You can create beautiful art with amazing depth and texture, using easy collage techniques and paper you paint yourself. Popular workshop instructor Elizabeth St. Hilaire makes it fun and simple no matter what your skill level

Start with materials you probably already have--fluid acrylics, stencils, a few household items and paper--and hand-paint your personalized paper palette using basic techniques anyone can do.

Then move through each step of composing your own work of art. You'll find beautiful, meaningful examples of the how and why on every page. You'll learn how to: develop your composition, how to work with simple shapes, important lessons on value and much more.

- More than 30 techniques for painting your own decorative papers
- Step-by-step instructions for creating your own painted paper collage-from underpainting and directional ripping and tearing to auditioning your papers and combining collage with mixed media
- A spectacular gallery of paper paintings to inspire and dazzle--still lifes, figures, animals and landscapes