Make Your Own Paper

The photo does not do this card justice, dang! A few weeks back I made some 'home'/ hand made paper pulp. Either it doesn't photo well, or it just looks crappy... that's what I'm saying. It's a process to make paper.

I combined and recycled: left over white scrap pieces of paper, tissue paper, a napkin, pages from an old book and what ever might have been left in my garbage can that day.

Tore everything into teeny tiny pieces, then soaked them in the blender for half the morning. Whirled them around on a high whipping motion and tossed the batch into a tub of warm water in the sink. With the paper making screen and frames I was able to scoop up four sheets of paper approx. 4" x 8".

I put dried petals from a flower in one sheet and fiber thread and a shiny thread in another.

Using water color pencils, I color in the black ink outline of the doodled hydrangea and then I came back over the drawing with a very lightly dampened brush to blend the color in, leaving dark on the inside to create the shadow and light as I go to the outer edge.

PS: The storms yesterday did some major damage, over 825,000 homes in the Chicago area were left without power. We were lucky. Tried to call homeowners insurance to find out what I could do about cutting a few trees down...stay tuned