Paste Paper Apps! Well, there IS an app for everything!

Paste Papers Part 3

Enough with the Elmer’s Art Paste. Cornstarch is now the paste du jour. It was easy to mix on the stove, and I let it cool while I changed out of my jammies. Straining out the lumps is key. Unless you like lumps. They can be brushed out on the paper, but a real pain. Or if there’s a handy blender or food processor, that does the trick, also. I used my treasured Golden Liquid Acrylics for this and it thinned the paste out some without affecting the drying time. A kitchen whisk works best for mixing in the paint. (I don’t use it in the kitchen, there had to be a use for it!) The cornstarch is a much stiffer paste that holds the designs better. But, it dries faster so you have to work faster! Working intuitively is always better, anyways. The cornstarch paste paste only lasts a couple of days out of the refrigerator. It grows penicillin quickly! But hey, mold may had to the aesthetics, don’t you think?

Mixed the paste with Perfect Pearls powders and it created grand luminescent designs. The photos don’t do them justice. The best papers are the ones with multiple layered designs. Of course like anything else, the more you put into it ….

Paste Papers Part 2

Continuing my experiments, I added Clear Gesso to some mixed paste colors as a thickener. This made a difference in the design on the watercolor paper—the designs held together better with more definition. I also coated some paper with gesso, using white, gold and black. The gold and black are stunning!

I feel like a mad scientist in the labORatory…Muahhhahaha…mixing more and more concoctions of paint and paste, adding Pearl Ex to others! Papers flying! Accckkkk! I need to expand my studio! I need a bigger table!

I’m mainly using a credit card and an Afro comb (dating myself?) a.k.a hair pick to make designs. I also like the look of the pulled papers (placing one on the other and pulling it off). I’m starting to use the dried papers to layer on more designs in another color. Fantastico! (Oops, sorry I just slipped into my Italian language mode for a second....my words are limited to the aforementioned, Mama Mia, and Bella). I am also using stencils, rubber stamps, toothbrush (not my daily one, mind you, I have purple hair, I don’t need matching purple teeth). In part 3, I will tell you about a different paste, and different papers. Help me, I can’t stop! Mama Mia.