Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Playing with Paper Three

Alcohol and Acrylics

This is one of my favorite techniques for making background papers.  Here's what you'll need:

1. Card stock pre-painted with acrylic paint. (artist or craft acrylics will both work)
2. 91% Isopropyl Alcohol (I bought mine at Walgreens)
3. Craft acrylics
4. Water

Paint your card stock (or other heavy paper) with craft or artist acrylics.  You can use a solid color but I prefer mixing the paint right on the page. ( Using metallic and glitter paint yield striking results!)  Let it dry.

Get your alcohol ready by pouring a small amount into the cap.  A cap full is plenty for one or two sheets of paper.

Set your alcohol nearby.  Now mix craft acrylic with water in an approximate 60% paint, 40% water mixture.  I use an egg carton.  Apply the paint to your page with a brush.  Work quickly because you don't want the paint to start drying.  If it seems like it's drying too fast, add another brush full of water.

While it's still glistening wet, begin dropping alcohol into the wet paint.  I do this using my index finger to flick the alcohol onto the page.  I also sometimes sprinkle the alcohol directly from the cap by tapping my finger on the cap.  Experiment with the application!

The alcohol reacts with the acrylic paint, and the paint spreads out away from the alcohol.  Here I've used a contrasting color for the top layer so there would be more contrast, but for more subtle texture, use similar colors.

You'll have a stack of yummy, textured paper in no time with this technique!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE