Technique of the Week: Upcycled Paper Towel

In conjunction with Art 'n Soul's Technique of the Week, and also Inspiration Station for September, this post is about how to use your paper towels that you don't want to throw away.

Here is a card I made with my paper towel

Have you ever been crafting and mopping things up with a paper towel, and at the end of it all, think "this is too pretty to throw away?" Don't throw it away!

I had a paper towel that was covered with Nuance and pearly water that I had been using to clean up during a project. The colors and sparkle on it were beautiful!

Paper Towels have 2 plys. Once the paper towel you are using is dry, peel it apart, and you will have 2 pieces to use on projects.

This is a technique I learned from Marj Marion, who showed me how to do this with napkins. Rub a glue stick over a piece of card stock. It is preferable to use white card stock, since your paper towel will be somewhat translucent, and the color of the card stock will show through. White will brighten your piece.

Lay your paper towel carefully (single ply) over the card stock that you have prepared with the glue stick. Smooth it down and if you have a brayer, brayer it smooth. If you don't have a brayer, use your fingers to smooth it down. Let the glue dry.

At this point, you can use your paper towel as patterned paper. You can stamp on it (I used Versafine Black Onyx), and you can die cut with it. You can also just cut it to size and adhere it onto a card with a stamped image or sentiment.

In the card above, I first stamped on the paper towel that was adhered to the card stock. Then I die cut it into leaf shapes. I used the new Hero Arts stamp set CL-882 "Autumn", and the die set Frame Cuts DI-156. We are featuring these sets in Inspiration Station this month. All of the color in these leaves comes from the Nuance that was on the paper towel.

This was a fun technique and I love how it turned out. I hope you will try it!

Magenta Nuance used:

Bright Yellow MNU002

Jade MNU004

Orange MNU006

Golden Yellow MNU008

Grass Green MNU009

Scarlet MNU010

Other Products used:

Hero Arts Stamp Set Autumn CL-882

Hero Arts Die Set Frame Cuts DI-156

Stardream Gold (strip)

Memento Rich Cocoa (used to stamp sentiment)

Versafine Onyx Black ink (used to stamp onto paper towel)

Paper Towel used to clean up when using Magenta Nuance