Mark Making Techniques for Your Collage Paper Toolbox

Why buy expensive art tools when nails and old book pages can do the trick? In this video, I share how to use household nails to create abstract designs on collage papers. All you need is whatever nails you have on hand, along with copy paper and old book pages. It’s all about experimenting with what you have on hand!

You start by dipping your nails in acrylic paint, making sure that you remove the excess paint to make your nails easier to work with. One of my favorite parts of this technique is how each different nail creates a unique print. For instance, I have one long nail that creates lovely ridges, and another, which might technically be a screw, produces double rings. Each one creates its own signature design.

What’s fun about this is that you can build your designs with the nails on top of each other and making them as complex as you’d like!