CREATING YOUR OWN CORRUGATED PAPER FOR ART JOURNALING

(transferred from kaywallacescrapbooking.blogspot.com, dated 5-17-2012)


Before losing the momentum I have going here, I wanted to do the flip side of my art journal page that I completed on Tuesday.  Mainly, because a scrappy friend of mine noticed that I had removed the journal page from my spiral-bound art journal and had asked how easily they go back in.  I will add a P.S. and let you know the answer to that!

In the meantime, I had watched a video tutorial by Journal Artista (who, by the way, works in a corrugated box factory!) on how to create one's own corrugated paper for use in paper crafting.  The required supplies included paper, glue and a "crimper," and I had them all!  If you're thinking, "Hmmmmmmmm, what's a crimper?" here is a picture:

And here is what is does:

Place your card stock between the two rollers, squeeze the blue and orange handles together with your left hand, and turn the orange crank with your right hand (reversing, of course, if you are left-handed).  This crimper is by Fiskars and can be purchased in your local craft "big box" store for short money--especially with a coupon!

Next, I took a brown ink pad and rubbed it several times over the crimped paper until I was happy with the effect:

At this point, I adhered the corrugated paper to my already prepped (Gesso, of course) journal page and set it aside to dry while I worked on my top layer.  As you can see below, I am going for the grunge look (which I am told is pretty much opposite the "Victorian" look (prim, proper and pretty).  I first tore the right edge of the patterned paper, then tore a piece off the lower left corner.  Next, I cut an X in two locations on the paper (shown here by pencil marks). 

I used the tip of the utility knife to lift the four corners of the X's and began to tear away the paper.

When I liked the look, I added some brown ink to the outside edges and some lighter ink to take away the "whiteness" of the torn paper.  It was then time for a bit of decoration and journaling.  When I first got into paper crafting, I got sucked into to buying *way* too many stamps.  It's not that I don't *like* them, I just don't *use* them!  For this project, I wanted to use some stamping.  I took a seat in front of my boxes and boxes of stamps and had a great walk down Memory Lane!  I finally chose two that seem to describe me perfectly--even after 68 years!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I struggle with journaling on my artwork, and struggle even more with handwritten journaling.  I decided to tackle both hurdles here!

Here's my art journal page entitled, "I DON'T DO MORNINGS!"  The journaling reads:  "@ 68, I have yet to outgrow the desire to sleep late."

OK, here's that P.S.  The page went perfectly back into my bound art journal!  WooHoo!

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Cheers!