Hi everyone! I hope you're prepared
for another fun Technique Challenge here at Blockheads
Paper Arts…this one is sure
to wet your creative and thrifty muse ;0)
If you're a thrifty crafter then this one will be
right up your alley coz you don't need a lot of expensive
supplies!
I'm going to show you how to make really cool handmade
embossed paper with a simple household staple…Toilet
Paper!
You will need the following:
Water
Two ply toilet paper
Your hands
A rolling pin or a firm brayer, if you're hands don't
feel like getting involved ;0)
An Embossing Folder by either Sizzix, Cuttlebug or
whatever brand you happen to have.
Paper Towel
Wax Paper or Foil
Clamps or wooden clothes pegs
Optional colouring agents if you want to add colour:
acrylic paints, Distress Stains, Distress Ink re-inkers,
Adirondack Color Washes, spritzing with Smooch inks
Optional rubber stamp
This isn't a new technique, stampers have done this
with rubber stamps in the past but now this is a modernized
version using embossing folders instead!
***Now I want to warn you right this minute…DO
NOT USE YOUR CUTTING OR EMBOSSING MACHINES for this
technique,
we are ONLY using the embossing folders themselves!
The last thing you want to do is run sopping wet toilet
paper through
your machines, that would be a very very bad thing!
No machines or embossing folders will be harmed during
the making of this paper!
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Saturate
two attached sheets of two ply toilet paper
with water and lay it down inside an open Sizzix
or Cuttlebug embossing folder (or similar product).
You
will probably want to work near the kitchen
sink for this technique and put paper towel
down to protect your counter or work on something
that will keep
the
water off your work surface. I tried spritzing
water onto the TP but that took too long and
went with direct running water instead.
Continue
wetting and layering two attached sheets until
you have a stack of up to 7 sheets inside the
open embossing folder. Close the folder
and...Ah! NO!
I
said NO machines remember, put that defenseless
Cuttlebug down now you hear and get out
a rolling pin or use a firm brayer instead if
you don't think you can
apply
a lot of pressure with your hands! But
trust me, you really don't need a lot of pressure
at all. Just close the folder and press
down firmly with both hands.
Use
your finger tips to press and walk the water
out towards the edges and you will see the excess
water oozing out the sides.
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Continue squeezing out the
water until it seems like you've got most
of it out and then clamp the embossing folder
closed with small clamps or wooden clothes
pegs. You might want to do a whole bunch at
the same time and then you can just clamp
them all together. Leave the embossing folders
clamped for about 30 minutes and then you
can take a peek to see how well it worked.
You can squeeze more water out and re-clamp
if you need to. You might want to do it in
the evening and then leave them clamped over
night. You can also just stand something heavy
on top of the folder if you don't have clamps.
If you use a heavy book then make sure you
put some wax paper or foil over the folder
and surround area so that your book doesn't
soak up any water!
Depending on the embossing folder you use
and the design you might also find that just
pressing down on it with your hands or using
a rolling pin works just fine too and then
you can eliminate the whole clamping step
altogether!
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Gently
remove the embossed sheets from the embossing
folder and lay them out flat to dry. Depending
on where you live this might take a while. The
TP is quick to emboss but time consuming when
it comes to waiting for it to dry. I don't
recommend using your heat gun or hair drier
to hurry up the process coz sometimes it will
cause the papers to curl more and separate…unless
you like the sound of that of course. The
peeling distressed effect is fun for some projects
but not the look we're going for right now.
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STEP
4
While
those are drying you can now play around with
making more embossed sheets using up to 4 layers
of toilet paper instead and also adding some
colour to both the thin and thick stacks! You
can use anything you want to stain the
wet toilet paper. Try acrylic paints,
Distress Stains, Adirondack Color Washes, spritzing
with Smooch inks or dribbling Distress
Ink re-inkers onto the wet TP. I used
Distress Ink Pumice Stone and Fired Brick re-inkers
in this photo which looks a bit like a
massacre went down here, but the TP is very
pretty once dry!
I
stacked up 5 saturated sheets for my colour
test but this time I decided to lay them on
top of Blockheads crackle background stamp from
the Backgrounds For All Occasions sheet and
gently pressed the wet TP down into all the
grooves. Dribble the Distress re-inkers
onto the wet TP and lay 5 more wet sheets on
top. Lay a piece of wax paper or aluminum
foil on top and gently press down and direct
the excess water out to the edges of the stamp.
Stand something heavy on top of the stack
and leave it for 30 mins.
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Gently
uncover the still wet sheets and remove it.
The result is a fun mottled embossed effect,
however, the extra sheets and the compressing
of the TP wasn't as effective as being sandwiched
in an embossing folder and I could see parts
of the layers were peeling already. I
used this to my advantage and divided up the
colored sheets. One 4 sheet section I
left with the embossed crackled effect, another
stack of 3 I embossed with the gears and sprockets
design - I did notice that the ink slightly
stained my embossing folder but did not harm
it at all, so that's up to you if you want to
avoid doing that or not. The remaining
3 sheets I peeled off individually and allowed
them to dry as is coz they all have a wrinkly
crepe effect to them.
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Here's
photos of the finished results. This really
was a fun technique to play around with and you
can use all your new handmade embossed paper for
a variety of projects.
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I experimented with applying Memento Inks directly
to the dry TP paper and using a foam ink applicator
tool. With the foam applicator
I found that the TP got bitty. The TP developed
little linty balls as the foam dragged across
the surface. So I switched to the dew drop
ink pads so I would have a bit more control and
gently swiped and dabbed the ink onto the embossed
areas of the Art Nouveau sun design.
I used Dandelion, Rhubarb Stalk and Rich Cocoa.
The dabbing instead of the swiping worked much
better though. In this photo the top
pic shows the embossed TP paper with the Memento
Ink. The bottom shows what happens if you spritz
a small amount of water on to it.
The inks blend and bleed a bit and the colours
look richer.
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I applied Distress Inks to the alphabet TP paper.
Using my preferred method of dabbing instead of
swiping, I first dabbed on Pumice Stone,
then Tea Dye and finished with a touch of Black
Soot. I also spritzed some water on the piece
I used in my finished project. The water had
the same effect on the Distress Ink as it did
on the Memento Inks.
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On this Art Nouveau design I applied sage green,
peach and pale pink Pebble Chalks with my finger
tip instead of using a chalk applicator.
Using my finger helped keep the bittiness to a
minimum! The pic on left shows the soft effect
of the chalks and the pic on the right shows
how much stronger the colour became after I spritzed
it with water too.
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And there you have it! I hope you've enjoyed checking
out this really awesome technique and plan to play around
with it yourselves!
I look forward to seeing all your creations in the Handmade
Embossed Toilet Paper Technique Challenge!
Please visit my blog, Leigh S-B Designs, to see how
I made my finished projects!
Happy Creating!
Leigh S-B
