This Lovely Loveseat was decorated with Elmer’s Rubber Cement and paint (I used the blue & red acrylic paint thinned out with water that I used for the bubble tutorial, so technically, there’s dish soap in it – but plain watercolor works well too). The dish soap in the solution made a cool denim fabric look, as micro-bubbles danced in lines across the random brush strokes.
The process is a pretty basic and common resist technique. Using the Rubber Cement and a small paintbrush, I painted stars all over the pieces. I used a thin layer, but if you use a thicker layer (or go over it twice) you can get more contrast and eliminate the lines within the stars.
Note that for younger kids, this might be difficult, as the glue dries really clear and it’s very hard to see where you’ve painted, so this might be a job for a grown-up, and then the painting step can be a magical unveiling of something previously unseen!
EASY ALTERNATE: Use a white crayon to draw stars all over, then there is no erasing needed!
Once the glue dries (it dries super fast), use a paintbrush and paint over the whole piece. If you avoid painting the areas where the stars are, it will be a “cleaner” star, but I actually didn’t mind seeing the lines.
When the paint is dry to the touch, use a gum eraser to remove the rubber cement (you can rub it off with your finger, but after doing that repeatedly, it starts to get sore!). The paint on the rubber cement will rub off, and the stars become visible!
IMPORTANT: Don’t let the glue dry for too long or it will permanently bond with the paper. You want it to be semi soft.
I love this star pattern – the blue is a lovely dark background so the white pops beautifully. I think it would be really cool to mix it up and paint red/white stripes on the arms. Pardon the pun, but I may not be able to “resist” trying that sometime. Ha.
Spotted Around Town 