Deli Paper Play Date

I gathered together today with 10 ladies for a play date at the Art Bungalow, a new creative facility in Brentwood CA. This is the NORTHERN california Brentwood, not down in LA.
Anyway, we are all part of the California Art Girls, a group that started at the Art and Soul gathering last year. I joined after i attended Asilomar last spring, and up until now - we have been an online group, sharing artistic ideas and doing some swaps.

Today i demo'd how to make your own painted deli paper. The paper can be used in all sorts of art projects. It is often easier to paint on deli paper and glue it to a journal page or altered book. Plus it is always nice to have a stash of hand painted paper ready for a project. Here you can see a ton of paper drying on the floor.
To get started you need deli paper - usually sold at Smart and Final or Costco. About 1000 sheets for less than $10. Next you need acrylic paint. The cheap liquid craft paint sold at places like Michaels. A friend gave me about 150 bottles of the stuff - so i was anxious to share! You also need a very expensive art supply tool - an old credit card.To start select three colours of paint. i went with neutrals here - but they can be anything. Squeeze out three lines of paint on the paper. Then use the credit card to create three broad stripes. The slower you do this, the more each colour will be absorbed into the paper. Once you have spread the paint, you can swipe the credit card up and down and across to create patterns.

Once this thin layer has dried, apply a thin coat of metallic glaze with a baby wipe. Finally you can stamp random patterns with black ink. Another idea is to use stencils or texture mats to get patterns in the paint.Here are some more of the pages i did today, i did 4 at a time - using variations of the same colour family in each set. I made 28 pages in about three hours. The time flew by - it was so fun and relaxing. My friend Z. and I had to leave early so we did not get to see everyone's finished pages. But the results were looking great! Thanks Terrie for hosting us in your fabulous Art bungalow!