OK, I am always saying “greatest”. But I only say it when I believe it.
My internet business, Cre8it.com basically consists of two parts:
One part is made up of Art, Photography, and Journaling instruction via online workshops.
The other part is about paper, and of course, the star is Sheer Heaven, which has become famous around the world.
But the rest of my papers are also wonderful – for many projects – and also different from anything else out there. They just haven’t had the “press”.
So, now and then, I am going to let you know how I use some of these papers, and why I think they are best for the job.
I am not a fan of books that are splayed and straining to burst their bindings. I understand that some folks have learned to love such things, but, especially with my art journals, I like books that can sit neatly on my bookshelf, since I have so many volumes to store.
I also use lots of photos in my art journals. Some I transfer in with Sheer Heaven, and some I print and attach with double-stick tape.
I much prefer matte prints for my journal because they do not fingerprint and I handle these books a lot. I also do not want the photos to smear if they get a drop of water on them because I may be using watercolor right “next door” to them, so to speak.
There are many brands of premium matte photo paper in the world, but most are quite thick – at least as think as cardstock. I might add more than a hundred photos to a single volume of my journal. Picture the thickness of a stack of 100 sheets of cardstock! That’s a binding breaker if ever there was one.
Also, prints on these papers are not smear proof if they get wet.
So, my favorite photo paper for my journal photos is from my own line of “Magic” papers, Magic Matte Collage 36lb.
Although the coating produces a photo of premium print quality, the paper is only slightly heavier than copy paper, so when it is adhered to journal entries, it adds very little thickness to the page.
And, the print is also waterproof. This is double protection for me because I already use a pigment inkjet printer with waterproof ink. But if I used an HP, a Canon, or any of the other dye based inkjet printers, the coating of Magic Matte would make even those notoriously smeary inks waterproof.
In the journal spread above, I have done a typical thing for me, and combined photo prints with watercolor sketches. In the continuation of the table surface, I was able to start drawing my lines right on the photo without disturbing it, and in the sunflower at the upper right, I actually cut the metal sunflower out of its background, glued it in with gluestick, and painted all the reddish petals right up against the photo with a waterbrush without any fear of running the ink on my print.
Even on pages where photo prints are facing each other, not much thickness is added to the spread.
I love this paper so much that I have put it on the supply list for the Travel Journaling Workshop coming up, and offered it in a special Student Package.
Because I love my readers too, I am going to offer you that same package up until July 15, the start date of the Workshop. Consider it a Subscriber Special.
This special package contains a Ten Pack of Sheer Heaven and a Ten Pack of Magic Matte 36lb for $15.
You can look at this as getting $1 off a Ten pack of Sheer Heaven and getting the Magic Matte free.
Or you can look at it as buying the Ten Pack of Magic Matte ($5) and getting the Sheer Heaven for $1/sheet (just like the 20/20 sales I have every now and again). Usually, you have to buy the 100 Pack to get that sheet price.
Either way you look at it, this is a very good deal.
So, even if you are not able to take the Travel Journal workshop at this time, if you are reading this, you are invited to take advantage of the paper deal until the workshop starts.
You will find it in the Online Workshop part of the Shopping Cart here (It will be the third item down):
Why is this paper called Magic Matte Collage instead of Magic Matte Journal?
Well, when I named this paper, I was not yet an art journaler and did not know how important it would be for that purpose, but I did know it was a Godsend for collage work.
Because the print is waterproof, it will not smear when painted over with acrylic medium, and it won’t wrinkle either if you first apply a thin coat of medium to the back, place the photo in the collage and let that dry, and then apply medium over the top. The color is fabulous too.
And did I mention how wonderful this paper is for scrapbooking?
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