Don't Forget The Paper Towels

Paper towels are for more than cleaning up messes in your craft area. They can add texture to your projects. They can be colored with thinned acrylic paint with food colors or inks. I have even spritzed glimmer mist on paper towels. Most paper towels are two ply so they can be separated.  The main reason I separate them is I can get two pieces of paper for the price of one.

Although in the past I have dipped paper towels in thinned acrylic paint and crumpled it and then unfolded it and let it dry for this card I did something different. I even stamped on a paper towel which is something I have not done before.

 O.K. fresh off the crafting table.  My paper towel card. (Click on image to enlarge)

I tie dyed the paper towels with alcohol inks and soap dye mixed in water. I did not like how the darker base turned out so decided to see about splattering with a bristle brush a mixture of  ink,water and pewter Perfect Pearls. I also splattered gold water color. The splattering helped the colors to bleed more The light colored one on the heart was too light but I sprayed the darker green on my plastic bag and laid it down on the bag pressing it down to pick up the ink.

I stamped the heart using a Ditto background stamp. I hate to admit it but I've had the stamp for a couple of months and this is the first time I've used it.

After gluing the paper towels on the shapes I tore the excess off. I glued crotchet thread around the heart and wrapped it around the heart. Then I tied my key on it. I decided to tuck the key under the thread so I could position it better.

The heart is a free Silhouette file. I ungrouped and deleted the star and stripes inside it. The panel is a rectangle shape drawn in Studio. I found the key when I put in free SVG keys in search. My gold embossing powder is lumpy and normally I break up the lumps but this time I left it to give an aged look.


What do you think? Have I inspired you to try paper towels as a crafting medium?

Thank you for stopping by. Do come back. As long as I had my alcohol ink out I did some play with them and photo paper which I'll share. Along with a card. Now I can't wait to go buy more alcohol inks.


Wishing you happy Frugal crafting till we meet again!