Tutorial: Making Patterned Paper with Maya Resist

So I'm all about making my own patterned paper.  I grabbed myself a piece of white cardstock and decided I wanted to make some plaid paper using the maya resist and some maya mist. WOW!  LOVE how it turned out.  Here's how I did it.

First, decide what pattern you want to make on your paper.  I decided to do a freehand plaid type pattern on the paper.  I started by drawing one set of lines in one direction:

I didn't want the lines to bleed together when I crossed the from the other direction so I waited for the first set of lines to dry for about ten minutes and came back and went the opposite direction.  Now I kept drying the resist and layering on more until I got to here:

The best part is that if you are unhappy with a line or something you draw, just wait for it to dry, peel it off and start over before you ink or mist over the top of it!! 

Once I had my lines all drawn in, I misted the sheet with a layer of orange mist:

I used Jack O Lantern glimmer mist, but Tangerine Metallic Maya Mist would also work great! The thing that really separates the glimmer mist and the Maya Mist is the coverage. Glimmer mist is more opaque and takes many sprays to cover the paper, which causes it to warp. When you use Maya Mist, you spray less mist (saving you money!) to get the same coverage as glimmer mist, so it causes far less warping of your paper.  Here is how my paper warped with the glimmer mist:

Not bad or a deal breaker, just an observation and one of the reasons I am a convert to Maya Mists!

Once I had the orange mist done and dried, I peeled up the resist.  Go slow so that you don't grab any of the paper with it!

That turquoise ball is the used Maya Resist!!  It's like dried rubber cement... kinda stringy and a little tacky.

Now that I had this, I decided I wanted to add two more colors to my plaid pattern.  So I grabbed my Turquoise Maya Mist,my Coffee Shop glimmer mist and two small paint brushes.   Yep, you read that right, paint brushes!   Did you know you could screw the lid off of your bottle and use the mists like a water color paint?

Simply shake your bottle of Maya Mist (if it is glimmer mist, swirl it -- never shake it! Air bubbles are the enemy that causes those big splatters!) and unscrew the lid, dip your brush in and off you go!

I let each color dry before adding another so I could get a clean line.

Once the paper was dried, I used it as a patterned paper on my goofy layout (again with no pictures -- still waiting on them all to show up from my family members!):

And since I cannot stand to waste paper, I used the rest to make my husband this little card:

Have fun playing with the resist to create your own fun patterned paper!