Collage Tissue Paper

   So today we're exploring turning Collage Tissue into paper.  

To do that you need to coat the Collage Tissue with a product.  I tried a few (you can find more results at the bottom of this post) but I'm going to show how use Ice Resin which worked the best in my opinion for what I wanted.

 

What you will need:

Ice resin

measuring cup

stir stick

gloves

a plastic garbage bag

a piece of a sponge

Put on your goggles...and let's get started.

 Lay the plastic garbage bag on the table.  I used a piece of clear plastic over my Anthropologie tablecloth because I thought it looked better for the pictures but you are welcome to use whatever piece of plastic you like. Oh, and you don't really need goggles but maybe an old shirt or apron for this one. 

Cut a piece of College Tissue to a workable size and lay on plastic.  

NOTE: I cut a few pieces of tissue.  I figured,  if I was going to go to all the trouble to mix resin then I might as well make a few sheets at a time.

First of all I am not an expert in using Ice Resin.  But I will tell you what I do know and if you want to try it, you can read the complete directions that comes with the product, fair enough?  I hope so.  

So here are the basic steps-

1.  Pour equal parts of bottle A and B into plastic measuring cup.

2.  Mix the Resin for 2 minutes with a stir stick.

3.  Let Resin rest under a lamp to encourage bubbles to float to the top.

4.  Use a piece of an unused sponge to spread the Ice Resin on the tissue.

Note: The first time I tried this I thought I could bypass the sponge and use a foam paint brush.  Not so.  The sponge is what you need to use unless you want to make the tissue into serious thick plastic and I am not kidding...plastic!  Anyway, note taken, stick with the cheap-o sponge. 

 5. Working very quickly, coat the back of the paper then flip over and coat the front.

Sorry the angle of this picture is weird but it shows the tissue on the left and the tissue with the Ice Resin on the right.  It really becomes transparent.

Now the hardest part. 
6.  LEAVE IT ALONE for 24 hours. 
The thicker the coat, the longer to dry,  I found it best to just walk away and close the door.  Which worked out for me since I did this on the kitchen table.   I told my husband, "We have to go out to dinner, my tissue is drying".

So here is a finished piece.  It might be hard to tell on a computer screen so let me say it feels like thin plastic.  Very flexible, sturdy, yet transparent.

 

In my quest for making Collage tissue into more than tissue I did try other products.  Here is what I found.
Mod Podge - Works as a glue, fine for adhering small pieces.  Does not work AT ALL as a coating.
Gel Medium - Works beautifully to adhere tissue to something but as a coating, does little to improve the durability.  Dries with a strange texture.
DG3 Art Gel by JudiKins - I liked this product and the texture it produced on the tissue (probably because it's water based).  It was almost crispy.  My only problem was replication.  I couldn't get it to come out the same exact way twice.

So there you have it, my full report.  If any of you have experience in this area or you have done this before, maybe you have a tip or trick or even another product you have tried that worked nicely, we would love to hear about it!

Collage Tissue

This tutorial really begins over at the 7gypsies blog where the beginning stages of the covering the book board cover is shown.  Because the Collage Tissue is kraft colored it blends in with the book board, so much so that once dry the print looks as if it's printed directly on the board.  Deb and I made samples of each tissue print for the trade show booth and we had a hard time convincing some people that the pattern was not printed on the board.  Super cool.  

I tested adhering the Collage Tissue with both Mod Podge and Claudine Hellmuth Matte Medium.  For what it's worth, each medium works, but I liked the smoothness of the Matte medium best, the Mod Podge almost felt too wet for this project but that's again, just my opinion.  With both products you need to work quickly, so have your tissue cut to the size you need before you start brushing on which ever medium you choose. 

So, lets keep going on this easy journal cover.

Paint a 1/4" border on the edge of the journal with a blue color of acrylic paint.  The paint that I had on hand was a bit bright but no worries, I can fix that.

Once dry, sand off some of the paint.

Ink the edges to distress the color.  That's better now.

Look at the color of the paint before and after I was done distressing.  Quite a change.  Once again, our motto applies, "use what you have on hand".

So now we need to punch the cover holes for the rings.  Of course I'm going to use the 7gypsies Binderie punch...with a twist.  So we start with standard punching, sliding the book board cover all the way into the punch, centering and then punching the cover.

Here's the twist.

The Binderie punches the same distance from the edge to hole each time.  Which, in this project, could be problematic since edge of our cover has a parenthesis shape and if we punch a stack of straight edge paper with the Binderie the paper will stick out beyond the curved edge. 

To solve the problem we need a jig:  1.  a device that holds a piece of work and guides the tools operating on it.

Ours is a simple piece of book board about 1/4" wide.  (I cut it with my handy roller cutter)  The jig has to be thick enough to stop the stack of paper when it is slid into the machine.

Once cut, slide the jig into the back of the Binderie punch.

Slide the stack of paper (you can punch up to 7 sheets of cardstock at one time) into the punch until you hit the jig.  Now push the button.

And there it is, the hole is closer to the edge and perfect for our journal.

Add rings

and a bit of ribbon and you have the start to a journal.

 

Now to fill it...

So tomorrow, lets talk Collage Tissue made into paper.  

Can it be done?   Of course, and I'll show you how.

the weekend

We usually try to have a new post for Monday morning but instead of working on the post this weekend I stayed inside (it was pouring rain) and made art with my little art muse that comes to stay most weekends.  We had a great time playing with a canvas, Golden paint, and water soluble crayons.  Kids are never afraid to try. 
So forgive me for being a day late with the post, I promise to have it up tomorrow.  We're going to be exploring the new Collage Tissue from 7gypsies this week.  So in the meantime pop over to the Gypsy Journal to see the very basic tutorial and then come back here tomorrow to see "the rest of the story".
cheers!
paula

Lucky Winner

My husband and I recently had dinner with my lovely friend Sandra and her charming husband Andrew who were visiting the central coast from Australia.  Whenever I see Sandra she always brings me something fabulous...a vintage book with the word "Gypsy" in the title, yummy chocolate candy, etc.  This time was no exception.  

A beautiful vintage post card decorated with glitter.  

Could it be any better? (well, maybe if I was in Australia and she was giving it to me there).  So appropriate for today's give away, don't you think?  In fact, I might just post it for every give away from here on out.

The winner of the Perfect Pearls Mists is:

Congratulations Becky!

I'm glad Becky's name came up since I have had many email conversations with her over the past few months about projects.  Of course we have never met in person since she lives across the country but it's still fun when someone you feel like you know wins a prize!

Becky Handforth said...

Paula, Love the project and would love to win me some stains. Thanks for the chance.

March 23, 2011 7:15 AM

My kind of Creating

So after a few weeks of class kit preparation and then 3 days of writing instructions for multiple kits I was READY to do something different for a change.  My first thought was LEAVE the house but it has been pouring rain all week so staying inside seemed the better choice.  So over to the work table...totally inspired by a few orders that came in this week (for class kits) from Ranger and May Arts (7gypsies was already "in the house").   No plan, just fun, no worry about making a kit, just stuff from the order and my stash.  My kind of creating...totally organic.

Here's how I did it:

Start with Broken China and Peeled Paint Distress Stain.

 Paint a 6 x 6" piece of creme cardstock with Broken China.  Can't get enough of this color!

 Dry with a heat gun

 Cut a piece of cardstock 4 x 4" to use as a mask.

 Hold the mask in place and paint on the Peeled Paint Distress Stain on the exposed surface.

 Again, dry the cardstock with the heat gun.

Spray Entire surface with Perfect Pearls Mist - Heirloom Gold. Remember, these are mixatives so you need to shake until you hear the ball moving inside the liquid.

Heat gun again.  

It may look like a lot of spray here but the Perfect Pearls liquid turns to shine when the liquid is dry...just wait.

Here it is dry.

Again, back to the craft sheet for a layer of Blue Smoke.  This time place the mask back over the center.  Hold on to the mask and spray so that the mist stays just on the green portion.  Remove mask and dry with heat gun.

Don't throw your mask away yet.  Place the dry mask back over the center to use as a guide for a thin black line between the colors.  Once you draw one time around, remove the mask and go around the square a few more times freehand.  No worries if it's even, in fact it's better if it's not.

Now it's time to adhere your painted cardstock to the actual book board cover.  Once the cardstock is adhered to the cover, round the two right hand corners.  I used this to do that on the thick book board.  Once your corners are rounded, ink the edges with your favorite Distress Ink.

Punch the Book Board cover with the 7gypsies Binderie Punch...super easy.

 

Time for letters. 

Layer One

I chose the word Beauty using Tim's Grungeboard Alpha.  Love this package of letters because they are all different sizes and fonts...I think there is something like 230 pieces in the package.  Start by coloring the letters with Dusty Concord then (of course) dry with a heat gun.  Again, the stain lightens when it is dry.

Layer Two

Once dry, go over the top with Wild Honey, dry again.

Layer Three

Once dry, spray with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mists, dry one more time.

Set letters aside while you finish the rest of the cover.

Okay, so I got an order from Ranger this week which included a set of Tim's new Grid blocks.  Nine thin gridded acrylic blocks.  The grid is actually etched into the block itself so it's not going to wear off.  Cool right?

 So no matter if you have a large stamp

 or a bunch of small stamps there are plenty of blocks to work with...

but the best part is that they are gridded so you can see exactly where a word or an image is placed.  Super easy to get the word straight on the block. 

So here is the finished journal... I started with a background stamp from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous called Going Places (love that set), then added the paper scrap and the letters.  Next was the rubbings from 7gypsies and the stamp image, "Organically Grown" from my all time favorite Disclaimer clear stamp set.  Then the big moth from Tim Holtz Crowded Attic Sticker set.  The little ruler is from Collections Elements that I brought home from Australia last year. 

Love the way it looks especially at night when the whole cover shimmers in the light.  

I cut a matching back cover and 10 sheets of cardstock for the inside.  I punched them with the Binderie Punch (you can punch about 7 at a time depending on thickness of the cardstock).  Remember to round the corners of the paper to match the book.

Background stamp - Stamper Anonymous Tim Holtz

Giant Moth - Tim Holtz Salvage Stickers

Organically Grown stamp - 7gypsies

Clock rubbings - 7gypsies

Number rubbings - 7gypsies

paper scrap - Tim Holtz

Ruler - Collections Elements

And one final touch, I added these fabulous jeweled rings from 7gypsies.

So, I thought since you make it through one of my excessively long tutorials that there should be a reward at the end.  So were giving away 5 bottles of Perfect Pearls Mists which includes the two used here today.  Leave a comment and I'll draw a name on Thursday at noon.  

It's gonna be some one's Lucky Day, why not yours?