How to Make Decorative Papers

Stucco and Mesh
Ceramic stucco is another texture gel medium from Liquitex. It has a slightly rough, cement-type feel to it. Mix it with paint and impress textural objects into it to make some really interesting decorative papers. I used two different sizes of mesh in the papers shown below.Ingredients
- Liquitex Ceramic Stucco medium
- Pearl acrylic paint
- black acrylic paint
- different sizes of mesh
- silver Pearl Ex powders
- sketch paper
Process
- Paint the sketch paper black (or any other color you want.) Let dry.
- On a palette, mix the stucco medium with the pearl paint. I use my finger to scoop it out of the jar and mix it together.
- Spread a thick layer of the mixture onto the painted sketch paper.
- Press the mesh into the mixture so that the stucco oozes through the mesh openings.
- Let the mesh sit there for about 10 to 15 minutes to let the stucco medium set a little bit.
- Carefully lift out the mesh.
- Let dry.
- Using a soft, fluffy dry brush, dip into PearlEx powders and brush over the paper; then smooth it down with your fingers.
If you enjoy making textured decorative papers, you’ll really like the book Surface Treatment Workshop: Explore 45 Mixed-Media Techniques by Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran-Wilson. They show you how to use all kinds of things that are lying around your house that you may never have considered using to make art.