Adventures in Baby Oil!! :) Tutorial/Observations

Update: March 12, 2007

Another great idea in from my buddy Lyn over at the yahoo group Inky Fun Stampers.... Mulberry paper! Very pretty and cool results! Thanks, Lyn! :)

Update: March 5, 2007

Some great suggestions for those of you who cannot easily find one-sided wax paper. TRACING PAPER and/or WHITE TISSUE PAPER.

UPDATE: March 3, 2007

If you do not adhear the papers or seal them within a few hours, the baby oil will begin to evaporate/dry out. I oiled some of the thin wax paper and it dried back to non-translucent overnight. The wax paper sample I made below, however, is still translucent because I used some gel medium to glue it to text paper.

Updated Conclusion:

USE OR SEAL YOUR PAPERS RIGHT AWAY OR THEY WILL DRY OUT!

(seal your papers with a coating of acrylic varnish, gel medium, or you can try sealing with an acrylic sealer [I have not tried this to see if it will work. I assume you would have to seal both sides of the paper.] If you use your paper in artwork right away (ie glue to collage, glue to card, etc) then I would still seal the top of the piece with gel medium or acrylic varnish.) For more information on Gel Mediums---> http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/medsadds/index.php)

Did you think you had the wrong blog?!? LOL!! Here is what I played with over the last couple of days.......

Papers and Baby Oil
This is a fun technique to give you translucent papers to work with. You can get a beautiful layered look that had oodles of possibilities. The supplies are basic and hopefully everyone has easy access to these:

Baby Oil--Wax Paper/Freezer Paper/Text Weight Paper--Paper Towels
Black Stazon Ink (if you don’t have Stazon, you can use any permanent ink. Be careful if you have to heat set so you don’t burn the paper!)
Kleenex/Tissue
Optional: Colored Stazon Inks, other permanent inks, acrylic paints, and walnut inks.

Stamp images onto your waxed paper with your Stazon Ink on the NON-WAXED side of the paper. Allow to dry thoroughly! Heat set if necessary (using other inks) (On my first try with this, I stamped on the WAX side. The waxed paper and the text weight papers did fine this way......NOT the Freezer paper!)

Load up a Kleenex/Tissue with baby oil. Flip wax paper over and gently rub oil into paper. (this is done on the NON-INKED side of the paper) The oil will soak trough the paper and produce and translucent quality.




Allow soaked papers to sit for an hour. To remove excess oil: Place a small pile of paper towels onto a flat work surface. Place oiled wax paper IMAGE SIDE DOWN onto the pile of towels. Take a wadded paper towel and gently rub the top of the waxed paper. (the NON IMAGE SIDE) Your paper will still have a slight silky/oily feel, but most of the excess oil should be removed.



Text weight paper laid over text. Subtle translucency.


Wax paper laid over text. Very translucent.


Freezer paper laid over text. Nice translucency.

FREEZER PAPER UPDATE!!!!
(March 2, 2007)
It was brought to my attention that Freezer paper is PLASTIC on one side.....NOT wax!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh-Ha! No WONDER it behaved the way it did!!
I will have to run more experiments with stamping on the NON-PLASTIC side and see if I can get the oil to soak into the paper w/out smearing the ink on the non-plastic side. Will post results soon!!!!!!
Okay..the Freezer Paper..LOL! Rule number 1: Stamp on the NON-PLASTIC side! :) I really think this has a lot of potential. The paper has a nice thickness and texture and it turns nicely translucent. However, the ink will rub right off the wax if you stamp on that side. (Note to self, use baby oil to clean Stazon ink off my rubber stamps!)

This is more subtle. The text weight paper is colored on the back with Walnut inks. The text barely shows through. Now, the one thing I really like about using this technique on text weight paper (aka copy paper) is that the paper is cheap and easy to find! :) The oil really soaks in and there is not much of a greasy or oily feel to the finished paper. I think that using a more transparent color on the back of the paper would give a nice effect as well.

I think the Wax Paper is my favorite. I really like the look of the colored wax paper over text. I colored the back of this image with Stazon inks. I think a very thin arylic wash would look great, too. Mica powder wash or mica powder/acrylic mix might also be interesting.

Conclusion:

I really think that this has some great possibilities. Right now, I like the idea of layering multiple sheets of the wax paper (since it is the thinnest and most translucent) together to come up with some interesting background pieces and/or collage elements.

I would also like to try this out with Deli Paper. (I don't have any...yet!)

I'd really like to hear from any of you who have experimented or worked with this technique before!