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Whether you're teaching about faith to "move a mountain," or geology and mountain land forms - this Torn Paper Mountain Landscape Art Tutorial will help you create unique and memorable visuals to help kids better remember and apply the lesson.

Our family is pretty "normal" - sibling rivalry, messy bedrooms, exhausted parents, way too much sugar and screentime. But we know our flaws and do our best to forgive, learn and grow. One of the ways we try to end the day with peace in our home is by reading the scriptures and praying together before bedtime every night (or almost every night!). And then at least once a week we try to go deeper with a family night lesson or activity.

It's a constant juggling act, and even with our best intentions, the lessons and discussions don't always go well. But sometimes they do. And sometimes they're worth sharing!

Family Lesson on Having the Faith to Move a Mountain

We've been studying the New Testament and were talking about Matthew 17:20 and having the faith to move mountains.

We read this quote: "I have never witnessed the removal of an actual mountain. But because of faith, I have seen a mountain of doubt and despair removed and replaced with hope and optimism. Because of faith, I have personally witnessed a mountain of sin replaces with repentance and forgiveness. And because of faith, I have personally witnessed a mountain of pain replaced with peace, hope. and gratitude. Yes, I have seen mountains removed." (Richard C. Edgley)

And then talked, "What are some mountains in our lives (or family) that need to be moved?" (contention, anger, sugar addiction, doing chores with a bad attitude, etc.)

Next we created a visual reminder of our personal "mountains" with torn painted paper. I LOVE how these torn paper mountain landscapes turned out. And I LOVE the discussion we were able to have around the table while hands were busy! Here's how we made them:

SUPPLIES FOR TORN PAPER MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE ART:

white card stock

tempera paint

paint brushes

gray or light blue card stock

glue sticks

pencil or marker

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TORN PAPER MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE ART:

1. Begin by painting several sheets of card stock with various colors of paint. This is a good activity to do ahead of time since the papers will take a while to dry. Sometimes we keep a stash of painted papers for projects, but this time I had my kids paint the papers while I made dinner.

2. When painted paper is dry, turn the paper to the unpainted side and draw a large "mountain" shape with the pencil or marker (this step is optional, but easier for younger ones). Then tear along the sketched line to create a mountain shape. We're not going with perfection here, we're just using that line as a guide.

3. Repeat until you have several "mountain" layers. Arrange the torn paper layers on the gray/blue background paper to create a mountain landscape scene.

ADD THE FINISHING TOUCHES TO YOUR TORN PAPER MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE ART

4. To finish the mountain landscape project, glue the layers in the order you'd like. Cut mini triangle trees or add other details - like a sun, if desired.

HERE ARE SOME BOOKS YOU MAY WANT TO READ ALONG WITH THIS PROJECT:
Looking for more simple (and creative) projects and books for kids? Be sure you're hanging out in our Facebook community: Keeping Life Creative with Books.

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Torn Paper Mountain Landscape Art Tutorial

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Whether teaching about faith to "move a mountain," or mountain landforms -- this Torn Paper Mountain Landscape Art project creates unique visuals for kids.

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Transfer a magazine photo onto your art! Super Easy!

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Transfer a magazine photo onto your art! Super Easy!

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Transform Magazine Pages into Stunning Art / Wood, Canvas, & Paper

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The plan

© Sarah Sanders

You're going to make a colourful collage. This will be a collage with a difference. As well as using fabrics and other things you have gathered to stick down and make your collage, you will also use words.

The collage will be a poem you can read and also look at!

You will start by gathering your inspiration as well as the fabrics, objects and words to use in your collage. Then you will stick it all together to make your masterpiece!

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Poetry Collage - Cut and Paste | Tate Kids

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You're going to make a colourful collage. This will be a collage with a difference. As well as using fabrics and other things you have gathered to stick down and make your collage, you will also use words. The collage will be a poem you can read and also look at!

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Mixed Media Still Life Drawing: Art Lesson And Demonstration

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Draw what you want and make it your own!

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Draw what you want and make it your own!

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Mixed Media Still Life Drawing: Art Lesson And Demonstration

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Pic only.

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by ·

As a teaching artist for the state of Hawaii, I create arts integrated unit plans for elementary and middle school students. In designing lessons for kids, I'm always thinking of how to engage them in ways that are high on the fun meter while skill-building in the chosen areas of study. An added benefit is that I get to try out new ideas and play like a kid; I feel like a mad scientist experimenting with this material and that technique until I come up with something I love and I think they will love doing too. This is one of those projects, currently under way at an arts integrated elementary school on Maui. The kids have collaged their boards with a variety of printed papers and will begin drawing on them in the next session. In my demo, I outlined the face with ink, painted the interior with tempera, adding 3D collage elements to finish it off. The children will then write an "I Am" poem in the background behind the portrait. I'm thrilled with the way mine turned out, and can't wait to see what the kids come up with! I can also envision using this idea for a visual journal page!

Here are some student samples. We decided not to write an "I Am" poem in the background of the piece. It was too complicated for a number of reasons, but they did think of an adjective to describe an aspect of their personality, cut the letters from a magazine and glue them onto the portrait. Before launching into the collage, however, we had two lessons in portrait drawing. These were their practice sketches, and they were done on 1/4 sheets of 9×12 sketch paper. Small. The first lesson focused on realistic proportions, the second on abstracted portraits. Picasso was our exemplar for the second lesson. When the time came to work on the collage portrait, I gave them a choice as to whether they created a realistic or an abstract portrait. Here are the basic steps for the collage portrait...

1. Use a piece of 9×12 chipboard from the back of an old sketch or watercolor pad as your collage foundation.

2. Collect a variety of pages from old books and put a container on each table along with small cups of watered down white glue and brushes.

3. Have students tear the papers into pieces and glue to the chipboard. Put a top coat of glue on to seal when finished. Let dry.

4. Draw portrait on top of the printed paper collage. (Erasing is not a problem because the extra top coat of glue protects the collage papers from being abraded.)

5. Outline with Sharpie.

6. Paint with tempera. If it's too thick they'll lose the printed collage papers beneath. If the paint is too thin the printed papers will compete with portrait. Let dry.

7. Sharpie over any lines that got covered with paint.

8. Add 3D collage elements: beads, buttons, feathers etc.

9. Glue descriptive word to portrait

If you try this in your classroom, please post some of your favorites. Iʻm sure weʻd all love to see the results. Have fun!

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by · As a teaching artist for the state of Hawaii, I create arts integrated unit plans for elementary and middle school students. In designing lessons for kids, I'm always thinking of how to engage them in ways that are high on the fun meter while skill-building in the chosen areas of study.

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All artworks for a grade MUST include something created by you, not just things glued down.

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Use random materials to create an image.

All artworks for a grade MUST include something created by you, not just things glued down.

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Making a Landscape Collage 2 "Glacier National Park" - YouTube

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Making a Landscape Collage 2 "Glacier National Park" - YouTube

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Making a Landscape Collage 2 "Glacier National Park"

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This was our big FINALE project of the 'Art Room' year. It incorporated so much of the learning and techniques we had explored over this last year, with a particularly strong focus on value, texture, contrast, balance, form and variety. Our final results are absolutely stunning, especially considering these kids are between 9 and 14 years, with most being on the younger end, between 9 and 11.

A few approaches will help students experience success, and will lead to artwork that is rich, layered, exciting and interesting.

We looked at the work of Michel Keck, and noted her use of collage paper to reproduce the different values (lights and darks) in her dogs. To make her dogs look realistic, despite being made in collage, she often paints the eyes and nose. She also often adds a bold, whimsy contour around the edge of the dog, for contrast and emphasis.

Students each chose a photo of a dog. I had printed many options for them, where the contrast of light to dark was strong. All white dogs, all black dogs, or yellow labs may not be the best option since this project, since it is about mapping out values. Dog photos were found on the internet and printed as large as possible on regular printer size paper. This will be the size students will collage on.

Googling 'Dog Portrait Photography' will give you some great photo options.

Using transfer paper, student transferred their dog onto their 20x30cm watercolor paper by tracing all the contour lines, eyes, nose, and the larger value 'shapes'.

Students pasted neutral tones of collage papers all around the the space around their dog. For VARIETY, students must use different types of papers for this step.

At their disposal were: book papers in various fonts and stages of yellowing, newspaper, lined paper, grid paper, butcher paper, sheet music, dictionary paper, recycled paper with hand written notes, etc. Important is that the papers are all neutral tones. Papers were torn or cut in larger pieces, to quickly and spontaneously fill up the paper. The background will be painted over later, so this stage shouldn't require too much thought or time. Its purpose is to create texture and interest in our background.
* We used acrylic gel medium to paste, but mod podge would work too. The rule to gluing with gel medium is: 'glue under and glue over', much like you would with decoupage.

Student chose maximum 10 types of paper which roughly represent a value of 1-10, or lightest to darkest. Limiting their papers will result is a more BALANCED and HARMONIOUS end result. Student must repeat the use of each paper for this same reason. For VARIETY and interest, students were encouraged to use a range of papers, including patterned, plain, painted, map, cools and warms, and neutrals.

Tearing or cutting their papers, students begin pasting their collage papers on their dog, looking for good value matches. For example, perhaps a darker area under the chin and in the ears will be represented by a darker blue painted paper, while a lighter area in the chest and forehead will be represent by a lighter, patterned paper. A middle value might be represented by a plain pink color, etc. Important is that the value relations are roughly correct.

*Tip: It's easiest to collage larger value areas first, then address the smaller value areas by layering these over top the larger areas.

*Tip: Avoid straight paper edges or corners as this looks unnatural and inorganic. Tear these away.

*Eyes and nose are avoided (to be painted later), but carefully collaged around.

*Painted paper made the biggest different for this project. I paint my own papers, with leftover paint from our palettes after class. I paint papers in color families, or analogous schemes, to keep the colors in harmony. This way, my students can always reach for papers in the color family they need (reds, blues, greens, etc). We found that our painted paper really looked like fur, because of the brush strokes and because of the random streaks of color. It gave our dogs lots of dimension and interest.

This is what our dogs looked like at the end of Day 1 and Day 2.

Final Dog Touches:
On our third day we painted the eyes and nose. We attempted to paint these as realistically as we could, looking closely at Michel's Keck's dogs for inspiration. I encouraged the students to be inspired by the painted eyes in Keck's wok, rather than trying to paint from our photograph, because Keck's painting style is somewhat reduced, yet still realistic, and easy for the kids to recreate. Noses were painted with attention to light and shadow, and all the values in-between.
Students could add a few minor black lines around the mouth area for emphasis.
Using a black posca pen (in thick and in thin line), students emphasized the contours of their dogs, with some whimsy squiggles and peaks to indicate fur, just like Keck does.

Background:
Students painted their background in layers of paint and stamps. They could either stick with a neutral palette, using white, grey, ochre, etc., or a color palette. Our goal was to still allow hints of our collage paper to peek through here and there, and to create lots of interest and texture. Our collage papers were painted over with a thinned color. We 'lifted' paint up by scrubbing or rubbing it up with rubbing alcohol (this reveals bits of our collage papers). We created subtle texture by stamping and printing using various stamping materials (bubble wrap, wine corks, corrugated cardboard...). **Important in this step is that a similar color is used, so the texture is subtle. For example, on a red background we might stamp with an orange-red color; on a gray background we might stamp with a lighter gray. We then add more paint in sheer coats, or dabbed some more color here and there, until we get a cloudy, soft, textured, rich look. Scrumbling or stippling the paint with our brush, or smearing paint around with our fingers, works here. As long as the end result is soft and does not overwhelm the dog (our main focus), it's all good. Once we found a good balance of texture, interest and color, we stopped and were done!

These results just floored me! The kids worked hard on these, but spreading the steps out over three 90 minute classes gave them plenty of time to bring it all together. I think they all loved the mixed-media and very tactile nature of this project.

I special shout out to my oldest student, Marko, 14, who asked if he could do a tiger. And what a great job he did!!

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This was our big FINALE project of the 'Art Room' year. It incorporated so much of the learning and techniques we had explored over this last year, with a particularly strong focus on value, texture, contrast, balance, form and variety.

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Kathy's Art Project Ideas: India Ink and Tempera Resist Art Lesson

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Kathy's Art Project Ideas: India Ink and Tempera Resist Art Lesson

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I think this is a fun project for kids to experience. It can have a batik or stained glass look to it. I am going to do the whale for my beach art camp and the coyote for my animal themed art camp.

You will need black and/or blue India Ink - it has to be waterproof ink.
White Tempera Paint
Colored Pencils
Watercolor Paper

First draw your design on watercolor paper - make it fairly simple with at least one large shape for the main focus.

Next using the white tempera paint cover the areas you will be coloring later.

The next step is to cover the entire paper with india ink. VIP - paint the areas around the tempera first instead of just going over the entire page tempera and all. If you paint the ink over the tempera first the brush can accidentally drop tempera into areas where you want the ink . Once you have all the areas surrounding the tempera shapes done go over the entire page with the ink.

Wait about 5 minutes for the ink to mostly dry - but not too long or it may not wash off. Then rinse the entire page under running water until the ink washes away with the tempera, leaving the ink on the page where there wasn't any tempera. Be gentle when washing the tempera away so the paper stays intact.

The next step is coloring the white areas after the paper is dry. I am going to do this as a two day project, allowing the paper to dry before they use colored pencils to finish.

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I think this is a fun project for kids to experience. It can have a batik or stained glass look to it. I am going to do the whale for my beach art camp and the coyote for my animal themed art camp.

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You can choose to create any type of image, but it must:

1. Include a LOT of detail.

2. Your design must fill the entire space.

3. At least 50% colored.

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Jeweled Bugs

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We began this lesson by perusing a variety of scientific illustrations of insects, observing the realistic elements such as the presence of a head, thorax, and abdomen and a total of six segmented legs. My kids then folded a piece of copy paper and drew HALF a bug, (centered along the fold,) then traced the other half at a light table or window to complete the symmetrical design.
NOTE: You absolutely need a soft work surface when embossing the metal. I use old printing press blankets, which are very dense wool felt, but you can also use a stack of folded newspapers or magazines.
Students transferred their paper drawings to aluminum tooling foil, embossing the details to create dimension on the metal. Steps on the transfer process are shown here:

- - -

Each student also embossed a simple background pattern to emphasize their bug. To really emphasize the bug, draw the background design on the opposite side!!! Color was then added to the insects symmetrically with Sharpie pens. Students were encouraged to use different blending and layering techniques to enhance the color effect. (We learned and practiced these techniques on a piece of scrap metal, first!)

Here are some examples of the practice strips:

I also created THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL to demonstrate each of the Sharpie-on-Metal techniques!

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Students adding color to their bugs!

As a final embellishment, Students had the option of adding some flat-sided gems to complete the jeweled appearance. Creating a simple mat and mounting their finished bug counted towards their final project grade. Presentation and craftsmanship matter!

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We began this lesson by perusing a variety of scientific illustrations of insects, observing the realistic elements such as the presence of a head, thorax, and abdomen and a total of six segmented legs. My kids then folded a piece of copy paper and drew HALF a bug, (centered along the fold,) then traced the...

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The Art and Creative Materials Institute, Inc.

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Pastel Frottage Landscapes Lesson Plan for Middle and High School Students

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Cool Collage Inspiration -make a series!

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Cool Collage Inspiration -make a series!

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A series is a set of artworks that go together.

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YOUNG AT ART with James Ransome: COLLAGE - YouTube

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YOUNG AT ART with James Ransome: COLLAGE

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MarcPaperScissor: Cut Paper Collage Artist - YouTube

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MarcPaperScissor: Cut Paper Collage Artist - YouTube

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MarcPaperScissor: Cut Paper Collage Artist

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notice color scheme, balance.

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How can you change the meaning of a simple image?

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Mosaic collage - works best with a colored background.

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Mosaic collage - works best with a colored background.

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You can print, paint and draw over collage!

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Cut individual parts of a drawing and collage together.

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Take a look at her art!

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Sarah Milne is an Utah based abstract collage artist using old books and ephemera to make fine art for homes and businesses.

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What can YOU do with normal objects?

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2017/12/everyday-objects-obsessively-organized-into-patterns-by-adam-hillman/

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How micromosaics are made | The Kid Should See This

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How micromosaics are made | The Kid Should See This

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It would be easy to mistake a ' Micromosaic ' for a painting: put together from thousands of minute and very fine glass pieces, the finished product is characterised by such an astonishing level of detail that makes it difficult to believe that the scene had not been painted with a brush.

Watch how micromosaics, an art form that thrived in Italy from 1775 into the 19th century, are painstakingly created from cut from long glass strands called smalti filati. A mosaic artisan recreates a small section of a 1850s mosaic table in this Victoria and Albert Museum video.

The Flora and Two Sicilies by painter and mosaicist Michaelangelo Barberi "was commissioned by the Russian Tsar Nicholas I (reigned 1825-55), and shows the profile of his daughter Olga in the centre." It's one of many exquisite pieces in the Gilbert Collection at the V&A.

Next: Ceramic artist Michelle Erickson recreates an 18th-century agateware teapot, Tableaux Vivants: Caravaggio paintings performed live, and moving and restoring an ancient Greek mosaic.

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In this Victoria and Albert Museum video, a mosaic artisan recreates a small section of a 1850s micromosaic table to show how micromosaics are made.

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Collage Art from torn magazine paper by Deborah Shapiro 2015 - YouTube

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Collage Art from torn magazine paper by Deborah Shapiro 2015 - YouTube

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Collage Art from torn magazine paper by Deborah Shapiro 2015

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Time Lapse - Torn Painted Paper Collage - YouTube

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Time Lapse - Torn Painted Paper Collage - YouTube

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Time Lapse -  Torn Painted Paper Collage

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10 Minute Tuesday- Quick Page w/ Collage and Water Soluble Crayons - YouTube

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10 Minute Tuesday- Quick Page w/ Collage and Water Soluble Crayons - YouTube

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10 Minute Tuesday- Quick Page w/ Collage and Water Soluble Crayons

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Creating Tissue Paper Collages - Creativity in Therapy

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Creating Tissue Paper Collages - Creativity in Therapy

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Tissue paper can be a great art medium to try in therapy. I find that it helps to encourage playing with colors and materials, experimenting with new techniques, and focusing on the process. For myself, I have always enjoyed that working with tissue paper forces me to be more abstract and less focused on achieving a certain outcome.

I have been using tissue paper in some of my groups lately and playing with it in my own art, so I thoughts I would share some ideas for using it in therapeutic art.
Materials You Will Need
Tissue Paper
Glue*
Scissors (optional)
Cardstock or watercolor paper

*I like to use a liquid adhesive applied with a brush. You can use matte/gloss medium , white liquid glue like Elmer's, or Modge Podge . When you're done, you can finish the whole art piece with a final layer of medium (unless, of course, you have pieces sticking up that you want to remain soft and upright). Glue sticks will work to hold the tissue paper, but give you a different effect.
Why Try Tissue Paper Art?
Vibrant colors and layers - Tissue paper comes in so many rich, vibrant colors. As you layer the tissue paper, the other pieces will show through. This can create some really beautiful art and interesting effects.

Encourages play - Many of us did tissue paper crafts as kids, but few people use it for art as adults, so making tissue paper art can help trigger those fun feelings from childhood. Play is so important, even as adults, and art can be a great opportunity to let yourself play.

Creativity and experimentation - Since it's an unusual medium, you get to experiment with something new. Creativity naturally is encouraged as you try to figure out the different ways to use the tissue paper. Using something new and different means you have to give up habitual ways of making art and open yourself to a new process.

Focus on the process - The unpredictability of the medium encourages you to be more present in the process of creation and less focused on a preconceived outcome. This is a great opportunity to practice mindfulness, listening to your creative intuition, and adapting as you go.

Abstraction - For people who are naturally drawn to representational and symbolic art-making, tissue paper can be a good way to encourage abstraction in art. This can open up new means of self-expression and inner discovery.

Giving up perfectionism - Tissue paper is hard to control! Even if you are cutting out the shapes you want, it's a difficult process. This allows you to practice letting go of expectations in your art and embracing all the interesting imperfections that arise.
Tissue Paper Art Directives
If you don't already have tissue paper available with your art materials, I would encourage you to add it. Tissue paper can be used as part of many different art pieces and directives; clients may choose to add tissue paper to collages or sculptures that they are making. However, you can also provide some specific art therapy directives to encourage them to try tissue paper art-making.

Make a torn tissue paper collage - This open-ended prompt may make some clients uncomfortable, but with others it will encourage interesting, process-oriented work. Tearing the paper and not using any scissors leads to problem solving, practicing acceptance of limitations, and discovering happy accidents.

Make a picture about how you are feeling - Start with colors that represent your emotions today and create a collage that expresses how you are feeling.

Tissue paper mandala - Start with a cut out circle and create a mandala with tissue paper. If you want repeating patterns/shapes, fold over the tissue paper several times to create multiple layers and then cut out the shape you want.

Mixed media doodle or intuitive drawing - Start with overlapping shapes of cut or torn tissue paper on your paper. After the glue has dried, go back with paint, , or oil pastels. If you want to doodle, just fill in different sections with lines and patterns. Or do an intuitive drawing by looking for an image and then embellishing to highlight it and create a finished artwork.

There are so many things that you can do with tissue paper art, and my examples are reflective of my own style and preferences. I encourage you to play around with different ways of using the tissue paper. Or do a search on Pinterest for some great inspiration. Here's a board to get you started: https://www.pinterest.com/carolynmehlo/tissue-paper-art/
Do you use tissue paper in your own art or in therapy with clients? Please share your experience in the comments below. And link to your Instagram, Facebook, or website posts if you want to share some examples of your own tissue paper art. I'd love to see it!
For more ideas and tips about art in therapy, be sure to sign up for the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bOu5yj
Carolyn Mehlomakulu, LMFT-S, ATR is an art therapist in Austin, Texas who works with children, teens, and families. For more information about individual therapy, teen and child counseling, family therapy, teen group therapy, and art therapy services, please visit: www.therapywithcarolyn.com. This blog is not intended to diagnose or treat any mental health conditions. All directives, interventions, and ideas should be used by qualified individuals within the appropriate bounds of their education, training, and scope of practice. Information presented in this blog does not replace professional training in child and family therapy, art therapy, or play therapy This blog includes affiliate links (see full disclosure here). If you'd like to help support the blog without any extra cost to you, please click through on links and shop as you normally would. Your support is greatly appreciated! .

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Creating Tissue Paper Collages - Creativity in Therapy

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Tissue paper can be a great art medium to try in therapy. I find that it helps to encourage playing with colors and materials, experimenting with new techniques, and focusing on the process. For myself, I have always enjoyed that working with tissue paper forces me to be more abstract and less focused on achieving ...

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Artists can make interesting "papers" to use for projects. Eric Carl makes papers using layers of paint. He puts a texture on them using...

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Birgit's Daily Bytes: Making Your Own Semi-Opaque Decorative Tape

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Birgit's Daily Bytes: Making Your Own Semi-Opaque Decorative Tape

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Washi tapes are all the rage, and who doesn't love them! But they are also quite expensive, as are many of the other decorative tapes, washi or not.

As wonderful as they are, I have found that there are some ways to make some pretty cute washi tape substitutes with items you already have on hand! Obviously they are not strictly speaking washi tapes, as they are not made from rice paper, but to all extent and purposes, they come pretty close, especially due to the semi-translucency!

I want to start us off with the quickest and easiest way and also my favorite. Probably because I am REALLY into print tape!

Books, Magazines and Papers
You will need:
Regular tape, like Scotch

Old book pages

Bone folder (optional)

All you do is tear a strip of the Scotch tape, and tape it over a section of your book page.

Smooth it down evenly. Gently pull it off.

Do yourself a favor and leave one little corner of the tape on your finger and not smoothed on the page. It makes pulling it back up so much easier! You can just trim it off before using the tape.

And there you have it!

If find this works especially well on old book pages, as the print comes off easier and with only a thin layer of paper, which retains some of the translucency of the tape! With newer prints you may have to burnish the tape with the back of your thumbnail or a bone folder to get it down really well. The newer paper doesn't tend to stick as easily, but with some pressure and rubbing while smoothing the tape down, you can make it come up!

You can go in any direction to get different effects. I LOVE to use old dictionaries for this, as I can customize the definitions too!

You can of course do this with pictures, patterns and anything else you can find!

Here I made a random patterned piece of tape from the printed dress from an old magazine page.

I also really like to use scraps from my scrapbooking papers! I tend to mostly use 6x6 scrapbooking pages, as the smaller print works better for the smaller sized cards and layouts I do for Project Life. The smaller pattern also makes it ideal for some homemade tape!

You can see how you can get two different effects from pressing down only a little bit, or really pushing it down with a bone folder.

Old dictionary pages usually come off very cleanly, but the newer scrapbook pages may require some trimming along the edge if you want the really clean look! See the raggedy edge of the one in the middle and compare to the tape I used in the photo below! I just trimmed it with some scissors.

I usually use the decorative tape strips with some adhesive to affix on my project. To me it is the quickest way.

Here are some examples:

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You can however take double-sided tape and wax paper and make self-adhesive tape.

Your print will be mirror-imaged with this method however!

Do use this method, cut some wax paper into long strips, wide enough to accommodate your tape.

As above, tear off a strip of tape and place it on your book page. Just position it enough so it doesn't come up by itself. Then take your strip of wax paper and place it over the tape on the book page. Now press down and smooth it out.

Carefully pull the wax paper together with the tape off the page. You might have to fold back the wax paper at one end a little bit and loosen the tape edge off the paper.

Voila - a self-adhesive strip of printed tape. With some fuzzy book texture to boot! To use your tape, just cut off the required amount, peel back the wax paper and stick it down!

This is very similar to the method above, only this time we are using cheap napkins to provide the pattern.

And I really do mean cheap napkins. The less coated, the more flimsy and the less sturdy the napkins are, the better they work in this project. So check out your local dollar store for some napkins with groovy patterns!

You basically do the same thing as in the very first method.

Tear off a strips of tape, place it over the section of the napkin you would like to use, press down, then gently pull back. And there you have it. You can affix your tape with some adhesive of choice. If the napkin doesn't come off easily, you may have to burnish the tape down a little too. Every napkin is different in that respect, so trial and error is the way with this!

You could also press the tape down irregularly and get the "torn" look when you pull it back fast.

The top two blue tapes are made from napkins, the others are made from books and magazines.

Printing Labels

This method isn't really strictly speaking "tape" but it can serve that same purpose and it gives you endless possibilities in terms of colors and patterns.

I saw this article called " Last Minute Japanese Tape" on the Good Look Cookbook site the other day and thought I'd mention it here too, since it really fits the topic here today! Check it out if you get a chance!

The advantage of this method is that you can also use your digital stash! However, the drawback is that it's not tape and it has no translucency to it. But sometimes that's a good thing, so it's something to keep in the back of your mind when you are looking for that decorative touch on your cards, layouts or other crafts!

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Making Your Own Semi-Opaque Decorative Tape

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Washi tapes are all the rage, and who doesn't love them! But they are also quite expensive, as are many of the other decorative tapes, washi or not. As wonderful as they are, I have found that there are some ways to make some pretty cute washi tape substitutes with items you already have on hand!

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| Terhi Koskinen

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Do you ever make makeovers for your projects? I do! I admit it, sometimes I do very bad (at least bad for my eye) work, and while I have been watching it for a moment, I tear it apart and start all over.

This project was one of those.

This is a book-looking box. It wasn't white, it was craft brown, and first it inspired me to stay with natural colors and natural elements. The result was ugly. Not my style at all. So I took all elements away, and started all over again.

After the first try the base was brownish, so my first step was gessoing it all white.

Then I took a lot of stash, trash, scraps, metal things, broken fork, broken magic wand, straws, all things I found from my drawers.

I adhered it all to highlight the little bulb light and key, then another layer of gesso. And another.

And again another layer. And lots of gel medium to glue it all together.

Beautiful pink color is created with several mists and paints. To created lively coloring, you need a lot of colors, lots of tones and shades, and I believe I made it good.

After all, it was worth doing it twice. And for me it's all about making, not just finishing it.

Thank you for stopping by here today!

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Do you ever make makeovers for your projects? I do! I admit it, sometimes I do very bad (at least bad for my eye) work, and while I have been watching it for a moment, I tear it apart and start all over. This project was one of those.

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Jane Perkins - Blue Bowerbird

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bicycle map mixed media - What can you do using this technique?

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bicycle map mixed media - What can you do using this technique?

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Bike Seattle -archival print of bicycle map painting with vintage map featuring Seattle Washington

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Title: Bike Seattle Dimensions: 7.5x7.5 image on 8.5x11 paper Medium: Archival print of my original acrylic painting Description: Bike Seattle is a print of an original map painting of mine. A vintage map of the area is shown through the negative spaces of the bike. Seattle, Tacoma, Mt.

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I just love how my Eco Art series has turned out so far. They are even better to see in person. Created with a hand cut-out design and strips of Vogue magazine pages, these pieces are fabulous modern eco friendly art pieces that would look amazing in any home!