Low Tech Kleenex Fun

Not long after whining about the art rut, I was browsing on Create Mixed Media and came across a video featuring Seth Apter, the amazing artist, person and creative friend extraordinaire. In the preview of the Easy Mixed Media Techniques for the Art Journal DVD, 'low tech' was a term he used to describe using whatever we have at hand to complement our fancy, expensive art supplies (my words:). After watching him make fabulous texture on watercolor paper using acrylics, gesso, wallpaper and doodling, I was inspired to play. The 'low tech' approach made it easy to bypass my art critic in residence (in my brain) and start...

I cut apart a Kleenex box and applied gesso to the panels, leaving a few of their design elements showing. 

 

Making a book using a tissue box, coffee bags, anything recycled has many benefits. First, how can you screw up a Kleenex box? No fine art standards in this project. It also stimulates creativity by thinking outside the box (OK, that was BAD), and there is one less item in the trash/recycling bin.

I chose a limited number of colors - green, red, blue, brown and yellow, no blending or mixing.

I embellished the pages with scraps of lace, paper, found objects, gesso and bottle caps and then intentionally pulled from the drawers I rarely open. Maybe I'm the only one who sees stickers and rub-ons, stamps, charms and other odds and ends and they look so cool I just have to have them. Then they sit in drawers because I'm not sure how to use them or they don't fit into a painted canvas.  

I loved prepping the pages so much that I almost felt 'finished' but then decided to make it a found-word mini-journal. And realized that the fun had just begun.