Crumple Up Some Mixed Media Background Papers

Hello to you all 🖐

Today I am going to show you an easy technique using just paper and stamp ink and your ability to crumple - and uncrumple.

The result is really cool.

And like I said, it's a simple process.

I started by gathering some papers. Most of them were the thickness of card stock or close to it. I chose a variety of light, neutral colors because I wanted the ink to stand out.

I grabbed one piece of paper at a time and started to crumple it.

I crumpled it as small as I could - without getting psycho about it.

And then I uncrumpled it.

But wait! That's not good enough. I crumpled and uncrumpled many times. I wanted there to be lots of grooves and wrinkles. I did it till it looked like this:

Looks kinda weird, doesn't it?

Anyway, now for the fun part.

I then grabbed one of my distress ink pads and rubbed it over the paper.

The ink catches on the hills and valleys of the crumpled paper. And the harder you press the more ink designs you'll be able to see. Check it out:

Awesome, huh?

I also tried using pigment ink:

You can see how the distress ink produced more fine lines, but I think the pigment inks added a lot by just how much more color gets left on the paper.

I made all these:

And check out this glue page I made using one of them:

(check here to learn what a glue page is)

Now you try it!

Also, if you love to crumple, try this crumpled tissue technique.