Napkin Collage tutorial

US Artquest Napkin Collage Tutorial

This is the wonderful set of goodies you get inside the USARTQUEST Napkin Collage kit. There are ATC cards, Glitter, Adhesive, Brushes, Sponge and cup as well as a selection of vividly colored beautiful napkins. The napkins will vary per kit but all are wonderfully designed and selected. Now what to do with all these goodies you ask? Well stick around and I will show you a little tutorial on using the kit to its full advantage.

I am going to create a winter card using the supplies in the kit as well as incorporating some Tim Holtz Stamps, Inks and a few other things.

First I start by preparing my card background. For this I used the mesh stamp from the Aspects of Design Christmas I set. I stamped the image and heat embossed using Detail Gold Embossing Powder.

Next I added Some color using Tim Holtz Distress inks and cut n dry foam.

Now onto the napkins. This one was in the first kit I bought. I love the bright birds on them. I cut out the birds to use in my card.

The backs of the napkins provide wonderful blank slates for adding your own images such as stamping or lettering. I removed the back here by peeling it carefully away.

To stamp on it use a quick set ink such as Stazon and stamp your image directly to the napkin. Do not leave it there too long as it will cause the ink to bleed. Just stamp and remove quickly. Here I used Tim Holtz Winter Sketchbook stamp set.

I also stamped some more using Tim Holtz Holiday Wishes stamp set.

Next to prepare the images to add to the card I tear them out of the napkin. You can cut of tear them as each will give a different effect. Cutting will leave a edge around the napkin once added into place whereas tearing will let the image blend in.

Now its time to start putting everything together. To adhere the napkins I will use the Perfect Paper Adhesive included in the kit. For my card I stamped some of the Pine image on to go under the bird. Once my ink was set I place my napkin image where desired and dip the sponge in the adhesive.

Press up and down on the image allowing the adhesive to soak through the napkin to the card. I did this throughout the card because I used a gloss adhesive and wanted the entire image to look cohesive. If you are just adhering the image you can use the paint brushes and add a bit of glue to the underside of the napkin then place down and carefully paint the adhesive on top of the image. If doing this be careful as the image is vary easy to tear. Since the napkin is layered you can also control the translucency of the image by removing the layers similar to the way we removed the back bit of the napkin. You can then save these bits for future use with stamping. For my bird I used all the layers.

Next I started to add the background pieces. These have been torn to be layered into a collage effect. I add them the same way using the glue and the sponge.

I keep layering them until I get the desired look I want. Don't worry about trimming them off just yet. Once they are dry you can trim up the edge of the card to remove the excess. Notice how the colour of the ink and the embossing comes through the stamped images.

Finally I add some of the extra bits of napkin left from when I cut of the bird. this will add a little different type of branch pattern with a hint of color.

Once I have everything put together I added a little finishing touch with the Metallic paint included in the kit.

And the finished project. See how easy that is. The napkin technique is great for adding titles or sentiments also as you can stamp them on the napkin first getting them just right before adding them to the card or project.

Hope you enjoyed the Tutorial!

Angela