Playing With Patterns-21 Secrets

I'm sharing a few pages here of the many I did in the 21 Secrets workshop Playing With Patterns with Debra Cooper. This was another class that once I got started, it was hard to stop. So many ideas and ways to design with color on these papers. Some of the pages kind of overlapped with the Child's Play workshop with Alma Stoller that I took earlier. That's okay! The workshops are meant to work together. :)

These are actually a little brighter than they scanned, but you get the idea! I used a home made stamp on a yellowish background above.

I LOVE bubblewrap! Who doesn't? :)

A found stamp...

Lifted up excess paint off another page and added bubble wrap stamp...

Some stenciling fun...

The page above and below were made by lifting up excess paint off other pages. I didn't have spray paint and didn't want to buy any, so I tried to make my own by adding paint and water in some little spray bottles. Needless to say, too much water, too thin paint in a spray makes a BIG mess, but I got the idea that Debra was trying to get across! Love it!

More patterned papers...

The one above is actually a sage green folder that I patterned up to hold my other patterned papers.

Text pages...

Small manila envelope-Too much water on the left, which was my first try, so I scooted over to try again, and when they were dry I  patterned over the mess. I think it looks pretty cool!

Now that I look at my papers, I didn't pattern too many like Debra showed us. Hers was gorgeous, and I learned how to make gorgeous patterned papers from her. It's just that I tend to use what I have on hand or what's laying handy, as the case may be, and I didn't have any big gorgeous stencils or stamps, so there you go. But I loved the workshop and will definitely be making more papers, because I love the process! Thank you Debra for showing me new techniques for the stamps and stencils! 

One thing I love about mixed media, everything can be used and nothing is wasted. And I have all these art supplies that I've accumulated over the years that I've been dabbling in arts and crafts, some I wanted to try and never did use, some I tried, but didn't really know what to do with or how to use them, some I just never got around to trying. Now, thanks to Connie and these workshops, I'm improvising and using up all these supplies that I was afraid to mess up before, because they were expensive. I've gotten BRAVE in my art dabbling and they're finally getting used! What a blessing to be able to play freely!