What you need:
- old book paper
- ball point pen
- paint brush
- acrylic paint
- sealant
- scissors
1. Draw shapes onto the paper
Three simple ones for me, on two types of paper. The hearts and stars were on an old Oscar Wilde book with thin, aged paper. The flowers I drew over the index page of a book on flowers. That paper has a bit of a gloss to it, and is a lot whiter. I kept my outlines rough, and went over it a few time. Pretty therapeutic.
2. Paint over the shapes
I’m very boring, and very consistent with favourite colours. Gold. Pink. I didn’t need to prep the pages beforehand, but you might want to do that. I also liked that the paint mixed into the paper and left the text shining through.
3. Use a sealant
This is an optional step, and one I only used on some of my shapes. I used gesso, because that’s what I have, but modge podge, or a matte sealer would work quite nicely. The smooth pages felt different to the old pages, so play around a bit.
4. Cut the shapes out
Snip snip. I quite liked the fact that I had rough outlines here, because it meant that I didn’t have to be a perfectionist when cutting out. Sometimes I’d cut on the line, sometimes around it, and sometimes into it. It’s very freeing to get messy.
5. Admire your own homemade embellishments
The ones that I painted gesso over are thicker and less flimsy, while the ones that went uncoated are brighter.
I have a few ideas for pages I’d like to use these in. Until now, I really just like the look of paint over text in pretty shapes. Sometimes making things doesn’t have to have a purpose.
There are so many alternative ways of doing this. You could ombre the paint, or make intricate designs. I hope that you use this as a starting point for making really cool things.