Decorate Your Calendar With Bubble Wrap
Tue, September 8, 2009 at 02:00AM 
1. Start with your calendar... here's my weekly planner.
2. Decide where you'd like dots.
3. Get some scrap paper or catalogs.
4. Get some bubble wrap. Cut a rectangle about 4x as large as each area you plan to stamp. Use the sections over and over because the paint dries so quickly.
5. Mask everything on the calendar page except the area you will stamp. This is super quick masking, imprecise, just set a sheet of magazine paper over the other sections, leaving the one you will stamp open.
6. Squeeze ~1 teaspoon of water-soluble block printing ink onto a plastic or metal surface. Speedball Water-Based Block Printing Inks are my favorite. {These are also used for mono-printing and art journal backgrounds.} The color is saturated and opaque, with a smooth consistency. It's easy to clean up, even after it dries a bit. I rolled the ink on a disposable (re-usable) aluminum baking sheet. You could also do this project with Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics
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7. Ink a brayer. I use 2" Speedball Soft Rubber Brayers for all of my projects. The brayer rolls smoothly without force so doesn't tire my hands or arms. The brayer and your hands clean easily with water and dish washing liquid. The ink dries almost immediately, so be warned, work fast.
8. Roll the brayer on a piece of bubble wrap.
9, Press the bubble wrap onto the unmasked area of your calendar and press down with your fingers or roll the back with a clean brayer.
10. Remove the paper used for masking. The fast-drying ink works well for this project, because you can move on to the next section right away. Mask again, roll the ink, and stamp with another color. Wash your hands often or you will get ink all over the place! I worked at my (protected) kitchen counter.
11. I did two 2-page weeks in about 10 minutes. I write on them with black pitt pen. If you are planning to write with a pencil or regular ink pen, you might want to stamp lighter colors or try the stamp pads used for rubber stamping.
More ideas:
- Cut bubble wrap into shapes and stamp the cover of a moleskine journal or an old book... Bubble Wrap Stamps
- Use big bubbles mixed with small bubbles... Dotted Backgrounds
- Stamp bubble wrap in an altered book, on an art journal page, in your journal or make artist trading cards... Altered Book: The Next Action
- Brayer backgrounds... Plaid Backgrounds in Acrylics
Reader Comments (3)
What a cool idea...very different. I have a Moleskine but I am not fond of it, at all. I might have to try this idea out in my art journal instead. :)
I LOVE painting and stamping with bubble wrap! And I love stenciling with the plastic mesh from fruit crates too! I've never tried the printing inks - they appear to be amazing! Hugs, Terri xoxo
I can't WAIT to try this. I was unpacking some crayons at one of my art rooms today and found some BUBBLE WRAP and I was so excited!!!!