Transparent Rice Paper vs Wet Strength Tissue
How transparent is ultra-thin rice paper in mixed media layering? Barb and I take a close look at Usugami and Wet Strength Tissue Paper, comparing how each performs as a delicate overlay. If you love subtle layers and want to choose the right paper for your process, this quick comparison will help.
Online Collage Makers Summit 2026
Join my Newsletter Mailing List and receive a $10-OFF Coupon Code for this online event! Bringing your cost down to only $79 for 14 video lessons from some of the best collage artists in the country!
Hand Painted Paper Giveaway!
Barb and I are sharing a little studio love with you. For a limited time, we’re including packs of hand-painted papers—made by us and straight from our studio—as a thank-you to our creative community. Each bundle is a small surprise, perfect for collage and inspiration.
New: Klimt Scribbles & Doodles Stamps – Set Two
One pull, two prints! Barb and I are launching the second set of Klimt Scribbles and Doodles foam stamps and taking them straight to the gel plate. We build rich layers with foam stamping, finish with a stencil, and reveal both a detailed print and a playful ghost print — pure gel printing magic.
What Exactly Am I Doing with ALL Those Gel Prints?
What exactly am I doing with all those gel prints? Watch and see as I give you a look behind the scenes of my Paper Paintings collage process of using torn tidbits of paper to create impressionistic collages.
Scribbles and Doodles Soup! More FUN Stencils
Exploring complex gel print layering with my newest stencil release—Scribbles and Doodles Soup More unique techniques from Barb and I, working together here in Sacramento this week.
Meet My Mini Marks Medley–Tiny Foam Stamps
Discover the Mini Marks Medley, my brand-new collection of 21 tiny foam stamps designed to add big personality to your mixed media layers. Inspired by hand-carved wine cork stamps, these little tools are perfect for quick marks, texture, and playful backgrounds. Small in size, huge in creative possibilities!
Water Resist on a Gel Plate? Here’s What Worked…
Learn how to use water as a resist on a gel plate to create layered, textured prints. In this tutorial, I share what materials work best, why drying time matters, and how Fluid Acrylics can dramatically improve your results for gel printing and mixed media art.
Spray-Paint Style Metallics—Without Spray Paint
This week in the studio, I’m sharing a simple way to get a soft, sprayed metallic effect without going outside or dealing with harsh fumes. Instead of traditional spray paint—which really belongs outdoors—I use a replacement spray top on Golden High Flow Acrylics to create a fine, controlled metallic mist right through a stencil.
Golden Spirals and Mixed Media Joy
This week in the studio, Barb and I dove into one of our favorite motifs: Gustav Klimt–inspired golden spirals. We loved the design so much that we featured it on a handful of mixed-media journals—and decided to give a few away! The journals came out beautifully, full of shimmer and movement, and we couldn’t resist sharing the fun.
Crayons, Texture, and Color Experiments
This week in the studio, I set the plan aside and gave myself permission to play. I pulled out crayons, explored texture rubbings, and added a little resist—just experimenting and following curiosity, the way we did as kids.
A Little Gel Plate Magic… Using Only Water!
Barb and I stumbled onto something pretty incredible this week — a gel printing technique that uses nothing but waterand produces the most beautiful, soft, colorful prints. The secret? Rice paper. Its absorbency helps lift leftover paint in a way that creates dreamy textures and layered color that you truly have to see to believe.
Blast from the Past! Brayer Texture Technique
Exploring new techniques with one of my all-time favorite stencil designs, Chunky Spirals. This blast from the past design creates a wonderful low relief texture for braying on top of gel prints. Layer, layer, layer….
Ghost Printing with Fine Detail Clear Stamps
These stamps feature fine line detail and, because they’re clear, they’re easy to align exactly where you want them. We wanted to see how they’d perform with pigment-based ink pads directly on the gel plate—could we pull a ghost print with ink instead of paint?
New Foam Stamps Inspired by Klimt’s Female Sketches
I am so very excited to announce my NEW Klimt Women fine-line foam stamps. I think you will love these for card making, gel printing, art journaling, mixed media, paper crafts, and more!
Klimt Scribbles and Doodles II–More Unique Techniques
Exploring complex gel print layering with my newest stencil release—Klimt Scribbles and Doodles II. More unique techniques!
My Favorite Transparent Rice Paper for Layering
Barb and I discovered a stunning new 14 GSM rice paper that’s ultra-thin—like tissue—but strong enough to handle stamping, gel printing, and collage with ease. Watch how it goes completely transparent when we glue it down over gel prints!
Introducing My NEW Vintage Seed Catalog Rice Paper
This week, Barb and I are working with a gorgeous set of rice papers printed in Italy, featuring high-resolution reproductions of vintage illustrations. These images come from antique seed catalogs and are printed on 30 GSM rice paper—lightweight, durable, and perfect for mixed media.
Klimt Inspired Layers on the Gel Plate
This week, Barb and I are layering fine-line photopolymer stamps over bold, Klimt-inspired stencils to create richly textured gel prints. These clear stamps feature handwriting, ink blots, and intricate details that work beautifully with pigment ink pads on top of gel prints.
