DIY Network

Paper Towel Designs Learn how to create colorful designs with paper towels. From "Craft Lab" episode DCLB-106

Guest Traci Bautista joins Craft Lab host, Jennifer Perkins, and uses paper towels to make a colorful design by folding them up and dipping them into different colors of paint. When it's unfolded, the paper towel reveals an interesting pattern. The plies are pulled apart and glued down to a sheet of paper.

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Guest Traci Bautista teaches a fusion-dyed collage technique that combines paper towels, prints and layers of glue to make a transparent paper.

Project designed by Traci Bautista.

Materials:

fluid acrylics and heavy body acrylic tube paints
liquid watercolor paints
stamp re-inkers (metallic)
acrylic calligraphy ink
glitter
water
stir stick
3.25 oz. plastic Dixie containers
brayer
scissors
2-ply paper towels
deeply etched unmounted rubber stamps
textured wallpaper
hand-cut stencils
painting smock

Paper Towel Designs

1. To create the dye, use a separate cup of each color, mix your choice of water-based media with a bit of water. The amount of water added will cause colors to be more or less intense. To create a metallic dye, add a few drops of gold or silver fluid acrylic or iridescent acrylic ink into mixture. To add sparkle, drop a pinch of glitter into your dye mixture. Stir dye with a craft stick.

2. Folded dip dyeing creates controlled patterns. Fold a paper towel, experimenting with different folds. Squares, rectangles, triangles and accordion pleats will all produce different and interesting patterns. Dip the folded paper towel into various mixed dye colors (can use 2-3 colors). Take a pipette filled with a dye and squeeze onto paper towel to spot dye and create lines of color. The colors will begin to run together in some spots blending and creating new colors.

3. Scrunch dyeing creates tree-torn/tie-dye patterns. Crumple a paper towel and dip into various colors. Squeeze the paper towel to spread color. Take another paper towel and squeeze out extra dye and you will have an extra dyed paper towel.

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