Since I had to take a bit of time off of TH due to my daughter's injury, I decided to give you a little bonus technique to get over while we wait to finish up on encaustics.  I hope we can get back to that this week.  So let's get over something else for the weekend.

I love layers.  Lots of layers.  And I love collage.  I love vintage elements too.  But I sometimes feel like my collage elements look like a ransom note — too many 'fonts' (pieces) competing with each other.  So I experimented and created a way to create a completely layered look using Deli Wrap.  I could use vellum paper or a transparency for this – but I've always felt like the first was too opaque for the layered look I wanted, and didn't take to subsequent mediums well — and the latter is to shiny and also doesn't take to layering.  Try Pan Pastels or ink on a transparency.  You get me, right?  But Deli Wrap?  It's the perfect mix of translucency and alterability.  Is that a word?  Well it is today.

Here's what you need to start:

Some Deli Wrap, painters masking tape and Golden Digital Grounds for Non-Porous Surfaces.  The last piece allows you to PRINT on things that you normally couldn't with an inkjet printer.

Put two coats on the deli wrap paper.  The first horizontal strokes with your paintbrush, let dry. And then vertical strokes. Let dry completely.  This is what the deli wrap looks like when it's prepared:

The paper on the right is prepared.  It has a slightly shiny surface, so it's easy to identify which side is prepped for printing on.

Here is my collage image.  I scanned in two pieces and layered them onto a single image.  I love to scan vintage ephemera – because it is so, so hard to find.  Instead of not using your stash – give it an extended life and use it again and again.

Put your deli wrap onto a piece of cardstock, and attach flat to the surface with some removable masking tape.  Make sure it is adhered really tight and flat to the carrier sheet and run it through your printer.

Remove the masking tape and attach the deli wrap to something fun that has a print to peek through the layers.  I used this printed cardstock (from Rouge de Garance) as my base.

Put a flat coat of gel medium.  I like heavy bodied medium onto the cardstock and then apply your deli wrap, using a rubber brayer to smooth it onto, and adhere it to the surface.

Yum.  Now we can apply ink to the edges.  We can stamp on top.  We can paint.  We can add more actual collage.  And look at all those layers!

So thank you for being patient with me while my little blondie is getting better.  And she is!  No pain meds for the past 36 hours.  That's a win!!  Which is why I was able to jump into my studio and show you how I created this art journal page.  Here is the original; posted on my regular blog:

Have fun!

SL