What kind of paper do we use!

It has been a while since we got a request from a reader to do a post on different types of papers available for painting and/or crafts. We have given this one some thought and debated if we should give a list of different paper or craft types. Since the topic is wide and more details are available on the net, we decided that we will basically share our experience with paper and how we have been using it!

Smriti:

Quilling/Punch art - I started with cutting regular printer/copy paper for making the quilling strips. They come in a variety of colors and have the same color on both sides. I did do a lot of research on what weight of paper would result in great looking coils, but that was extremely confusing for me. For punch art, I have experimented way more than quilling. I have concluded that different punches need different papers. Some can punch through even cardstock/scrapbooking paper, whereas some need thinner papers. Printer/copy paper works well, but if I need to do some more intricate embossing on the paper I go for a slightly thicker paper than printer/copy paper.

myquillingplanet.blogspot.com

A lot of times I would go to the store and would end up getting the wrong paper, the result of that being I have a stack of papers which I can’t use for quilling. Good part about being an artist - nothing goes waste!! ;-) So the best I can say is to play around ...and don’t forget that when you do experiment, share it with us here

www.marginup.com

For madhubani paintings I have always used handmade paper. Some problems I face with that is the inks I use for coloring blot on it, due to the fibres. If you use acrylic/craft paint you can use just about any paper/canvas.

Shamoni:

My experiments with paper started through school and with plain white chart papers for drawing and coloured marble paper squares for craft. Over the years I have experimented a bit with paper as a base for my paintings or as a medium for my craft.

www.videojug.com

Painting and sketching - Like I mentioned when I started with my paintings and these were the days of basic poster colours and pencil colours or crayon pastels I have extensively used the basic sketch book. The basic sketchbook which I believe should be anywhere between 70gsm to 120gsm*. The thinner one (70-90gsm) is usually thin enough to only allow pencil or pastels and water col ours etc. may tear the paper, but a thicker one (100-120gsm) suffices for all paint mediums. As I advanced further I did experiment more with the paper thickness, texture and colour. I have predominantly used white to cream tone papers. Thin paper (25gsm or what we may know as butter paper) for tracing, slightly thicker and minor texture (70gsm) for sketching and rough notes, ticker paper (100gsm) for sketching, ink, col our and the thickest (anywhere beyond 120gsm) for individual art work and water cooler since this paper is very absorbent. I have used acrylic colours on papers above 100gsm but for oil colours I have predominantly used canvas. Canvas can be used either as fabric, which can be stretched on a mount board or you can get ready mounted canvas board or sheets from your local art stores. I have also used handmade paper for paintings and sketches and these can give an even better effect to the finished work. You need to choose your paper depending on your paint medium as water col ours required a thick and rough paper while ink thinner and rough while pastels thin and smooth and so on. Understand the relationship between your medium and paper and that shall come with some experimentation and practice.

(*Note: In the metric system, the mass per unit area of all types of paper and paperboard is expressed in terms of grams per square meter (g/m²) or commonly knows as (gsm). This is a common measure of paper thickness in countries following the Metric system. In the U.S.A, paper is measured in Standard American English Pounds (lbs) & 1 lbs, = 1.4802 gsm

www.paperplusoutlet.com

Cards and Craft- I started using the colouful marble paper and I would still like to use it for certain projects but you can be very experimental with paper you use for craft projects. For cards I used to use what was commonly known as chart paper (these are large sheets we get at stationary stores) and cut them into sizes required. These were much thinner papers though hence now I use card stock papers which are thicker and come in various colours, textures and prints there by making the cards firmer and more interesting. I can layer different card stocks together, punch them, stamp them or even colour and sketch on them! I also use a lot of paper we see in our household and scraps I save from either invitation or birthday cards, magazines, interesting chocolate wrappers and so on. The same applies for craft projects as well where I make used of card stock as a base most of the times and add other embellishments to it.

There is of course much more to paper and its uses in art and craft and we have only but scratched the surface of this topic through our experience. There is certainly a lot more to know about paper and you can get on to Google and Bing to help you with your search. Here are some good links to get you started!

· Trueart

· Drawsketch

· EHow

· Thinkcrafts

We hope this post was helpful and if you have any more queries do drop in a line cause we love to hear from you!

 - Smriti & Shamoni

Tweet

Mother's Day

It's super late for this post, but nonetheless, I will share this with you. Mother's Day or not, its always a good time to make Mother's feel good.

I wanted to create something that would revive all her memories of the various trips we have made together. After some brainstorming I came up with this ....

I took my Big Shot die cutting machine and used this die. These were the flowers on which I decided to stick her pictures. I used the smaller dies for cutting out the pictures.

I made 4 big flowers for which I needed 8 cutouts (front and back of the flower). I needed the flowers to be a little sturdy so I cut 8 more shapes from cereal boxes. I made 3 flowers using the smallest size die.. for which I needed 6 cutouts. I used bamboo skewers for the stems. 

I colored the stems green with acrylic paint.

Once the stems dried, I stuck them between the flower cutouts.

The flower size was big and the stems looked out of proportion. So I wrapped up lots of green tissue paper to give it volume.. and also added some leaves using the leaves dies. I embossed the leaves using the embossing stylus and an embossing pad. Alternatively, you can use an old leather diary(something soft under the paper) as the embossing pad and for the stylus you can use a round surface like the back of a pen. 

The small flowers I made for the bouquet were stamped with the alphabet stamp set with the word 'MOM'.

On one side of the flowers I wrote some quotes ..which were so apt for my Mother.

It all came together like this..

Hope this inspires you to create something special for your Mother. Do remember to share your creations with us. 

-Smriti.

Tweet

Warli - The Beauty in Simplicity

As promised in my earlier post, 'Urban Warli - An Easter Special' here is a more detailed post on the Warli art and I hope you enjoy it!

Warli is an art form that originated in the outskirts of Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra. This art form is used to decorate the walls of the village houses. The walls are patted with mud or cowdung and the art form is then painted on it with simple stokes.

This art form though tribal art does not depict any mythological stories or historic events. Instead it illustrates more daily rituals, practices, social events and festivals. This makes Warli more relatable to the modern world as well! The Warli paintings are made of simple line art and rhythmic patterns. They generally have human images, common domesticated animal and birds like cows, bulls, dogs, sheep, chicken etc. They also have several tree patterns and plants, a sun or a moon and village houses. Of course there is no limit to the additions one could have in Warli, and it could include anything from a bullok cart to a car!

It is the beauty in the simplicity of Warli that has attracted me to this art form. With simple art strokes, the depictions of daily life can be represented with a lot of variety. The form has its own flexibility and it is easy to modify to suite individual taste. Although there are some common Warli patters like the circle of people, smiling sun, tree of life, peacock and so on, nothing in Warli is rigid.

This art form can be used to enhance several projects. One could make paintings, bookmarks etc or use the form over terracotta pots, glass ware, fabric, jewellery and so on... the list is as unlimited as your creativity.

Let me share with you a simple card I first made using a common Warli pattern. I chose a read plain black card which came with a plain envelope. I needed a thin (size0-1) brush and gold paint. (Tip: you can also use a sharpie) The card has an unassumed circular drawn pattern, which I drew freehand but you could always use a stencil to draw a base circle. One the circle I have painted the human figures which are simple line art (circle for the head, and stick drawing for the body!) Do remember though they are not simple stick bodies the way children make, because these have more character and you need to have them perform various actions (more about this some other time :)) All the figure have their hands joined together making the circle. I added a man playing an intrument with the circle and to add in more design I added a simple border to a card and continued the same border on the card envelope too.

This card represents a form of celebration to me and I can give this through for any celbratory occasion. You can always change cetrain elements in this card to make it more personal, like add a cake in the center instead of the human figure for birthdays, or a house for house warming and you have a cute card to suite the specific occasion! Like I did say with Warli the possibilities are endless... you just got to be creative! So go on unleash your creativity and we will too and make some more projects with Warli!

If you need ideas for your Warli card, write to us as we will be glad to help in!

Tweet

Cross Stitch Card

Since I have grown up seeing all ladies on my maternal side of the family always keeping themselves busy with sewing, embroidery, crocheting, stitching clothes for the kids, etc., I think it was very natural for me to develop an interest in the same. My mom used to get me some long stitch kits during my summer breaks since that was the only way to keep me home for a few hours.

When I moved to the US, my first visit to the craft store here was at Micheals. I got my first cross stitch kit and it got me addicted. I did several cross stitch projects in the next few months. I had some  leftover Aida cloth and I decided to use them for making greeting cards.

This is how I went about making the card :

I cut 14 count Aida cloth in 3X3 inches and made this design (from here) 

After this was done, I had to make a card to fit in the design.

I took a 12X5.5 inches paper, scored it at 4 and 8 inches.

I needed to make a window for the cross stitch to show ( Aperture card ). I took the Sizzix die and ran it through the Big Shot die cutting machine. I taped the die on the card, so that it wouldn't move. 

Then I positioned the cloth.

I put double sided tape to stick the cloth and also on the left flap of the card. 

Next, I folded the left flap over , this way the back side of the cloth will hide and give a clean look to the card.

In my later posts I will share some cross stitch basics.

-Smriti.

Tweet

Sweet Surprise

I had come across an awesome handmade chocolate cover thanks to Pinterest. The moment I saw this idea I just knew this was my calling and I had to try it!

I made a bright red cover and decorated the front with some stick-on butterflies and a paper trimming to depict grass. You can add any design that you like on the cover depending on the occasion. Since there is enough writing space inside, you can write great messages, I wrote some interesting facts about chocolates for my friend. You could write congratulatory notes, graduation advices, love notes, the choice is unlimited!

This would be a great card itself to say ‘Thank You’, ‘Get Well Soon’, ‘Graduation’ or ‘Congratulations. You can choose specific chocolate with berry filling etc. to make this a special token for ‘Valentine’s Day’ or a simply to say ‘Love You’. You can also choose liquor chocolate to make a ‘Bachelorette’ token.  

The directions and measurements for this particular cover are available at Angel Stamper.

This is such a fun project… so go ahead and try this one!

 

 

Tweet

Small Card Big Meaning

We spoke about making personalized gifts here and just like any personalized gift, handmade cards are always a one of a kind token to give someone to let them know how that they are special!  

Making a card can be lots of fun and can turn into an enjoyable hobby for you, your family and even your kids. As a beginner you really do not need elaborate machinery or embellishments. You can easily start making a card by using simple card making kits or even by assembling cute knickknacks you may have ready at your end. There are some interesting sites which can help you with card making by providing you with kits or ideas and here is a good site for all the beginners. There are also many boards which you can follow on pinterest to gain inspiration.
 

All you really need to put a card together, is some paper (you can start with a humble white paper or some good cardstock paper which have several varieties in colour or texture), an adhesive, a scissor, some sketch pens, if you have some add-ons and loads of imagination and enthusiasm.

I made a modest card for my friend’s birthday and I will love to share this one with you.

I had the brown ribbon and some cut open stock paper with a fall script print which was in the shades of brown and ochre and hence I decided to select the light beige shade for my card base. I additionally had some fall leaf cut outs in the shade of red and green which went well with the warm colour family of the card and added some softness to the card. I also had a cute bird stick on which was also in the warm yellow, red and green family and went perfectly with the leaves. I assembled the card together one layer at a time (sometimes you can draw on a blank piece of paper a design of how you would want your card to look like… it helps!) Once I had my basic design ready, adding the sticker etc, was optional and you need to decide how elaborate or simple you would like your card to be.

 

Once the card was ready, I used a simple sketch pen to write down my message inside and a cute personalized card was ready! (If you are not sure about your writing, you can print the message on a paper and stick it inside as well)

We would love to see and feature your cards here as well… so do share them with us.

- Shamoni

Tweet

Madhubani Pattern

The first few Madhubani paintings I did were very simple. I tried basic motifs like fish symbol. Fishes are a symbol of fertility/abundance and also avatar of Lord Vishnu. 

I drew the motif on a tracing paper and traced it on handmade paper with a pencil.

To finalize the details, I re-traced it with a black micro fine pen. 

I used drawing inks to paint. These inks work well on handmade paper as they blot well. I used brush sizes 000 to 1 , depending on the painting. 

I framed these with mirror and used as wall decor and some as photo frames.

Going a step further, I expanded the border with some geometric shapes, mainly triangles and some flowers at the four corners of the frame. These can be done free hand or using a ruler.  I stuck to the same color scheme of yellow and brown. To make it brighter I added the pink and purple.

These look beautiful and are ideal for beginners as it doesn't require any previous art experience. Go ahead and give it a try!

-Smriti.

Tweet