Product Focus... bring on the mulberry paper

Hi friends, its Katie here closing out another week with you.  Don't the days seem to fly by?  Well, today I want to focus on one of those products that are fun to use, but you might not use them all the time.  If you didn't know this already, many people use mulberry paper to create things like tear animals, but mostly tear bears.  I do not have this skill, but I do love the "organic" look of mulberry paper and I think it adds a different look to your cards, so my goal is to incorporate it into my card making.

For today's tutorial I tried a couple of things that I hadn't ever done before with mulberry paper.  I stamped, embossed, and colored right onto my mulberry paper. One of the unique things about mulberry paper is the way that it works with water, kind of a yin/yang thing going on with it.  Water allows it to tear so easily but on the other hand water doesn't disintegrate it either.  You'll see what I mean as you go along.

I decided that the mulberry paper was going to be my main canvas, but I wanted some color and interest to it so I decided to do my stamping directly on it.

As I mentioned earlier, water is remarkable when it comes to mulberry paper.  I decided that I wanted a somewhat diagonal version with 1/2 representing greenery and the other half representing the ocean.  All I did was take my waterbrush or also referred to as an aqua painter and "draw" my line. 

After the wet line is drawn, its super easy to separate and the tear will fall right where your water line is.

If there are some of the larger/thicker fibers in there just use a pair of scissors to cut it or as I did just pull it a bit and it will pull from the side with the least resistance.

Next it is time to color/stamp my pieces.  I decided to spritz my pieces because I wanted my color and my images to spread.  The mulberry paper can get very wet without tearing even though it can tear quite easily... get the dichotomy here?

This particular section is going to be my ocean so I used a sponge and my dye ink pad and sponged on some blue.

Next up is my "seaweed"...

This time around, I stamped with my image and then spritzed.  Keep spritzing until you get the look you want.  Then restamp if you want

You could set the mulberry paper aside to dry, but you can also use your heat gun to make the process faster.

Now its time to put the background together.  I placed my mulberry pieces onto a piece of white cardstock and attached them with just a little bit of adhesive in the centers because I am going to do some stitching with this one.

Pull threads to the back and just tape down.

I then took my brush and wet my mulberry edges and gently tore the edges.  You can see where I've already torn above my brush.

Here's a close up... if there is too much resistance just add more water.

Now for my main stamped image.  I decided to emboss and it worked fabulous on the mulberry. 

I also decided to use some Copics too... you must have a light touch due to the absorbency of the mulberry, but you can't be too finicky either. 

The fun part of coloring is the way the color spreads and blends.

I also used the waterbrush and my ink pad to add other color. 

The blues on the mane of my seahorse was colored with Copics, the rest of my seahorse was colored with ink and the waterbrush.  You can also use other markers to color as well.

Remember to put something under your mulberry paper because colors do soak through.

So here is my card base.  I decided to add some twine before adding my main image.

Here's a close up of the mulberry paper.

And the finished card.

Thanks for hanging here with us at Clearly iStamp and have a great Friday and a continued wonderful weekend.

Katie signing off for Clearly iStamp.

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Products you can find at Clear Dollar Stamps:

• Under the Sea Stamp Set
• Mulberry Paper
• Aquapainter/waterbrush
• Copics
• mini mister
• Inks
• Scor-Pal products (scor-mat)
• ATG tape
• Jute String

Other products use: CTMH cardstock and ink, starfish charm, SU! word window punch

Comments

[Tricia T]

Katie, this is a great tutorial. I just found a couple of packs of mulberry paper and have been using it again. What fun! I'll have to try this...

[Dawn B.]

Katie this is a terrific tutorial. I need to dig mine out and use it.. Great job. I love the stamp set you chose.

[shawne]

It never occured to me to stamp on Mulberry paper, I don't know why, it is gorgeous!

[Silvia Mabie]

your card is incredible! I haven't used mulberry paper in ages! I lvoe lvoe lvoe what you have done with it...not an accent, but a focal point! Stunning!

[Gloria Dojlido]

Very cool...thanks so much for sharing.

[Grace Nywening]

Katie this was a great tutorial and you did some amazing things with your mulberry paper! I always love it but forget to use it and I think you have stimulated a spark in my to get it out! Great job and thanks for showing us this great technique!!!

[Lori McCroskey]

That is gorgeous! I just love this card!

[Cassie]

Wow, what an amazing look! I'm going to have to try that ;D

[Mel]

I love this tutorial...I have a lot of mulberry paper in my stash...what a great way to use it!

[Candyf]

Love this look especially with this stamp set!