a few colors you love
• Brushes
• water
• paper towels
• baby wipes
• Stencils, stamps and other mark making tools
• Paint markers
• Water soluble crayons
• Stabilo Marks All pencil

Transcript

Video title: Painty Pages with Purpose: DIY Handmade Collage Papers Part One
    
Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/live/-2-vB404ABg
    
Video language: English (auto-generated)
    
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[0:01] : Hello and good morning my friends. Having a little technical difficulty today, but I think I got it all figured
[0:09] : out. Thanks for your patience if you were trying to connect live. And if this
[0:15] : is your first time here, that's what happens with the live show. Sometimes all the tech says, "Nah, I don't want
[0:20] : to." But welcome, welcome. I am so glad you're here. I'm Dr. Manette Ryarden. This is Painting in Your PJs with
[0:28] : Manette and super excited to be here with you live and to play together
[0:35] : this whole month with some painty papers. Yay. And the sound is working.
[0:40] : Thank you. And the stream is working. So, I think we're all good. So, welcome.
[0:46] : This month is all about what I'm calling painty papers with purpose. So, the
[0:51] : purpose is twofold. So, part of the purpose is we are in a season of making
[0:58] : paper dolls, which has been super, super fun. We're going to take a break from
[1:04] : doll making this month to focus on making some of our own handmade painted collage papers that we can use for the
[1:12] : next round of paper doll making when I kick that uh actual dolls back off in
[1:19] : September. And um who knows what we'll get up to in September. But each week
[1:24] : this month, I'm going to show you how I might make my own handmade collage papers
[1:31] : with some purpose. I'm going to talk about and each week we'll do different supplies. This week I'm going to be
[1:36] : working with uh acrylic paints and maybe some water-soluble crayons. We'll see
[1:41] : where we get to. And actually oil pastels would be really fun. I might
[1:47] : have to pull out some oil pastels as well. Good morning, Ivonne, and super
[1:52] : excited to be here with you. It's been a busy, wonderful week. I am preparing for
[1:58] : a weekend online retreat called The Goddess Within. You can see that on my
[2:04] : website. If you're interested, it's not too late to jump in and have some play
[2:10] : with eight goddess archetypes that I am super excited to introduce people to.
[2:16] : But I was thinking about this month and wanting to do something different. And I
[2:21] : love that you guys are connecting and saying hi to each other in the chat. So fun to have familiar names and faces
[2:28] : here and welcome to new people, too. If you're watching the replay or joining me
[2:33] : live, I love it when you just drop me a comment and say hi. Let me know that you watched. If you're brand new, make sure
[2:40] : that you subscribe to my channel to help us keep growing and spreading the words
[2:45] : about art as a powerful tool for creative process. So, my work in the world is all about using art as a tool
[2:52] : for self-discovery, specifically for women in midlife and beyond who are in
[2:57] : that energy of reconnecting to the inner artist, looking in the mirror going, who
[3:03] : am I and what's next for me? And I find that art is one of the most powerful paths to self-discovery, to reconnecting
[3:12] : to what's happening within. And even though we're going to be really focusing
[3:17] : on abstract painty papers, collage papers, I'm I'm calling this painting
[3:23] : with a purpose because even when we're exploring and painting in this very
[3:30] : playful way. So first of all, so a couple of things come to mind. We want
[3:35] : to give our inner artist really some space to just play over this next month.
[3:40] : There's no product. There's no um end result. This is about experimentation.
[3:48] : This is about that childlike sense of wonder looking at, oh wow, look at what that paintbrush did or look at this mark
[3:55] : that I made or I love this stencil. And while we're practicing
[4:01] : self-acceptance on this journey of just creative play,
[4:06] : you may also be feeling, "But I'm wasting supplies. What do you mean? I can't use up this precious paper or what
[4:13] : if I run out of that color or I spent so much on this paint. I'm afraid to use it." All these things are going to come
[4:20] : up and your inner critic may be very present. Earlier this year, we actually
[4:26] : made inner critic paper dolls. Mine was this hilarious monster. And um I love
[4:32] : having a personification of my inner critic. And right now, she's resting in
[4:38] : a box. She does not need to be here this week while we step out into this
[4:44] : exploration of just making art that's raw, that's real, and that is uniquely
[4:50] : yours. And then the last thing I want to say about really working with our own
[4:58] : uh painty papers in our collage work is how unique it makes our art when we're
[5:03] : using our own paper, our own marks. I say this a lot on here. The more that
[5:10] : you combine things, get your handwriting in there, colors that you love, then all
[5:17] : of your art starts to look unique and original to you. And this is such a great way to explore what is it that you
[5:25] : do like, what shapes do you like, what colors do you like, do you like a lot of texture, do you like things to be a
[5:31] : little more simple as you are painting? Get some light on there. So, first I'm
[5:37] : going to talk about supplies that I'm going to be using today. And I realized
[5:44] : I forgot to grab my big stack of paper that I wanted to play with, but we'll
[5:51] : just start with what we have and see where we get to this morning. So, I have some manila tags. Last month, we had a
[5:58] : lot of fun making paper doll tags. And um I haven't taken the wires off of
[6:05] : them. you can see yet. They came all wired up together. And I might even do something fun with those wires. So, I've
[6:12] : got some tags to paint because it's nice if you have a selection already painted
[6:17] : up that you can just easily grab. And when you prepare ahead of time, painty
[6:23] : papers, collage papers. It makes your creative practice actually move a lot faster because you don't have to pause
[6:30] : to paint. You can go into your own stash and see what you have. Oh, yay, Marian.
[6:36] : I'm glad you found us. Welcome back. So, I have a few different book guts. And
[6:42] : these are books where I've taken the guts out of the insides of a book, uh,
[6:47] : insides of a book, and repurposed the cover for something else. And so, this
[6:54] : is a fun kids book called Big Brothers in Love. This was actually great for
[7:00] : cutting words out of as well because it has nice big print. Um, and so there was
[7:08] : something about Elizabeth was not surprised that phrase is grabbing me. I'm going to pull that out. So, I'm just
[7:14] : going to pull just rip out of here some of these pages of this book. And if you
[7:20] : were saying, "Manette, I can't tear up books. That's horrible. What are you doing?" Well, let me tell you something.
[7:26] : This is an old library book that was I'm trying to pull too many at once that was
[7:34] : in literally in the discard pile at the library. So it was out of date. Um it
[7:41] : had been you can see it has been lovingly read I think these stamps go
[7:46] : all the way back it looks like to 1993
[7:51] : to maybe 2008. That one says 2004. So this was a well
[7:58] : read, well-loved book and the library discarded it. So if I didn't repurpose
[8:04] : this book, it would probably end up in a landfill somewhere. Um books aren't
[8:10] : recyclable unless you take all this plastic gunk off the end first and then you could recycle the papers. But rather
[8:18] : than have this go into a trash pile,
[8:23] : I love to use painty book pages in my collage or sometimes I'll sit and just
[8:29] : cut words out of pages for doing found poetry. There's so many ways to reuse
[8:36] : old books. So, don't feel badly about them. And I grabbed two different ones.
[8:42] : This one is really cool. This is an old uh also a children's
[8:48] : book. It has lots of numbers in it. Again, it has that big print, you know. This is fun to use all on its own. This
[8:54] : is a math workbook. I never loved math in school, so it kind of makes me happy that I can paint over some of these
[9:03] : pages. And how fun is this? How many hands do you have? How many feet do you have? So,
[9:10] : oh, I love this elephant. So, this one had some images as well. So, some of
[9:17] : these images I'll want to keep and some of these pages will be Look at that old
[9:23] : bookstore photo. Isn't that beautiful? So, some of the pages I'll keep for the
[9:30] : images and then some I will happily just paint over. So, I have a ton of painty
[9:36] : papers, probably more than I need. Excuse me. We are having a lot of smoke
[9:43] : from fires in western Colorado. So, um, sending lots of love and prayers to
[9:49] : those firefighters in western Colorado that are trying to
[9:54] : contain the fire. I also wanted to show this library pocket here is something
[10:01] : that I would love to stitch into or tape into a journal. And I even love the
[10:10] : title, Big Brothers in Love, or this fun little library pocket. I could paint it
[10:15] : up and use it as well. So, I would keep that piece of the book separate. And I'm going to talk about working on multiple
[10:23] : pieces at the same time. This is some Artist Strength
[10:30] : tissue paper. I bought it on Amazon. You had to buy like 50 sheets and they're
[10:35] : This is a These are a half a sheet. But what I love about painting on this
[10:40] : tissue or deli paper is another great example. And each week I'll show some
[10:47] : different papers as well. But what I love about this is the transparency of
[10:52] : it. So as you're painting and making marks on these pages when you add it to
[10:59] : your collage, you can see there's this wonderful transparency. So this is great
[11:04] : for an upper layer in a collage piece.
[11:12] : And the two last things. So these are some scraps of mixed media paper from a
[11:17] : book making project. And I'm going to use these because I don't want to waste
[11:23] : all these scrappy bits. Like these are big enough I probably use them for a to-do list. But these skinny ones, you
[11:29] : know, they aren't good for much. Oh, that feels like a piece of like poster board or something. These are a little
[11:36] : thick for collage. If I were creating a lot of
[11:42] : layers, again, this would be an upper layer, but when I start to think about making some paper doll clothes, right,
[11:49] : this feels really fun to do. And I think next week, I can't
[11:54] : remember what I put in this schedule. Next week, we're going to do acrylic inks and we'll be doing both paper and
[12:02] : fabric dying next or painting next week because I love using fabric in my
[12:07] : collage. If you're thinking ahead, I will be using just plain white muslin or you could use a raw canvas as well. So,
[12:15] : we'll be painting up some fabric also. And then finally, this is so fun to
[12:21] : paint. It's similar to the tissue paper. I'm sure you can recognize this. This is an old pattern, right? A used pattern.
[12:30] : You can find these at thrift stores, antique malls, you know, a lot of
[12:35] : different places for 25 cents or a dollar if don't pay more than a dollar
[12:40] : for them. And there's enough paper often in one pattern to last you forever. So,
[12:46] : I've grabbed a couple of pieces of this pattern paper, which is also really
[12:52] : great with transparency. So, we're going to start off really easy
[12:58] : with kind of a fun warm-up activity.
[13:04] : And I'm going to start with my book pages.
[13:09] : Look, that one's even a whole sheet. That's even more fun. And I'm going to
[13:14] : kind of lay these out in front of me.
[13:21] : And I don't necessarily want to see, you know, all,
[13:27] : let's see, I want some from the other book. Here we go. Um, I don't necessarily want to see everything
[13:33] : that's on the page, but I also don't want to cover all of it up either. So,
[13:40] : and you can paint both sides of collage paper or you can just paint one side. To
[13:45] : start with, I'm just going to paint one side and keep this really simple. So when we think about painty papers for
[13:52] : collage, I think about texture. I think about marks. I'm not thinking about
[13:58] : painting an image. Remember, we're thinking about play. So the simplest
[14:03] : thing to do is to grab any kind of a permanent marker and just have some fun
[14:11] : with mark making. This is a permapake pen made by Sakura. It's one of my
[14:16] : absolute favorite permanent pens for drawing and collaging.
[14:23] : And I am going to simply come in and make some marks on
[14:30] : this paper. And you might think, "Oh, that's really simple." But remember, I'm
[14:36] : looking for things to add to the background. This is also a really fun
[14:42] : way to test the shape of a pen or the shape of a paintbrush. And I would do
[14:48] : this with a paintbrush if I didn't have markers in front of me. So, I want to
[14:55] : kind of just have some fun doing some mark making. It's a fun warm-up to get
[15:01] : myself started. And I could spend the entirety of our
[15:08] : time together just filling these pages
[15:15] : with different marks and shapes. And having black
[15:22] : pages with black marks on them creates a lot of contrast in your collage. We often see really beautiful, extravagant,
[15:30] : painty pages, and I'll do a couple of those today as well because they're so fun to create. But ultimately, when it
[15:38] : comes to collage, simplicity is often the best plan. I also like to come in,
[15:46] : I kind of look at this diamond shape. So, I could just repeat that diamond
[15:51] : shape in there in a very messy way. But I also love to
[15:57] : write on the top of these words using what's called asmic writing, which is
[16:03] : sort of pretend writing. Like I don't want it to be readable. You can also just write messy. You can write over the
[16:11] : tops of things. So this is about getting again texture. But I was listening to
[16:17] : this beautiful um audio this morning from my friend Whitney Freya and a
[16:23] : amazing woman named Dr. from Marie Booni and they were talking about the warrior archetype and I so loved some of the
[16:30] : things that they were saying and some of the symbols and images. So, I'm just
[16:37] : going to come in and pretend, right? Like I'm writing
[16:42] : words, but you can't read this, but look at the fabulous marks it makes. Right?
[16:48] : And it was the they were talking about the warrior
[16:54] : being a soft warrior being mama bear energy being you know the the warrior
[17:01] : like the protector of the self and it's a fun fast way to get some words to
[17:08] : capture some thoughts to plant some ideas on the
[17:13] : page and I want it over the words because I want to be able to see some of
[17:18] : those words through and it looks like scribbling. So I could do this in a also
[17:24] : neater way. I could write in the opposite direction. And again, I mean,
[17:30] : you could just come in and pretend that you're writing. And this often makes for
[17:38] : really fabulous collage play
[17:46] : and really wonderful abstract marks. And you can see how fast it goes when we
[17:52] : start to just let go and make marks on the paper. I also have these super
[18:01] : wonderful fat giant postca markers. Somebody gave me these. And so we can do
[18:08] : this in color. And then we start to
[18:13] : build up shapes and marks and things that we love. So we're not looking to
[18:20] : get images. We're looking to get fun shapes on the page.
[18:28] : And you can maybe I want them to be a little more leafshaped or teardrop
[18:35] : shaped.
[18:42] : These all make great additions to junk journals.
[18:50] : I love this chart over here and I'm thinking and I love this big chunky
[18:55] : purple pen. So, what if I just draw over
[19:00] : that grid line with all those fun numbers? Wouldn't a piece of that be
[19:06] : interesting in a collage? So, so much of this is about not overthinking,
[19:12] : but just really diving in and playing.
[19:18] : So, these big chunky ones, look at this tip. Let's see if I These are kind of
[19:24] : old. I bought these for one of my first retreats I ever led
[19:33] : in Denver with a friend. So again, I'm kind of going between the numbers here
[19:41] : and I'm letting the pen do the work, right? So this is kind of like working with a stamp. You can see it's just
[19:48] : starting to get inked up. Oh, and look, now we're going to get some nice blobbies and some splatters.
[19:58] : Postca markers do tend to leak. And so there's a lot of ink on this page,
[20:04] : right? And so I can also create my own ink blot
[20:16] : and see what happens. So, this one feels really fun. I love it. I lost some of
[20:22] : the neatness of it, but this one feels really fun as an under layer layer. So, when this one dries, I'm going to come
[20:29] : back and add some more to this one. Let's play with some homemade stamps
[20:37] : that I made. And there's somewhere in the channel there's a video on making
[20:42] : your own handmade foam stamps. I grabbed just a few of them. is one of my favorite thing to do. I am going to Oh,
[20:51] : this red is kind of calling my name. So, I'm going to grab some red paint.
[20:57] : And notice on a lot of these that each page has one color. And we put down one
[21:04] : color. We let it dry. You can come back and add more layers. So, you know, some
[21:09] : of these we will layer up. Oh, I'm also really into fluoresence now. So, let me
[21:16] : grab some of this fluorescent pink to play with. I'm gonna I'm going to do some stamps
[21:22] : and some stencils and let's see. Let's play with some of
[21:29] : this paper and see what happens, right?
[21:34] : And just see what happens. So much of this is just about what I would call fearless experimentation. Notice that
[21:43] : black underneath is coming through. It's coming through all over me. This is absolutely perfect. And I grabbed a
[21:51] : stack of new There they are.
[21:58] : Painty papers or I mean new. These are cheap makeup sponges. I order them. They
[22:03] : come like I don't know a hundred of them or something on Amazon. Probably get them like at the dollar store. These are
[22:10] : by far the best tool for stamping. And you can buy other more expensive fancy
[22:16] : stamping things, but these to me work fabulously. So, I'm going to take my little makeup
[22:23] : sponge. I'm going to dab it in the paint and then dab it off a little bit.
[22:32] : And as I'm doing this, I'm just sort of paying attention and noticing. It's like I got that color down and then, oh, like
[22:39] : maybe that wasn't the color that I wanted. So notice the inner voice that
[22:44] : comes up while you're doing this. Are you playing with freedom
[22:50] : and exploration and expansion? Are you feeling constricted or like I could
[22:57] : never play with that kind of what I call wild creative abandon?
[23:03] : And notice these weren't super solid and I love that. Right? So I don't need these to be super solid. If I want them
[23:11] : solid, I'm going to have to either water down this paint a little bit. So, we're
[23:16] : gonna try that. And there's still a lot of paint on here. So, what happens if I
[23:22] : put a little water with a spray bottle right onto this stencil? And I think I'm
[23:29] : going to do that on a stronger piece of paper because it's really wet. And we're
[23:35] : going to get a softer more almost a watercolor look. And
[23:41] : there's a lot of paint on here, right? And so sometimes it's fun to just play. So this is a
[23:48] : super fun page. I'm going to go back to this one. I can add some lines around
[23:53] : those circles, some handdrawn lines, right? Some really fun things I can do.
[24:00] : And I'm noticing there's still a lot of paint on here. So sometimes when you're
[24:05] : working with a stamp, it's actually easier to put the paper on the stamp
[24:12] : than the stamp on the paper. And I noticed there was a lot of paint between
[24:19] : that's going to give me kind of this cool pebbledy look.
[24:24] : So also fun, we got some of that in between paint. And I love this long page
[24:31] : creating this kind of fun roll here. And where are my There they are. Baby
[24:39] : wipes. My favorite thing for cleaning
[24:46] : off my stencils. And I don't over clean them. I do watch for, you know, if it
[24:52] : gets gummed up in between on some of the the patterns. What's on the other side?
[24:57] : So, I have this. Again, these are all handmade stencils. So, I have this kind of fun little
[25:05] : spiraly shape. And I'm going to just let it mix with the red.
[25:10] : Remember, we're everything is an experimentation. It's just paint and paper. If I don't love it, it's okay.
[25:18] : And I'm going to go right over the black. And I love making a lot of these papers because some of them will be
[25:26] : great and some of them I'll be like, "Nah, don't love that one." And I'll just keep painting on it till I do get
[25:33] : something that I love. Right. So now I have this interesting kind of black and
[25:39] : pink and I'm dying to get in here maybe with some white color or texture to add
[25:45] : over that. Fluorescents are very very transparent
[25:50] : and so they usually go on a top layer or they might need a little white added to
[25:57] : them. That's getting some black in there from my pages. So, let's see if we can.
[26:04] : And these foam stamps that I made are old and well loved and sometimes they just run out. But look how fun that is.
[26:12] : Make an amazing collage shape. So, I'm using up whatever paint I have. And then
[26:18] : I'm going to switch colors. And as I think about play and color,
[26:25] : I'm just letting my intuition draw me towards the color. So,
[26:34] : I'm really feeling I'm looked at this one leaf stamp and I'm like, "Oh, it really needs some green on it." So, not
[26:42] : much paint left, right? So, we got a completely different type of print here
[26:50] : because I've used up most of the paint.
[26:58] : I'm going to I'm going to do that again and see if I can get a little more. I might get a double because of course I
[27:04] : won't get it in exactly the right place.
[27:09] : Super interesting, right? And sometimes these more faded ones make better
[27:14] : collage layers being able to, you know, layer this up over the top of some of
[27:20] : these black marks. All right. So, a trick when you're using
[27:26] : the makeup sponges, you need to switch them up. But there's
[27:31] : still a lot of sponge here left. So, I'm going to cut that red tip off before I
[27:37] : change colors. And I will show you makeup sponges are
[27:43] : brilliant for making uh marks as well in and of themselves.
[27:50] : Okay, so I'm just looking at my paint and what called to me was this is one of
[27:56] : my favorite blues. This is an Amsterdam Prussian blue. And what's both fun and
[28:02] : frustrating at the same time is every brand of paint makes a Prussian blue and
[28:08] : they are all just a little bit different. So when you find a color that
[28:13] : you love, you pretty much have to keep using it in the same
[28:20] : brand that you were uh that you bought the first time. Especially if you're in
[28:25] : the middle of a painting and you run out, you can't just run to the store and
[28:31] : buy a different brand of Prussian blue. They will not be exactly the same. Has
[28:36] : to do with, you know, quantity and the quality of the pigments.
[28:42] : And I'm just sort of putting these side by side because it's also fun. I might take half of this and some of those
[28:49] : bubbles as well. And I love how these are coming out.
[28:56] : This is kind of a a grungy look here that feels really fun.
[29:03] : And these are made out of sticky back fun foam. The thin stickyback fun foam
[29:11] : adhered then to a fatter piece of foam. Always available in kids craft session
[29:18] : sections at stores. Um, Michaelels has them for sure. Even Walmart will have
[29:26] : fun foam and I can sit for hours and cut shapes
[29:32] : and make my own stamps and it's a very fun process. Okay, loving the squares so
[29:39] : far. These are making me really happy and this is sort of capturing capturing
[29:45] : my attention here. So what happens actually this this one
[29:53] : if I want to start to layer things up. So remember this is about play and
[29:59] : experimentation. This is not about
[30:05] : getting something right. There is no right or getting something some perfect
[30:10] : look. You might have to do lots of prints to get the exact look that you're
[30:16] : going for.
[30:22] : Okay. But I'm really loving this Prussian blue. And I'm like, "Oh, everything could be Prussian blue." I'm
[30:28] : going to turn my stencil a different direction so I get some of those marks
[30:34] : in a different place.
[30:41] : And I love that I can see a little bit of all of that. So, I'm starting to create some layers, some visual marks.
[30:48] : If anybody has questions about supplies I'm using or types of paper or sources
[30:56] : for any of the supplies or the old books, little libraries are a great source for old books.
[31:05] : Um, library sales. I go to I've got a bunch of amazing children's books at a
[31:10] : library sale for a quarter at a local it was a friends of the library fundraiser. So that one I
[31:18] : sprayed with water
[31:23] : and so I get this watercoly look. I'm starting to build up that grid. That's
[31:28] : really fun. I still have some paint on here and my table now is
[31:36] : littered. This is fun to do on a bigger table where I have space to spread out
[31:43] : my papers, but they usually just end up all over the floor around my chair.
[31:49] : Look how much paint was on there. I didn't add more paint. I simply sprayed it with water, which helps to clean off
[31:56] : your stencil and to use up as much of the paint as possible.
[32:03] : So, just a little bit on that one. Still love it. We'll just give that one a little clean. Clean. Clearly, I'm loving
[32:11] : the squares I put. Look how many pages I did the squares on. So, I'm just noticing what is it about the squares
[32:17] : today that is really drawing me in or why am I paying, you know, wanting to
[32:24] : paint with the squares. Okay, I'm gonna make myself some space here.
[32:30] : And then we're going to play with some more abstract layered
[32:36] : painty pages with some acrylic paints.
[32:42] : This one is so fun. And this is going to be fun to come in
[32:49] : and add some shapes within shapes. Again, just using
[32:57] : the marker. Love black and white for collage. All of
[33:03] : a sudden, I'm like, okay, now that's feeling really fun. What if I came in and around that pink
[33:14] : where I put those shapes
[33:19] : again, starting to build up that visual interest. Fun thing about working on old
[33:24] : book pages, don't be afraid to just come in with,
[33:29] : excuse me, with white marks as well. Your marks don't always have to be color. Maybe you, excuse me, maybe you
[33:38] : want something a little more subtle, and the white can often offer a very subtle
[33:47] : look. Trying to spread these out. Oops. That was nice. The lid was full of paint.
[33:55] : So, I have this fun little sponge here. Another great mark making tool.
[34:01] : And this one feels like it could use some of
[34:07] : that color. Let's see. Did I get anything off of there?
[34:12] : So, I love looking around my house. And this is true if you, for example, were
[34:19] : working with gel prints. Um, on the gel plate, look around your house for what
[34:25] : can make shape and texture lids. So, one of my
[34:32] : favorite addictions is Coke Zero, the lids of soda bottles, the little round
[34:38] : lids. And usually I have keep them on my desk. I don't have any right now, but they make great
[34:47] : marks on the page. And I have a little like plastic Tupperware container that I
[34:53] : use. This has an amazing natural pattern in it with that little circle in there.
[34:59] : And so I have a bucket of things that I find when I'm out for walks or that I
[35:04] : collect around the house that I use for mark making. So that texture is making
[35:10] : me really happy. So, I'm looking at these other pages going, what else can I add that texture to? I have all of this
[35:18] : paint here. We'll get rid of those. Let me come back to this one for just a
[35:23] : minute. So, this is how we can start to layer things up. Sponges like this hold
[35:29] : a ton of paint, right? So, all of a sudden, I'm just adding a little more
[35:37] : character to these. I'm not trying to cover up what's already there.
[35:43] : But for me, this is pure permission to play, right? Pure permission to play.
[35:49] : And my stash was getting low on painty papers. And um I enrolled in fodder
[35:58] : school for this year. And so now my fodder is growing again because there
[36:04] : have been so many fun different classes on making different kinds of fodder.
[36:11] : So I'm going to work a little bigger this time
[36:16] : on this one. And I'm gonna take a drink of water here. Excuse me for just a second.
[36:25] : And clear my throat. Where's my silly microphone? I'll be right back.
[36:44] : All right. I love You can go to any craft store and
[36:50] : buy an inexpensive bag of sponges. Some are natural sponges, some are artificial
[36:58] : sponges. These are so much fun for texture and mark making.
[37:05] : And I'm going to scoop up the rest of that white paint there.
[37:11] : And oh, there was a little bit of little peaks of red in there as well. And you
[37:17] : can't hardly even see that white on there. I'm just using up the paint and creating kind of a fun under layer. So,
[37:25] : I want to start with less detail. So, the other way that we started, we
[37:31] : started playing with a lot more like independent details on a paper. With
[37:38] : this one, we want to get some color down on it a little bit faster
[37:46] : and maybe a little bit bigger marks. And this is my makeup sponge, which still
[37:53] : had quite a bit of paint on it. So, I'm going to move fast here
[38:02] : and use up this paint. Make some interesting patterns. Even the
[38:08] : little edges still have a lot of paint on them.
[38:21] : So again, just playing seeing what can I do to cover this whole page and cover it
[38:30] : fast. And it's sticking to the wet paint on
[38:35] : there. And let's see. Okay, I'm feeling I thought I
[38:42] : was feeling green, but I'm feeling all the blue. So, I'm going to come in with some different colors of blue this time.
[38:51] : I'm going to get that if there's any left in there. Oh, tail end. I'm going to put it right on my page
[39:00] : and look for my paint scraper. One of my most favorite tools.
[39:07] : And I'm going to pick that paint up and start moving it around on the page. Covering up what I've ever already done.
[39:15] : Letting some of that be. There's still lots of paint on here.
[39:21] : Might be a little bit lumpy, but I'm feeling like I just want this
[39:27] : pretty blue painty page. And it wants to stick to that. Let's pull that out of
[39:33] : there. And then you can see that clean, pretty blue under there as well. And
[39:39] : this still has a lot of paint on it. So, I'm just going to come in here
[39:46] : and move that around. It's a piece of dry paint. And I love this scraper as
[39:52] : one of the fastest tools for getting paint down. When you have a
[39:58] : lot of lumpy paint on your page, take another piece of paper, just press it.
[40:05] : So, this is why we're working on multiple layers all at once. Again, I'm
[40:11] : looking for color and texture. I am not looking for anything particular here. I
[40:19] : want to just start building up some fun layers. And I could spend an hour on
[40:28] : this one piece of paper here. And I haven't painted any of my tags
[40:35] : yet, but that is okay. So, I'm digging this turquoise. So, again, I'm just
[40:41] : going to put this is a big piece of paper. So, it was kind of a big dollop of paint there. I'm going to clean off
[40:48] : the end of my scraper. And I'm going to grab this favorite
[40:54] : beloved little tiny roller and I'm going to roll some paint.
[41:01] : So, the first pages we created on the book pages and the tissue paper were
[41:09] : more about just making simple individual marks. Plus, we had the under layer of
[41:17] : writing or on the pattern paper there's, you know, the black lines on it. So, it
[41:23] : already had some something to respond to. But here, we're wanting to create
[41:30] : something a little more layered. And again, when it comes to using this for
[41:37] : collage, I'm gonna use little tiny pieces of it. I'm not going to use the
[41:42] : whole page. So, like I'm loving this one little square here or maybe this one
[41:48] : little square there. So, I'm not looking to create the hole. I want to play with
[41:56] : the hole and see where I get to. What can I possibly create? And you notice
[42:03] : that I haven't yet picked up a paintbrush, right? I haven't yet picked up a paintbrush. I'm going to come in
[42:10] : now with one of my most favorite tools. And often when making painty papers, I
[42:16] : won't use a paintbrush. I'll use everything else in my studio. Look at my lovely happy painty hands. So, this is a
[42:24] : Stabilo MarkX all wateroluble crayon. It says Aquarel on there. And this is fun
[42:31] : to use in a few different ways. And I'm going to show you both ways. So, one is
[42:38] : just to come in and draw, and you will see that in a moment. I can also come in
[42:48] : and use it to scratch and make some marks. Now, this is tissue paper. This
[42:54] : isn't super strong paper, so I have to be mindful of that
[43:03] : and not overwork this paper or put a layer of matte medium on the paper to
[43:09] : strengthen it. And then I'm going to grab a big sloppy
[43:15] : round brush and I'm going to do it down here where it's dry. So, actually, I'm going to do
[43:23] : it here so you can see. This makes the most beautiful black lines
[43:31] : that are water soluble. And it's interesting how it's responding
[43:36] : to the tissue paper. So, that's another part of the experimentation
[43:42] : is just noticing how your tools react, how the different media that you like to
[43:49] : use react. I'm getting now some interesting buckling and texture in the
[43:55] : paper. Where I added it to the paint, it just act as a mark making tool, but when
[44:00] : I added the water, it didn't necessarily
[44:06] : reactivate. It just mixed with that turquoise. And I don't want to lose all those scratchy marks. The other fun way
[44:14] : that you can use this stabilo is to literally dip it first into water.
[44:23] : And then make your marks on the page. And I'm looking at this page and I'm
[44:30] : really liking where it's going already. And I'm noticing, oh, it's going to need
[44:35] : some white, but this black is helping us come in and just create some interesting
[44:41] : contrast. Maybe I'm going to come in and do a little bit of that asmic writing on
[44:46] : the page. So for me again there is freedom in this. Notice how loosely I'm
[44:53] : holding that pencil. And this is when you will start to see your art really
[45:00] : evolve and change and become your own. When you're willing to loosen up, let
[45:06] : go, not hold on to your idea of something or your actual tools so
[45:14] : tightly. Right? Like we tend to treat our supplies and our tools as
[45:23] : precious. A lot of times we don't actually know how to use a tool. So it could sit in your stash for a really
[45:30] : long time, right? Because you're not sure how to dive in. But the only way to
[45:37] : learn what all these different supplies do is literally to experiment and play.
[45:45] : So, this is definitely one of my favorite. And this will dry permanent.
[45:51] : Once uh this page is completely dry, I can paint over the top of all of this.
[46:02] : And something very mindful and calming about just outlining these squares,
[46:08] : adding some marks. Let me get some more of that little bit of lettering and
[46:14] : writing. I don't want to lose all these nice spirals. And again, when it comes to
[46:21] : actually using this as collage, I'm not looking at the piece of a hole. And it's
[46:28] : interesting on the tissue paper, the tissue paper is starting to go through a
[46:34] : little bit. So, I need to let this one get dry. The last thing that this one needs is definitely some white contrast
[46:43] : in here. Just going in over the top of all of
[46:50] : this. You know, I can even come in
[46:56] : and do some highlights on some of these squares.
[47:03] : You can do this with a brush. I'm doing it with this nice paint marker because it's what I have.
[47:10] : And as this gets more wet, it's starting to get that sort of sprinkly
[47:15] : getting paint everywhere. Postca markers will leak, especially
[47:22] : when they kind of get towards the end of their life. Or if you kind of press them
[47:27] : down and hold and get them really, really juicy, you can get some nice
[47:33] : sprinkles in there. And this is a page that is making me so, so happy
[47:41] : as it is. Like this is I'm looking right here. Look at those marks, right? Or
[47:47] : look at this little scribbly bit in here. And you can make yourself out of a
[47:53] : tag is a great thing to use to make a little. So this one doesn't have enough
[47:58] : going on, right? So when I look at this, I'm like, "Oh, I need some more something something in there, right? You
[48:04] : can use a tag to make yourself a viewfinder." So I'm just going to make
[48:10] : one real quick and show you what I mean. So I just took one of those big 4 by8 tags.
[48:18] : Just going to cut a square out of the middle of the tag.
[48:26] : And now I can come in. A lot easier to see than with my fingers. And I'm going
[48:31] : to move this around the tag to start to notice that areas
[48:37] : that I love or like I said, you know, oh, it needs more visual interest, more
[48:43] : contrast, right? Same here. Not a lot going on. But when I move it up there,
[48:49] : there's a lot going on. So, just noticing the parts of the page that
[48:54] : you're drawn to. All right. So, I'm going to set this one aside. And I want
[49:00] : to work a little bit on some of those mixed media papers so we have a little bit thicker paper to work on. Everything
[49:10] : I did today, you could do on fabric.
[49:15] : And I did not bring any fabric today,
[49:21] : but I will next week. So, I'm going to get a couple of these
[49:26] : long pages, and this will be our last one for today. And this I don't know what this was off
[49:33] : of. It feels like poster board. And I'm going to work across all three
[49:40] : of them at the same time. And I'm gonna use this stencil because I love it, but
[49:46] : or stamp. And then I also want to play with some other different um I grabbed
[49:52] : just a couple of stencils. We don't need all the things when we're doing this
[49:57] : kind of work, right? We just need a few different mark tools. So today I had a
[50:05] : sponge, I had a breayer, I had a scraper, and I had some uh
[50:12] : acrylic markers and a pencil. That was all that I had. So don't think that you
[50:18] : have to go out and purchase a whole lot of different supplies.
[50:24] : Definitely want some of these spirals. This is one where the paint is getting
[50:29] : gked up in there and so I may not get as clean of a spiral
[50:38] : and sometimes I can just go back in and
[50:44] : yeah, maybe time to make a new spiral stencil. So, the thing about making your
[50:52] : own handmade paper, your own stencils, it's all ephemeral. It's all what you
[50:59] : feel drawn to and inspired by in the moment, right? And so, they're also when
[51:06] : you hold on to these papers, it shows you, oh, here's what I was interested in
[51:12] : in that moment. So, getting some thick chunky paint down on here with a
[51:18] : breayer. We'll see. It may be totally too thick. And I'm going to put it across all three
[51:25] : of these little pieces of paper and see what happens. Oh, I like that.
[51:32] : So, let's see. And I love that color green as well.
[51:38] : And when I'm working across multiple sheets of paper this way, the best thing
[51:44] : about working across sheets of paper is that you you don't know what the hole is
[51:51] : going to turn out like. Right. So, it's a fun way to
[51:56] : Let's see. I'm going to grab this. I got a little chunk of green in there. It's a fun way to um explore and experiment and
[52:06] : be detached from seeing the the whole page. Right. So, we're going to try our
[52:11] : spirals here. Clean off that brayer. I love the texture. Look at that texture
[52:17] : showed up on my brayer. How fun is that?
[52:25] : Didn't do it as much there. Interesting. The brayer itself has got a little chunk
[52:30] : of paint stuck in there. So, you know, things get stuck on your brayer, they make marks as well.
[52:41] : Love those happy little spirals. Putting like really loading this up with
[52:48] : paint so that I get a little bit darker. The first time around we got kind of those little grungier looks. Also noting
[52:55] : noticing that the st these stamps work better
[53:00] : on top of the mixed media paper than they did on some of the other papers,
[53:05] : right? It holds the the paint better. So just noticing. And then when I pull
[53:12] : these apart, I have these beautiful interesting
[53:18] : bits that become individual pieces that can get layers
[53:24] : added on, right? Other things um painted on top of them. But these I
[53:31] : pretty much love as they are. These make beautiful bookmarks. I love that this
[53:38] : one got some of the it's like the reverse of the stencil right on my
[53:43] : brayer. Love the combination of leaves. So again, like this can be so much
[53:50] : simpler than we think. Okay, let's do the same
[53:55] : thing and play with just some plain old stencils. Again, we're looking to create
[54:02] : a huge variety of papers. So, we're this will be the last one as we finish up
[54:08] : today. And I'd love to hear if you're watching live or watching the replay. What are you taking away from this today
[54:16] : for yourself? Are you playing along? Are you inspired to go experiment? Are you a
[54:23] : little uh daunted or intimidated by this type of play? I'd love to hear
[54:32] : some other voices today.
[54:37] : And I'm just using up the paint I have on hand. Nothing is wasted here.
[54:52] : Okay. I love these big circles. I love these triangles. So, I'm going to come
[54:58] : in with a different shade of green freedom. Oh, I love that. Thank you,
[55:03] : Marian. Yeah, it feels very, very freeing to paint this way.
[55:10] : And then when we're ready to create something else, what we'll see is that
[55:16] : we already have something to start with. And it can speed up the process when you
[55:22] : don't have a lot of time. So, this one I'm keeping very loose,
[55:30] : right? Um, letting those two shades of green kind of mix together.
[55:40] : Playing along painty fingers and a mansy messy table. That makes me so happy. Jennifer, want to play with some stamps
[55:47] : and stencils. Awesome, Yvon. All right. I love these little
[55:54] : triangles. Again, I'm going across the pages because then I can't overthink it,
[56:02] : right? I can't overthink it. And I'm moving each of the stencils around the
[56:08] : page so I have, you know, similar marks on different spots. I love this. I think
[56:15] : this is one of Andrea Shabaloo's stencils.
[56:26] : Going back. Getting some of that darker green in there.
[56:32] : All right. These are like painty fun. Painty happy. But I'm looking at them going. They totally need a different
[56:40] : color. Inspired in sipping your tea. I love that. So, it feels like it's a
[56:46] : little monochromatic and it needs a little It's tea time there at 5:00 PM. Beautiful. Where? Remind me where you
[56:53] : are, Lorraine. Clearly, you're in Europe somewhere.
[57:02] : I still have some of this green paint on there. Again, nothing is wasted.
[57:09] : So, I'm gonna come in and just excuse me, use that up.
[57:20] : This is going to be like a messy cleanoff page. Malta. Very cool. Now I
[57:26] : remember. And Lorraine, I so appreciate all of your emails, even if I don't
[57:32] : always get a chance to respond. Lorraine sends me pictures of her beautiful paper dolls
[57:38] : that she's been making and it makes me so happy to see them.
[57:44] : Okay, so where did I love this
[57:50] : circle stencil? And I think I'm going to come back in with some of that Prussian blue
[58:01] : instead of a black. So, a lot of times we go to black for contrast, but one of
[58:08] : the things I learned from one of my dear friends who went to art school is that
[58:13] : in art school, they were not allowed to use black out of the tube. So, they had
[58:18] : to create their own black. And I've been doing this a lot in my personal animal
[58:25] : painting practice. and you use the colors on your palette to
[58:32] : make black, right? And it creates this amazing difference. And she described it
[58:38] : as black creates kind of a a vacuum. It's very matte. It kind of almost creates a a hole in the canvas. But when
[58:46] : you come in and use your own darks or use a dark blue or a purple instead of a
[58:52] : black, then you have the opportunity to create something that feels very much
[58:58] : more alive and more like a real shadow than if you just use black out of the
[59:03] : tube. So, it's been a really fun uh challenge for me. So again, when I pull
[59:09] : these apart, each of them has these lovely little spots and places that are
[59:18] : so much fun to play with. And I'm looking at this. I'm going to turn my
[59:24] : stencil upside down and see if some of that is still wet.
[59:29] : Grab my brayer and see if I can get a little bit of that reverse paint on there. Another
[59:41] : way just to use up some of that paint.
[59:46] : And I'm going to use this one. Just felt like it could use a little more
[59:52] : something something on there. Notice how I'm just using parts of this stencil. I'm not like using the whole
[59:59] : stencil. So, I'm just using bits and pieces to kind of create some of that
[1:00:06] : interest. And what have I got here? Let's see. I still
[1:00:14] : have this. So, I'm using up all the paint on my palette before I'm done playing.
[1:00:25] : And that's just dark enough. Then we're starting um to get that fun interest on
[1:00:31] : the page. And then what if I take this and
[1:00:46] : so it was just a painty mess. There wasn't enough painting paint on there to do a reverse. So, if I painted this side
[1:00:55] : up with a little more intention and see if we can get the
[1:01:03] : reverse of the stencil so you can just see it a little bit mixed in. It's another fun way to use your stencil. Uh,
[1:01:11] : another fun way to use your stencils is to do a rubbing.
[1:01:19] : This is great to do with pencil or oil pastel.
[1:01:25] : So many ways that we can use the tools we have on hand to create visual
[1:01:33] : interest to create our own marks. Oh, I didn't use this one. This is an old
[1:01:39] : bingo card. And I love
[1:01:44] : stamping with this one. It makes the most interesting circles. But I bet it would also make a really fun rubbing.
[1:01:58] : And graphite is a great tool to use in your collage. It doesn't always have to
[1:02:06] : be paint or marker. So, this created a super interesting visual effect on the
[1:02:14] : page. So, I have used up all of my paint. Now I will probably toss the last
[1:02:20] : little bit of this collage. I don't have any more paint here. And now I get to
[1:02:25] : wait for everything to dry. And then once it's completely dry, I will often
[1:02:31] : come back in with a black marker and a white marker or um a postca and add some
[1:02:38] : final details and play a little bit more with these. And again, for next week,
[1:02:45] : we're going to be working with acrylic inks on paint and paper. I will probably
[1:02:50] : be using plain printer paper or sulfite paper, which is a great inexpensive art
[1:02:57] : um paper. It's called um a marks all. If you just
[1:03:04] : do a Google search for Stabilo wateroluble pencil, you'll find it. It
[1:03:10] : comes in uh different colors and it also comes in
[1:03:15] : just kind of a a plain graphite or a plain back black, but they all say aquarable on them, which just means
[1:03:22] : they're water-soluble. So, if you search for Stabilo all pencils, you will find
[1:03:29] : them. Stabilo all pencils. And even my under paper here, I'm loving
[1:03:36] : what's happening here. This can get added. This is a a cheap kids drawing pad. This can also get added to my
[1:03:44] : collage stash. So, even your underpers can be fun painty tools. But in that,
[1:03:51] : you know, simple little hour here.
[1:03:57] : This was one of my I think one of my favorites. Like this might become um a bookmark as it is. And we're gonna go
[1:04:05] : back and kind of look at all the different things.
[1:04:11] : It doesn't take very long to do this, right? I loved this one.
[1:04:21] : And it's so funny. This doesn't match the rest of my palette. All kinds of matches, but that didn't really match my
[1:04:28] : palette as well. And so, you know, then I start to go in and look for those
[1:04:36] : little favorite bits and pieces of things. I love the simplicity of this
[1:04:42] : one. This one needs some white. Where's my little viewfinder?
[1:04:48] : So, when I look at this one again, I'm not looking at the hole. I'm looking at this piece here. And I love what's
[1:04:56] : happening. Same here. I'm looking just at that piece of the viewfinder.
[1:05:02] : Love this one.
[1:05:08] : And of course, this big one makes me so very, very happy. So definitely a few
[1:05:16] : favorite things all sort of starting to come together
[1:05:21] : into a happy messy palette with all these beautiful different papers and
[1:05:29] : again such simple tools. So if you found this useful, please
[1:05:35] : leave a comment, like the video. It really helps other people know it is a
[1:05:40] : video worth watching and I cannot wait next week to play with acrylic inks.
[1:05:47] : They're one of my absolutely most favorite things to play with. So, a
[1:05:53] : lot of fun was had by me today and others who might have happy painty
[1:05:58] : hands. Enjoy the rest of your day and I'll see you guys all back next week. Have a wonderful week.