Fun with "Accordion" Packing Paper

 "Accordion" packing paper often arrives at my doorstep inside cardboard shipping boxes, wrapped around orders for protection  during transit.

When I open those boxes, I snatch up the accordion packing paper.  To me, it can become a painting surface that expands in a fun way.

This paper is always plain brown, so it calls out for color.  In today's post I'm using dark green acrylic paint with s864 Abstract Composition Background Mask #1, making a print on a section of the "accordion" that is still flat (has not yet been stretched out.)

In the photo above, you can tell that it's accordion paper by running a glance along the top and bottom edges of the brown paper. The paper's main area has not yet been stretched out, so it's relatively flat, easily accepting this mask and the green acrylic paint that I apply over it, using a sponge brayer.

Below: The mask has been lifted off to show the finished print.

(The underside of this mask is stained bright blue due to having been used in an earlier project.)

Finally comes the fun part -- taking hold of each side of the print and stretching the accordion paper to pull open the holes that make up the surface of this packing paper.

Today's quick and easy exercise is here to spark ideas.  What can you do with accordion packing paper and stencils?  Combine designs and colors in layers?  You will come up with ideas that will give you wacky fun papers for collage or an art journal.  Since the stretched paper will be somewhat three-dimensional, you may prefer to use it on the cover of an art journal rather than one of the inner pages.

Thank you for stopping here today! To scroll thru the pages of my masks and stencils at StencilGirlProducts.com, please start here.