Clear protector sleeves background technique and tutorial

Yesterday I had a conversation with my art friend Dana about saving clear sheet protectors. She was sure I was going to want her to save all of the ones she had from her teaching days. I told her I felt the only thing they were good for was the following technique. Dana and I are getting together this morning, which means I won't be working on my experimental fabric paper today (can you believe it still isn't dry in spots?), show you some of the messes I made yesterday. I'm going to try to have my Valentine ATCs made before she arrives at 10 am, so I need to get to bed, then hopefully, I'll have lots to show and discuss in the next few days when I get back into the studio. In the meantime, this technique, reposted in its entirety from 20o8, is dedicated to Dana.


Many months ago, possibly years ago, I saw this technique on a web site or discussed in a Yahoo group. I can't remember where I saw it, but as I recall, it was in more than one place. I always wanted to try it, but couldn't find any extra clear protector sleeves. Then a few days ago, I ran across mine and now I'm able to try this technique, which I'm happy to share with my readers.


Supplies:
dye reinkers
card stock (CS), or substrate of your choice (2 sheets the size of your sheet protector)
clear protector sleeves (mine are 3 ring sleeves)
scissors
Craft sheet (optional to protect your work surface)
Not shown: Brayer (optional if you have one)


Cut one side and the bottom of your clear protector sleeve.


Place drops of dye reinkers in random spots on one side of the sleeve. For this one, I used four colors.


Close the sleeve and work the ink around


until you are happy with the coverage.


Open the sleeve, and place two sheets of CS or substrate of your choice inside the sleeve. Close the sleeve and press the ink onto the pages. Use your hand or a brayer if you have one to ensure good, even coverage.


Lift one side of the sleeve. If the ink is nearly or completely transferred, remove the pages. You may have to lay them out to dry for a few minutes if some of the ink has pooled. This only happened the first time for me and the ink was dry within a couple of minutes. By the second batch, I was better able to control the amount and placement of the reinkers.


These are my next sets. I only used a few dye ink reinker colors, but you can see how you can alter the design and coverage based on the amount and placement of the ink.

This was a fun, fun technique and it is something you can whip up in a very short amount of time if your reinkers are handy. You also don't need a lot of room for this background technique, since the substrates will be practically dry when you remove them from the sleeve. And it's pretty obvious that no two of these backgrounds will ever be the same, although you will get mirror images with each batch. Enjoy!

Today I'm taking a cue from Marilyn Rock, and featuring Caterina Giglio, Marilyn's guest artist of the month. I first got acquainted with Caterina from very nice comments she left on my blog, including pointing out some men who are both artists and have blogs. So go treat yourself to La Dolce Vita and spend some time admiring Caterina's art.