March 2025 - With 3 Things: Flowerpot {by Floss Nicholls}

Hi friends, it's Floss from floss_workshop.art with you for a 'With 3 Things' challenge post. 

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 bloggers are sent 3 items in the post. Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a couple of Fresco Paints, and in 2025, everyone will receive identical products. 

We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send, the whole idea of this challenge is to do something crafty in our personal style with these 3 items. We are allowed to bring other PA products into the mix if we feel it is necessary.  I decided not to add anything else into the mix this time...

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...Tracy Scott stamp set TS076, her stencil PS367 and two Fresco Finish chalk acrylics in Blue Lagoon and Rusty.  

These are not typically the colours or stamps that I would generally choose for myself, especially together, but I do like this 3 things challenge PaperArtsy gives us and so after scratching my head for a while, I thought they'd make a pretty funky flowerpot design... and so I grabbed a flower pot that needed a plant and set to work...I made the design as a wrap around as I initially was thinking that I may add some signature stitching into the design...here's a sneaky peek before it was glued onto the pot and varnished...

...you'll see it wrapped around the pot and varnished at the end...

Not having used these two colours together on their own before I thought I'd mix them to see what other shades I could make...

I particularly liked the tertiary shades (No2 and No4) and so I reused them in segments 7 and 11 (see colour wheel numbering above) to make a further mix giving me an even wider range of colours to choose from. 

I started off by thinking I'd use a soft tissue / papier mache application onto the pot and impress the rubber stamps into it, to make the images more indented, so I tried a test piece on cardboard first.   I did have a lot of fun playing with this idea! It was messy and sticky, it took ages to dry, ages to clean the stamp and definitely worth avoiding!! The outcome needs working on so I parked that idea there and used another method...

I wanted to use the stencil in panels and so I used the gel plate to pull two pages.  One using the Rusty acrylic followed by Blue Lagoon and the other vice versa.  I waited for the first layer to completely dry before adding the second paint to pull the print.

I then stamped a large selection of the PaperArtsy Stamp set TS076 designed by Tracy Scott onto acid free plain white tissue paper using Ranger archival jet black ink.

I measured the circumference of the pot (it was not tapered) and so the piece of rice paper I would be using to put the design onto was completely oblong/rectangular. I chose rice paper because it would be more forgiving when gluing it onto the pot.  It's at this point here I will add that I used a fine texture paste onto the pot to give me a flat working surface (the pot originally had a textured pattern surface I did not like) and let it fully dry.  I gave the surface a light sanding so that it would have a slight 'key' to glue the rice paper onto when it was ready to stick on.

I started auditioning where the design would sit and how many panels may feature around the pot...

I had the colour wheel to hand to see the shades I had available to work with 

I started painting on the reverse of the tissue stamped designed ready to use a wet paintbrush to tear them into individual parts.

I actually really liked the way the surface colours on the roll off sheet from my gel plate printing showed through the rice paper giving it a rather rustic background element...I decided to stick it onto the back of the rice paper!

I decided also to tear the gel prints into strips to use between the mask images and glued them into place using a gel matt medium..

I used a very watered down wash of Rusty and Blue Lagoon acrylic paint between the torn segments of the gel prints I made using PS367

I allowed the gel prints to over hang the rice paper so that I could cut them accurately in line with the rest of it after it was all pasted together.  I offset the masked images rather than aligning them...I thought this was more in keeping with what a tribal design may represent and how doing that, it would allow me more freedom with placing the other stamped images.

After I trimmed the rice paper to size I added more of the rubber stamp designs from Tracy Scott stamp set TS076 over the design to build attention to detail. 

I particularly liked using the triangle and square shaped stamps along the torn edges of the gel prints to merge the two paper designs together. I decided against adding stitching this time after all but I am still glad I worked on the flat surface and added it to the pot as it made stamping the extra details onto the design much easier and without the fear of slipping and smudging anything.

I then added the finer details into the design...

Once I had added the little details to each area I glued it onto the pot using a heavy gel matt medium and waited for it to fully dry. I then used three coats of water based dishwasher safe mod podge varnish to completely seal the art onto the pot.  I did this upside down and on a bottle so that nothing would stick to my work surface.

It was then ready to house a plant...

Or some paint brushes!!

I really hope you've enjoyed what I have created here and that it may have inspired you to give the three things challenge a go...or upcycle a plant pot...my son said I should make more pots colourful!

Until next time, enjoy arting,

Much love

Floss x

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