Did you know you can eco-print on an egg carton? and use them in various mixed media art projects including amazing pages for your art journals.
In a world that is increasingly conscious of the environment, finding creative ways to repurpose everyday items is one of my daily rules. Use what you have around and find ways to express yourself on them, and this can lead to stunning results. One such technique is eco-printing, a natural dyeing process that uses the pigments present in plants to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind designs on fabric or paper.
Usually, we use watercolor or mixed media paper for having much better results, but the experience, of experimenting with so many different kinds of papers, can bring us amazing results with ecoprinting with flowers or leaves.
During my creative process, as an explorer artist and an experimentalist, I always start with the question:
What if I do this?
This was the question to find I could have amazing results eco printing on Egg carton boxes.
This paper is like handmade watercolor paper, very soft, thick enough, and very absorbent which gives this paper an excellent quality to ecoprint with.
These characteristics make this paper amazing for so many techniques in Mixed media. Today I’m focusing on eco printing on this paper, but I have many ideas on how to use these boxes on artjournals and mixed media crafts. I’ll be bringing them in future YouTube videos and blog posts.
There are countries where eggs come inside paper cartoon boxes in a variety of colors. It’s just an amazing free resource that many of us might have available. Here in Portugal most of the eggs come in these boxes and I find myself purchasing eggs based on the colors of the boxes. 😂😂
HOW TO ECOPRINT WITH FLOWERS ON EGG CARTON BOXES
If you are new to ecoprinting, here are the simple, yet great steps for ecoprinting with great results. I will use Flowers in this tutorial, but you can use leaves, to achieve other results.
Step 1: Prepare Your Materials
Gather all the necessary materials, ensuring they are clean. Select a variety of flowers and or leaves with different colors and shapes to create a visually appealing design.
Step 2: Pre-Mordant Your egg carton paper
If you wish to enhance colorfastness, dissolve alum in hot water following the manufacturer's instructions. Submerge your paper in the alum solution for a few hours or overnight. Rinse it thoroughly and let it dry before proceeding.
Step 3: Cut and Arrange Egg Carton Paper
Cut the egg carton paper into manageable sizes. This paper is an excellent choice due to its absorbent nature and textured surface, which allows for a rich transfer of pigments. Lay it flat on your work surface.
Step 4: Arrange Your Botanicals
Lay out your selected flowers and leaves on the egg carton paper, creating an arrangement that appeals to you. This step is where your creativity truly shines, so feel free to experiment with different compositions.
In this photo below I use Flowers to ecoprint on my egg carton paper but I also already ecoprint with leaves. You can use whatever you have on hand.
Step 5: Wrap and Bind
Bundle with a fabric like a spring roll or flatten it and bundle it between tiles.
Step 6: Steam the Eco-Prints
Add water to a pot enough to add a steamer. Add your bundle into the steamer, close the lid, and bring the water to a gentle boil. Allow it to steam for about an hour, ensuring it has water in the bottom of the pan.
Step 7: Unwrap and Reveal
Carefully remove the bundle from the pot and let it cool. Gently peel away the botanicals to reveal the beautiful eco-prints beneath.
WHERE TO USE THESE ECOPRINTS
Using eco-printing techniques is always another way in which I can manipulate paper and fabrics that I can use to add collage elements into my collages or in my art journals, as collage elements, or as pages or tip-ins.
Here in this journal, I stitched the carton eco-printed with stitches which gives a beautiful nature touch to this fabric that was also eco-printed. I’m working inside a fragments journal.
In the video below I’m sharing how I fix some of the flowers in the carton paper and add one of these prints and stitches into my Fragments Journal.
WHANT TO LEARN AND EXPAND YOUR SKILLS ON ECOPRINTING ON PAPER?
