This technique allows you to create a faint, grungy masked design under a painted background.   It is great for journal pages and collage backgrounds.

The first step is to stamp a design on the blank page with a glue stick.

I made my checkerboard stamp out of fun foam.  If you want to make one, save the image below by RIGHT clicking it.  Cut the squares out of one piece of fun foam.  Use rubber cement to glue them in a checkerboard pattern to another piece of fun foam.

Apply the glue thickly to the rubber stamp.   Press the stamp onto your page.  It doesn’t show up since the glue is clear (unless you get one of the glue sticks that goes on in color and dries clear) so you’re going to have just imagine the design as you place the stamp on the page.  But remember it’s sort of a grungy technique so it doesn’t need to be symmetrical or balanced anyway.

Allow the glue to dry, or use a heat gun to speed up the process.  Once it’s dry, paint over the page with acrylic paint.   The areas where you stamped will not absorb the paint.

The checkerboard design in mine shows up white since I applied the stamp to a blank page.  An alternative way is to paint the page first, apply the stamps, then paint again.  This method will show the stamped design in the color you first painted the page.

Have fun!