Sunday, June 1, 2008

Adding on to last post about bubble painting

The recipe for the bubble paint mixture I put in my last post was one I got online, not the one we used at our meeting for the background papers I posted. Here is that recipe.
1/4 cup liquid tempera paint
2 teaspoons clear dish soap (if you can't find clear, colored is okay)
mix those together in a wide mouthed plastic cup, then add 3 Tablespoons of water

So it appears this recipe has more paint in it than the one I posted below. However, I think one could experiment with the amount of paint in the recipe, if one chose. It seems to me, the more paint used, the darker it would show up on the paper. One person at our meeting did try using acrylic paint rather than tempera, and the results were much lighter on the paper. So tempera seems to work better, but you can experiment with different paints, and maybe even liquid inks, if you're inclined to. I always say, experimentation is good!

There was a question about how to get the paint bubbles onto the paper from a cup. Well, here's how. When you blow into the mixture, blow long enough to get the bubbles to rise 2 - 3 inches above the rim of the cup. Then touch your paper to the bubbles. You'll have to do lots of bubble blowing and lots of paper touching to fill the paper with paint. It takes a while to do one piece this way, but also gives you more control over the process. Try not to touch the paper to the rim of the cup, but if you do, it's okay, no big deal.

Of course there is the option to put the paint mixture in a pan, and do it that way. But you'll have to use a lot more paint and water to fill even a shallow pan. That's why we chose to do it in the cups, and we thought it worked out well. It was really fun doing it that way, in fact.

4 comments:

mary schweitzer said...

I posted a how to like you suggested. Thanks for your kind words, but I really still think you are texture queen!
Mary

Anonymous said...

Val, thanks for the idea & instructions! can't wait to try the bubble bkgds & the nature art with a twist. Your link to TrishB seems to be a goldmine !! thanks for all the inspiration!
Tom

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the tutorial...can't wait to experiment more with my boys...they love joining in and making mess in my studio lol

marieJ'

nancy said...

Val, I tried your technique, using acrylic paint, because I wanted it to be totally waterproof when it dried. I, too have tried various combinations of paint and have to agree with you. It depends on how subtle or how bold a statement you want to make. Thank you so much. I've had fun with this.
Nancy