"Use What you Have" Geometric Backgrounds - Triangles & Hexagons

 I was originally inspired to create these pages from a Mixed Media Morsels group. Give up credit where credit is due! One of those "I have to try this" finds online. I have so many papers that I won't throw away but that have no artistic purpose aside from decorating the inside of a container drawer that I barely open...Until Now! I have been incorporating my extra colors and scraps into journal pages but fell in LOVE with this technique at first sight!  I chose 3-4 different papers so that there is some consistency in the madness of beautiful color! I started my first page with triangles as shown in the example I found. 

If you have a triangle punch this part is cake. Also, if you are really skilled with the straight edge cutter and angles. I used 1.5 inch strips stacked of different patterns. I measured 2" increments and connected the dots. (Small fun side note if you mark your inches on alternating sides. 1"-top, 2"-bottom, 3"-top, 4"- bottom, and so on).
Cut out the triangle and start placing the top row.  

I didn't draw lines to keep straight, I just did what looked good. This is supposed to be fun. NOT math! (For me, not fun). Notice that there is a little bit of page showing through between each triangle creating a visual line between edges and sides. (NOW I SEE DIAMONDS).  I just used a glue stick with enough to put down a town at a time and went down the page from there. I eyeballed the up and down straightness and well as side to side. It's more important to have straight lines on the top and the bottom of the page where your eye naturally goes, that the whole way through. 

Once the whole page is covered. The front and back will look like the photos below. I did use glue on ONLY HALF of the triangles down the spine of the page. You'll see more below.

I used an exact-o knife and ruler to cut the straight edge down the spine. Remember they are NOT fully glued down. Also, if you are worried about cutting your journal, don't be. The papers just need a quick slice and the blade shouldn't go down past the page. You are using the page as your table guide in essence. 

Process photos and the final page. Look at all that detail and color!?! Isn't it just yummy! 

So naturally I had to push the envelope and branch out to another shape. Hexagons!!  I have a hexagon punch by fishers. I love this punch but it's starting to get a rough spot on one of the edges and I'm not loving that as much.  I cut a lot of copy paper shapes, so to get a good cut I will fold the papers and get 2 cuts at once which provide a cleaner cut shape.  (front and back of punch)

 For these papers, I used some old thank you card fronts, gold shiny's, and newsprint I had used with my delusions spray inks. (Ironically with a honeycomb hexagon pattern) 

I did NOT use lines to match these up, I eyeballed it. Notice the spine starts with a point leaving the black triangles on the edge. I did NOT try to cover those in . You can start with a flat edge if you like. I try to change direction of the pieces with stenciled stringent lines. I alternate inked vs painted and play complimentary colors off one another when I can. I also try to evenly disperse similar pieces to give a more fluid visual to the piece. (Sidenote: I did use black gesso on the background of this page first. It act like chalkboard paint and is flat, which makes the colors really pop.)

 I did cut clean edges from the backside of the top and bottom of the page, However, because of the spacing I decided to leave the right page uncut so these little tabs stick out when the pages in front of it are closed. I think it's a fun "extra" to my journal. 

Again with the colors! Color being the 2nd, to creation the first, is my favorite part of making art and the inspiration for so much of my work.  Below is the finished page. (I did cut off those top and bottom hexagons) Again, I may just leave it as it's own art on a page. 

 Hope you have fun creating with what you have and in a functional and artistic way. I think I'll make copies for mixed media paper strips and stickers! Enjoy :)