Tissue Paper Background

Updated 9/1/07 I've had a few people ask me if I allowed each of my layers to dry in between. I did use my heat gun to dry each layer before I moved on to the next one. Thanks for all the great comments!

Over the weekend I tried out a background technique I saw in last months issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. I'm very happy with the way it turned out but this took hours to do and I'm not sure if I will do it again.

I started out with a sheet of tissue paper that I placed on top of a sheet of freezer wrap on my kitchen counter. Taping the freezer wrap to the counter stopped the wrap from curling and it then laid flat on my counter. I did not cut down the first sheet of tissue paper so my large background piece was as big as a standard sheet of tissue paper. I then glued dictionary and book pages down onto the tissue paper with waterd down elmers glue as my first layer.

I then added another layer of tissue paper torn into pieces over the book pages.Then I painted a layer of water color paint on. Then came another layer of torn tissue paper and more water color paint. After two layers of paint and more tissue paper I stamped some leaf images with StazOn ink in black and olive green. I did not like the way the black ink stood out so starkly so I then smeared some gesso over the inked images to tone them down a bit. I also dabbed some of the gesso off with a baby wipe.

On went another layer of torn tissue paper. I added some wallpaper images of a bird, nest and feathers then added another layer of torn tissue paper. I painted onto this layer a layer of acrylic paint. When the paint was dry I added another layer of torn tissue paper and so on and so on for another couple of layers.

When my final layer was completly dry I then stamped the same leaf images only this time I used a golden yellow and avocado green acrylic paint. By this point I had had enough of working on this piece. When the leaf images were dry I added another layer of gesso, brushing some on and wiping off with a baby wipe until I was happy.

This was alot of work. I probably left out a few layers that I did but you get the idea. The picture above is a small section that I cut out of the larger piece. You can't tell from the picture but the background is a bit wavy. I'm going to mist it down and press it between some freezer paper and hope the waves come out of it.

Thanks for stopping by !

Arlene