Creating paper from tissue paper

The other day I was browsing Pinterest and came upon a video where a woman was making her own decorative papers using tissue paper, gel medium & coffee grounds.

Specialty papers without the price of specialty papers.

I was immediately inspired but really didn't want to dig the coffee grounds out of the trash, at the same time I didn't want to wait.

It's rained here for the last 5 days and I just wanted to play.

After thinking for a bit I came up with my own take on the process.

I started with plain tissue paper and watered down some gel medium until it was the consistency of skim milk.

I placed 2 sheets of tissue paper onto a piece of freezer paper (so when it dries it will peel right off) and using a large paintbrush covered the sheets.

On some  I placed twine between the layers and once the water medium dried the twine was embedded in my new paper.

I wanted colored pieces and tried several mediums. Mists, and acrylic paint were 2 of my favorite ways I soon discovered to really get the color on.

When the paper, medium, color mix all dry the paper is surprisingly strong.

Perfect for all sorts of future crafting.

This sheet is twine laid out in a grid pattern embedded between 2 layers of tissue paper.

I randomly dropped some  Raw Umber on spots and using the same brush as my medium/ water mixture spread the color.

I love how it is darker in some areas and light in others.

Next I tried some NeoPaque paint by Jacquard.

I love the color and am thinking this will be a good base for a future page in an art journal.

This piece I misted with a Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow mist.

You get wonderful color variations on the page with this one.

Here I just added Iridescent Gold onto my paper.

I am in love with the shine here.

Here I pulled out the twine again but just made lines.

Embedded it between the tissue paper again and misted with a Heidi Swapp mist.

Again I like the color variations I get when I misted the pages versus painting them.

Last but not least another misted page. This one was using some old Lilac Walnut ink mist I have.

No shine with this one but the lay down of color was awesome.

These papers came together so quick and easy. They will make some really fun additions to my art journals and mixed media pieces.

I may have to make more today.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!