DIY Marbled Paper Art
Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 10:32AM I have mentioned that lately I am looking for new art for our house. While I hope to be able to purchase "real" art for some of our walls in the future, I am also trying to create some on my own. Yesterday I saw a tutorial online for marbled paper and since I had all of the supplies on hand I decided to give it a try.
I totally expected this project to result in failure as a lot of my DIY projects do, but this one actually worked. And it was super easy and kind of fun!
Basically, you just need oil paints, paint thinner, a shallow metal tray, water, and paper. Start by mixing the colors you want with the paint thinner in small, individual cups to get a syrupy liquid. Fill the shallow tray with water and pour the paint/paint thinner mixture into the water at random. You can swirl the colors as much or as little as you like. Place a piece of paper in the water face down and let it soak for a few seconds. Pull it out and let it dry on an old towel.
If I didn't swirl the colors in the water as much I got large clumps of color mixed in with the swirl patterns, like below:
When I swirled everything together I got patterns more like this:
The best part is, you have no idea what you are going to get and each one is different. I could have done this all day long if I hadn't run out of paint thinner. Because I hadn't planned on doing this project I didn't have nice thick paper on hand so I just used cheap white craft paper and the edges did curl a bit when they dried. Next time I do it I will have some heavy cotton or watercolor paper to make the final product a little sturdier.
The only unpleasant part of this project is working with paint thinner. Obviously you need to have good ventilation and the clean up is a little more work but this is still one of the easiest and quickest projects I have ever done.
I popped one of them in a frame this morning and I love how it turned out. I might start putting these all over my house. My plan is to try to find a really big pan so I can do a giant-sized one for our dining room.
What do you think?
Reader Comments (8)
I love it! How cool! I would try this, but I think I could manage to mess it up and just end up with paint everywhere. Maybe this is an outdoor project?
I absolutely LOVE this!! I will be following in your crafty footsteps for sure!
I love it!
Wow - they came out great! I had no idea these could be DIY'd. Thanks for the great inspiration! I've been following your blog for a few months and love it. I am getting ready to make a headboard using your tutorial - will send you the link when I post it!
very awesome! takes me back to summer camp arts and crafts.
I love the fact that you can customize this look to your liking! I have used a marbled paper in different DIY projects. But I have purchased my paper from Paper Mojo and while they have some fabulous papers.....how great to choose exactly which colors are in it!!! Thanks for the inspiration. Take a look at the coffee table that I up-cycled with a marbled paper at http://loveyourpad.blogspot.com/2011/04/where-oh-where-to-begin.html and let me know what you think. I really enjoy your blog.
I love them! If you do some bigger ones let me know -- I want some!! And/or let me know when you plan to do more and maybe I can come join you for an adult play date :)
I bookmarked this and just got back to look at it again..brilliant!! I love it and can't wait to try it!!!