I’ve been wanting to do this since I purchased Kelli Perkins’ Stitch Alchemy many months ago. Since my craft room/woman cave is almost organized, I thought it was time to play a bit.
What is paper cloth? It’s making a material using a base of material – could be muslin, canvas or even some of those ugly quilt blocks from last post – and adding paper and more until you are happy with it.
I hadn’t thought about painting over the ugly blocks until I saw Kathy’s website where she painted over – I know I couldn’t believe it – a quilt!
Anyway, to make paper cloth, lay a piece of muslin or canvas or that ugly material on the top of freezer paper, shiny side up.
Cover the material with a glue and water mixture. Kelli recommends 1:2 but just make it so it spreads easily over the material, in my case muslin. This mixture will make the muslin adhere to the freezer paper making it stable. Also, the freezer paper will keep your work surface clean.
Next, tear pieces of tissue paper and glue down covering most, if not all, of the muslin. I used white with sparkles.
I also added some cut out pieces of text. You can add whatever you want to at this point. You can paint it but it’s better to wait until it dries. But go ahead and add material, ribbon, text, collage pieces whatever. Then you need to let it dry overnight before you move on to your next step.
I started painting over this with watered-down acrylic paint. I was amazed at the differences in the shades due to the tissue. I really liked that effect and was surprised Kelli did not mention that in the book.
I stamped over it with acrylic and Lumiere (which I love, love, love!)
Here is one painted and stamped with just Lumiere.
You may notice there are words and also paper dots under the paint which were glued down the day before.
Here is another piece. In this one as the first layer I added colored tissue paper, pieces of fabric, yarn and sprayed with Glimmer Mist.
The next day I painted silver Lumiere circles and made swirls with Stikles. I again spritzed it with more Glimmer Mist in two colors.
This is so much fun and now I have more material to work with. I like this technique because you can just use what you have – stamps, paints, glitters, and pieces of paper – whatever makes you happy. And you can decorate as much as you want. These can be cut up and used as parts of a project or used as a whole piece of material. I’ve not yet decided. So much fun!
Gorgeous paper cloth, Lynda. So far I have layered and stitch mine into gorgeous needle cases to keep track of my needles. I glued some felt to the inside for the needles. I have a tutorial on my blog that shows the needle cases from paper cloth.
We are getting lots of snow today!! Too bad for our studio tour. ;=(
I thought about your studio tour. Darn!
I’m off to check out that tutorial on your blog. I thought about making a cover for my calendar.
I just became aware of this concept a few days ago and have been looking for various tutorials to try it out this weekend! Thanks so much, I can’t wait to get started!!
Beth, It’s so much fun and easy. Just remember this is no right or wrong and just enjoy the process. Good Luck! I’ll be looking for your paper cloth on your blog.
this sounds like so much fun and maybe a little messy, I love messy.
Dennis, It’s messy but not too messy! It’s really fun.
I have tried doing this a few times in the past. Is it your experience that it turns out super stiff and curled? Any way to make it more relaxed and flexible?
Terri, Mine did not turn out super stiff or curled. It is a nice strong material – I wrapped Christmas gifts in mine for friends. I used cheap muslin as the base as opposed to a heavier material. My glue was watered down so it would slide over the material easily. Maybe, you are using thicker glue or a heavier base material.
I will give it another go, thank you for replying!