Hi Sian

I've attempted three designs using clouds, sunset and a rainbow as my starting point.

Clouds

Details of the cutting process below.

Clouds shapes outlined in this picture of big skies over Lowestoft.

Torn cloud shapes using oil pastel frottage and brusho papers.

No 2, photocopied, torn into similar shapes and rearranged on a background paper.

Rainbow paper

I based this design on the sequence of colours in a rainbow. Details of the cutting process are below.

You can see how repeatedly photocopying between each process, reduces the vibrancy of the colours. In fact, my printer was starting to run out of ink and you can see the dramatic effect of this in the sunset designs a bit further on.

2 Photocopies of bleach discharged papers cut into strips and arranged at a slight angle in rainbow sequence.

3 is a photocopy of 2, cut into long, thin triangles across the strips and flipped.

4 Rainbow paper

Photocopy of 3, cut into long thin triangles and flipped in no particular order.

1 Sunset with the extracted shapes that I used in this design. I had to modify the size of the ovals to make it work. I tore the shapes to simulate the fuzzy edges around the sun.

2 Sunset shapes torn in orange oil pastel frottage paper and placed on a blue background.

At this point, the colour ink on my printer started to fade and the background should have been green.

Below, you will see that deep red papers came out in a gorgeous magenta. I liked the blue and magenta together, so continued to use them.

3 is a photocopy of 2 with sunset shapes extracted and placed on a red background

4 is 3 on a blue background ready for photocopying

5 is 4 photocopied, cut into strips and flipped

6 is 5 photocopied, cut into squares and rearranged on a blue background

7 is 6 photocopied, cut into strips and flipped

Collage with oil pastel resist and bleach discharge papers

... inspired by life's quirky details with titles extracted from quirky bible verses.

Iwent slightly off-piste here... I love the oil pastel frottage and bleach discharge papers. I taught simple bookmaking and collage to our church craft group and made some quick samples using offcuts of my decorated paper on white card.

I liked the rainbow colours on white so I've started to design a range of notelets using this technique.

They look lovely pegged along my studio wall. I think they may also work as small embroideries, bunting or perhaps a quilt. Here are the titles, I couldn't caption them beside the relevant image for some reason... all 9cms x 9cms.

watch in hope

press on

my sheep

in my heart

flowers appear

even the sparrow