Cute Summer Collaging with Photo Paper and Gel Plate Anyone Can Do

1. Summer Collage Intro: Hi friends. It's Tammy prayer. Uh, thank you for joining me today. I have a brand new Skillshare class for you. It's using photo paper. I know I already have a photo paper class. This is photo paper. Take two. Now, I literally found a package at the thrift store and I couldn't pass it up. And I wanted to experiment with it because I have a gel plate now. I didn't have one back then when I started and I have new inks. And I just started playing and out popped these two beautiful cards. And you can do it too. It's so simple. And learn from my mistakes. Learn along with me, experiment and play. And let's have fun. That's what creating is it? It's fun. Takes courage, it takes some practice. Definitely just play, use what you have and create something new. And that's what this is for. For beginners, for people who are stuck and aren't sure what am I going to create next? This might help you make something in a new way. See things differently. Maybe you're looking for more paper barter techniques and how to create cool backgrounds. This class is for you. So stay with me as I explained, what supplies will need and how to create some really fun and beautiful cards made with photo paper. See you in the next session. 2. Summer Collage Supplies: Lies, well, basically photo paper. I used 8.5 by 11 photo paper. I actually found this package at a thrift store. It's glossy and it's Seventy-five pounds. It's meant to go in your ink jet printer. But we are going to use it for art projects. So if you have some awesome, if you don't ask your grandmother, she probably has a stash hidden away somewhere or look forward to the state sales thrift stores. You'll probably be able to find it somewhere. I'm using 8.5 by 11 today. I also have inks. I have these little dude drop dye inks, fade resistant, dying. I'm also using some Tim holds distressed inks. Whatever inks you have on hand. I'm using blues and greens and yellows. So that's my selection for today. I also have some paint pens to embellish with. These are fine line, the stories fine line. I'm using a gold and black. I also had posca in white and black. These are, let's see, the five CCR5. And so it's about a 1.8 millimeter. And these are much smaller. But whatever you have on hand will work. I actually even may have some Tim holds sayings. Do you have any quotes you want to use? Maybe from a greeting card, maybe from the comics, maybe from a book, quote books. Or you can write your own. Feel free to do that. But I use this in our projects today. I used a brayer and I use a job plate. I have at hiding here between two pieces of paper. I have a let's see. I just forgot how big it was. It's Oh, I have a seven by five gel plate that I'm using today. I have some coordinating colors as background papers, totally optional, but that's how I finished off my cards today. I also use a mini Mr. it's a very fine misting bottle. Glue stick. Elmore's craft bond, extra strength. I'm really liking this. I used some wet wipes to clean my CAD. I also need a piece of paper to run my brayer over and also helps to have glue paper. So this is helpful too. When you use your glue stick to have it not make a mess on your table. I have a cutter. This is how I use to trim my pages. And I also used a pair of scissors to cut out my shapes for the collage. I think that's all my supplies come back as we get into making the photo paper backgrounds. 3. Making the Gel Plate Prints: Is everything's ready to go. I have my Spitzer, I have my fan brush for a little splatter in water. I want to try to do is recreate my original. And what I used was these four blue ink pads. And I'm going to add a little green this time. Let's see what that effect does. What I mostly liked about this process was the blue came across looking a lot like water. I really was impressed with that style, with that look. And I want to try to recreate that. I'm pouncing my ink pads all around my job plate, kind of a random way. And you can see the ink pads have a distinct shape. And I think it will happen because it did it last time was it's going to fade. Those hard edges are not going to really reappear as much as just a really fluid looking effect. And that's what I really hope will happen. So let's see how we do. I'm going to use my spirits are first one. I'll move my water photo paper out of the way so wet that too much. And I'm switching across. And look at that. Beat it up nicely. Now one thing I want to Breyer, and I'm going to Breyer, my 4. Gel Print 2.0: I have my gel plate ready to go, my photo paper, and five colors that I've picked out. A Paris dusk, new sprout, not a cool blue summer sky and teal zeal. And I'm going to try to recreate this really special bubble water effect using these colors. And I've added a touch of the green just to see how it goes. So I'm just going to pounce my ink randomly around my pad. And as you can see, these little ink pads are a teardrop shape and it really comes across on the pad. But I don't want you to worry about that. It will disappear by magic. Because I'm going to spritz it with water and come up with water drop effect. And it's going to pick up really easily, quickly with my photo paper. Just a touch more of the green in there. Now I have a mini Mr. sprayer. And can you see that beating up already? I want to Breyer it just a bit. Wow, look at that. Go crazy. I have my off paper. They're cleaned my brayer a bit. Now let's take my photo paper and make as much of it as I can. And it just takes an instant. Crazy, That is wild. I want to try it again. Let's make a second. And I think I'm going to see what the effect is without the brayer and just have the MR water added to these inks. Now, these are fade resistant dye inks. Like them because they're just so tiny. I can't. I generally do small work. And so these tiny little ink pads are perfect for me. So with just the Mr. this time, I'm going to let that beat up. And we'll see how much of underwater effect I can get. A little slip there. That's okay too. Because look what it did. Did you see that slip? We should slow motion that section again. I have more ink on here. I want to pick that up. Don't put a drop of ink and go to waste. And we just got a lighter effect. But that's how fast it these gel pads come across so quickly on the on the photo paper, It's crazy and it's already dry. That's what's fun. You can start working with it immediately. But I've got one more little square to do. So. I thought I would keep pouncing and see what else I can make with just the Mr. this time. I have enough down here, maybe one more squirt. And the second side of my photo paper. I got it to slip again. Fact, I'm going to turn my paper over and take another print. Job plate is so fun. It you just never know what you're going to get. I hope you play an experiment with yours as well. 5. Summer Collage 1: I've taken my paint pen. This is my fine line. It's a nice fine line. I've already drawn my flower, I've drawn a leaf and a stem, and now I'm cutting out. Let's just kinda just abroad to get it away from the rest of the paper. Cut my leaf and my stem. I can do a bit more detail cutting. And I'm going to trim away this flower. Just a simple shape. I tend to call flowers. I make up fantasy flowers. I'm not saying what flower this is, because it's just a five petaled flower. I'm trimming away this excess. Like I said, I'm I'm leaning towards having this out side yellow show. I haven't decided if that's the look I've just want yet. I really do like just a black outline instead of the color outline also. But hey, I'm leaving my options open here for a moment. Okay, I'm going to toss these scraps, but not too far because you had never know when you're going to want that. I'm looking at how to collage these pieces. Very possible to just keep it like this. And one of the reasons I'm thinking this look is because this is a darker panel. And It's good. I'm okay with that and you may love it, so you go for it. But I'm thinking of using this panel because my black is so striking that I want that to really come across. I want my black to be more outstanding from the background. Now if I keep my flower this way, this leaves me room to doodle more have lettering. I could also add more flowers. I think for now I'm going to leave it. So before I glued down, I decided to have a background paper. This is this is eight by six, this is five by seven. And I'm going to trim this down. I have a discursive paper cutter and I'm going to trim it to my five by seven size or even smaller. Just a tad smaller. Let's trim this side. Five. There we go. I'm going to set that on my background page. There's some scrapbook paper I had lay my flower out. And then I have some words. This is a Tim Holtz sayings book. This one is called smalltalk, so you can find anything. Do you have an old greeting card? Did you have a quote book? Did you have another photo of somebody? And I didn't know. It might be nice to use a background for your words. And I think, I think I might use a bit of yellow. So let's see which words I'm going to pick first. How about creativity takes courage? I like that. We were courageous today. I think I'm going to take about half of this page, maybe a little bit more. I'm not coming down very far. I can just say my cut line. I'm gonna go up to where that cut line is. Passed it. As the case may be. Creativity takes courage. Now these are adhesive back. So they're easy, they're ready to go. Barely touch it on there so I can reposition it. All full bull, better not stick. Okay. Here we go. Creativity takes courage. How a bout? Something as a border. Yeah. A little bit of border on there. Hubs it stand out just a bit. And this is all before we glue down. I am going to get my glue paper. Now before I lay down with my glue, I want to embellish this a bit. So I am going to take my black Posca and I'm going to basically dude or a frame. Very simple things scientific, clean about it at all. Helps that homemade look as if it needed more help, right? But there it is. Still haven't decided. Highlight this flower. Petals up. Oh, I like that. In fact, I really love when things overlap like that. I think I'm generally someone who likes up or down. But this right here in the middle, that makes it takes center stage. I like that. So let's move these aside and take my photo paper to my background and get some glue on here. This is Elmore's craft bond, extra strength. A very big wide glue stick. And I'm paying attention to the edges because I don't want it to lift it off. And I eyeball I really just eyeball this where the center would be. Hirsch is to me. A little hand heat helps. Press that down. If you have a scraper, great. Something to press and makes sure that does get down. Really good, really good. Here I've already forgotten which way my flower was, my stem, I know was first. So let's do that. We'll place the stem. Figure my flower. Take it was like that. Yeah. Yeah. Attention to the corners. I don't want those to pop up. There we go. Little hand heat. Well press, press, press, press, press, press. And for my pedal or my leaf. Let's get that on here. I like it up. Everything up unhappy, up unhappy. Creativity takes courage. It really does to put yourself out there. To play. Most courageous thing you can do is to try and experiment. And you did. 6. Summer Collage 2: With my scrap yellow line to do more flowers. But I'm using my goal. In this one. I am making more rounded petals and they're not touching. This will give me opportunity to collage how I, how I'm thinking I want to do it. It gives me more options. I can even make bigger, smaller, and maybe even more layers. In fact, I'm starting just to like this effect. It's looking more like a stem to me anyway. I'm going to leave that. See how ideas come to you as you're working. Stay at your desk and keep creating. Almost reminds me of a lavender stem of some sort. I'm going to give it a very nudge with the scissors to allow lots of space, lots of color in-between here. I'm going to nudge out that white border just to stick with the stick. Alright, close. So it's only the ink and not the white border. Yes. Made it. Crafting is so forgiving. Don't you think it really gives you a freedom to say it is what it is. And it's a happy accident. It's a moment I got to spend at the work table and enjoyed every bit of play time with crafting supplies that you may not have pulled out in a long time. Have you ever thought of margarines on lettering paper? On have you ever thought of margarines on photo paper? How fun is that? I think I'm going to give it a green stem also. And maybe some really long leaves. So let's give this a bit. This will be stem and really skinny long leaves. I'm just going for it. I am cutting away without drawing first. And I'll probably marker. Decide how I'm gonna do this. Oh, yes, this needs to be together. And that's another cool thing. I did not plan that. I'm going to keep this as a prong of the of the of a stem. Keep that together. Just like it would be in nature. Don't you think? Just like leaves don't have to be detached. I could probably use my tiny scissors for this, but there we go. Like that. Okay. My stem will be very, very skinny. In fact, so skinny, I didn't even give myself a space to draw my other side of my sternum. So now that wasn't helpful. I think these might only get one side done about that. Like just the vein, give it a bit of a highlight. I like that idea too. If you follow along on any of my Instagram stories, you've probably noticed how many times I hashtag intuitive artist. Because I really truly do work this way. I like to play is like go and just figure it out. Just figure it out as I go. Nothing Nothing planned. And that may cause you quite a bit of stress. If you are someone who loves every detail, everything planned ahead than this style of working may not appeal to you and I can understand that. But working this way, it allows me to learn. And that's one of my core beliefs. I really enjoy learning. I'm going to finish off my last card. I picked a turquoise paper for background. You could just leave this trimmed up and that's heavyweight enough. But I just saw had something. I just thought the border was really nice, made us special touch. I'm going to trim this this page itself. Galaxy looking. Maybe instead of a flower, I could have done a son. Her fish. Underwater theme. But next time, right? Go where your imaginations taking you did like this. I thought those colors went nicely together. I do think I might do a white border. Would like to try to see if white will show up. Let's see how that does. A white come across. Oh, it does. I think I'm going to put that on first. Because our flower was on black. It was gold. This might even look nice with a, with a double edge. Gold. And I'm going to leave that for now. I'll think on it a bit. I'm going to glue this down first though. I think that's dry. Should be dry. I'm sure I get all four corners. Good. Little gunky on my corner there. Eyeballing. It would make a nice detail. Maybe some dots on my ever embellish would do little dots. Probably not showing up the best. But to do it again in the gold, that would really, we're gonna do that. Almost like little stars. We just put stars on our page. Stars upon bars. I'll either be in a somewhat of a line or like two little eyes on a like a pop print or something. You know. There we go. Very random mesh. Ones, twos. That's even more random. I am trying not to make a line. Like gave a little bit festive to it. Don't you think? One more? There we go. What's special saying? Do we have here? Let's ask him. What would you have a say here? Oh, and blank. I pick I'm going to stick with the whites. Today is full of possibilities. That's us today, don't you think? Today we were full of possibilities. Here. We're down here. I need a little bit longer. So about the size of what we used the last time. I may even take that piece we used last time. And one thing, you don't have to use these in a straight line. I have cut the words apart and made them two rows. I think this may go down. Why do you think? The other idea is to combine, combined sayings? Today's full of possibilities. Today's full of possibilities. Remember to play. In fact, I like that. Let's, let's continue the same making our own saying. Remember to play. Should we introduce a new color per ball? I better not. I think I'm going to use a color that's in our palette. This is a bamboo dream. It's kind of a bright springy green. Today is full of possibilities. And to think so when we started today, you can do it. This would make anybody's day. I love it. Okay. We're going to glue down, so I need my glue paper and let's do my stem and flowers. So I can get a good placement. All working together, overlapping under lapping. Because we have a lot of elements working together. And I have them play together nicely. Means putting down, oh boy, in a cohesive way. That's not going to work. Let's bring him out of here. And one more. I liked that so much. Got my little heat press going. Oh goodness, I just love this so much I came out so great. Remember to play, work really, really well. And I like it up here. I really feel like that fit the moment. Maybe a smidgen head and my heat press share my edges are down. And I think you've made a second card. Second picture, a second. Isn't that fantastic? Well done with photo paper. Fun, fun. 7. Wrap Up and Class Project: Thank you for joining me. Wasn't that amazing? Who knew that such simple tools can create really fun, abstract backgrounds that you can use for cards, for your photo journals, for junk journals, for sky's the limit. So thank you for joining me. Share what you created in my class projects. I'd love to see what you transformed your photo paper into. Was it a background? Was it a collage piece? Tell me how it inspired you and share it with others so we can all learn from each other and enjoy it. Have a great day.