PaperArtsy: Painterly Pages with Alison Bomber products {by Jenny Marples}

Hi everyone, Jenny Marples here with you today and as always it's nice to be back with you again.

This year on the blog, we have free rein to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product ranges of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring Alison Bomber's products.

Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you what I figured out when creating painterly backgrounds and an interactive overlay.

Like many of you I started with blank pages, a stamp set, paints and no idea where to start. Playing with the paint got those creative juices flowing along with an idea for making the stamps the stars of these pages.

I'm looking forward to showing you how it all unfolded and hopefully help you when you are next faced with a blank page.

I saw a question/comment in the PaperArtsy People Facebook group recently that reminded me there are new people learning about the world of mixed media all the time. So, with apologies to those with a lot of experience, I will be including a few basic tips along the way.

Keeping it simple for this project you'll see I've used one stamp set EAB34 and some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints (Zucchini, Space Cadet, Chalk, Sorbet and Cherry Blossom for the finished pages). You can easily substitute other colours you already have in your collection as you'll see in the next section.

Paper choice can be confusing when starting out and it's easy to think you need expensive supplies to make great art. However, I find it's helpful to have some simple supplies. Really thin paper/tissue/copier paper is great for use with gel plates and as a background for collage. Thicker paper (smooth drawing paper/pads) that can stay intact when water, ink and paint are added is an essential and can be torn into smaller pieces so you don't feel overwhelmed. Book paper, graph paper, brown wrapping paper and more can be tea/coffee stained are great for making neutral layers, backgrounds and in collages.

Now I'll show how to recreate my final painterly background using different colours. You'll need a brayer, a spatula and I like to use a small gel plate to roll out the paint out onto, though that is not essential.

Start by rolling your brayer through a small blob of paint until the brayer is covered before applying it to some thicker paper. Concentrate on getting colour onto one section of the paper. I've used Inky Pool PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint here.

Repeat the process using your second paint colour (in this case Marbles PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint. Allow your brayer to roll over the top of the first colour as well as covering some blank areas.

Introduce your next colour when the first layers are dry. I've chosen Hey Pesto PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint here to compliment the first two blue shades.

Finish using the brayer and fill that final blank spot with a contrasting colour (here I used Tango PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint) remembering to add touches over the top of your previous paint layers. I tend to stick to four colours as a maximum for this process.

Now it's time to fill in those white bits still on your page. I go back in with a spatula and the same colours, scraping small amounts of paint over the top of the existing patches. Try not to blend them together too much and make sure each layer is dry before moving onto the next one.

Finish covering the white spaces with the final two colours. You can always overlap with tiny scrapes of paint but if over-blended you risk making the whole page too uniform, so less is more!

Side by side you can see how you can achieve different yet similar looks with alternative colours. I chose to use the pink version with the stamp set for the next section.

To soften the look I like to sand the paint layers gently to expose more of the colour beneath. If you take away too much you can always go back in and use your spatula with more paint. Finally I blend the edges of the paper with some Chalk PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint and a piece of sponge. You can do this with any colour (including Little Black Dress or Mud Splat for example) to help it coordinate with your main journal.

Time to start stamping!

I wanted to add layers with stamped images but didn't want to cover up too much of the painterly background and so the idea of a partial overlay was born. Here is where those old book pages, brown wrapping and tea stained paper come in useful, torn into strips and used to cover a piece of paper smaller than the main page. I also added strips of dry used teabag tissue for more contrast.

Cover both sides as they will both be visible when finished and leave the one side blank so you can fold it behind your painted background.

In another suggestion for newbies you may find some of the elements in your pre-trimmed stamps are joined together (by design). I like to carefully cut these apart with sharp scissors so I can use them separately. The elements shown from stamp set EAB34 were originally joined.

Again in response to a question seen in the PaperArtsy People Facebook group the stamps will cling to acrylic blocks so you can press permanent ink over them before pressing down onto your paper. I stamped the Cornflower images over the paper layered background and also stamped the flower sections onto some space paper.

Use your green and blue paints, diluted with a little water, to colour in the stamped images. I used the Inky Pool and Hey Pesto PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints for this but you could use the Space Cadet and Zucchini instead.

To add texture I stitched simple lines over the stamped flowers to represent grasses. These could be drawn on with a green pen if stitching isn't your thing. I then tore away some of the background away around the flower heads before stamping and painting the same flowers on the reverse side. To finish cut out your spare flower heads and stick over the originals so they will stand out more.

I tore off a section of my painterly background, saving the leftovers for finishing the pages.

Think about how and what you want to add to your painterly background, using your overlay to guide what can be hidden and what can be partially seen when closed. I like to stamp onto scrap transparent packaging to work out placements if the images (in this case the Cornflower description) are going to be added directly onto the background. Also consider using different papers/fabrics/textures in your design.

I decided to extend the overlay with some lace scraps and covered a page title with the stamped Latin name for Cornflower.

I always find working out what to put on the opposite page the most challenging part of creating books and journals. For this one I ended up applying a scrap of gel printed tissue with similar colours over a book page background, blending the two with neutral paints (Chalk, Sand and Gold Rush PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints). Add to the border by stamping some of the text images from the set around the edges. For this purpose you could always pull a print from your gel plate after creating the background.

Use some of the leftover background to add another stamped Cornflower and more words from the set. I chose to echo the stitching from the overlay with some hand stitching around the flower. This can be added on top of this new background.

To finish you can leave the pages as they are or add extra elements from your stash - like small metal charms and torn washi tape scraps. They should compliment and add to your design rather than overpowering it.

Mission accomplished! The stamps are still the star of the show here whilst leaving much of the painterly background visible. And that interactive element helps to both conceal and reveal more of the design.

I love how the first page compliments the second interactive one without being a replica.

Hand cutting the stamped flower heads and layering them over the original ones really helps them to stand out amongst all the texture and stitching. Doing this on both sides of the interactive page adds to the finished look.

Here's where it all started, playing with paint on a piece of paper, still mainly visible even though almost all of the stamps in the set were used.

And you've seen how choosing different paint colours can produce alternative backgrounds - team these with more of Alison's gorgeous stamp sets for new interactive painterly pages.