Introduction from Leandra

Seth has had a crazy year: more fabric releases, he was announced as a new designer with Sizzix, lots of international teaching and art exhibitions, and he was our first ever teacher at the first ArtsyCrafts in France! Plus he had 4 releases with us, a record for him!

This is the perfect time to share with you the photo dump of Seth's retreat so you get a sense of our surroundings here in France, and the type of activities we did during the 7 day event.

Seth day one greeting (classroom to the right, pool to the left, and a view towards Bergerac)

Teaching areas at PAHQ

In spring the weather is generally comfortable to enjoy the outdoor spaces that we have, the undercover terrace beside class, plus the pool house terrace gives us indoor-outdoor teaching options. This allowed Seth to do some demoing and class activities outside.

Trip to local paper mills in our village, a hands on opportunity, and shopping

Our village, Couze et Saint-Front, is known as the Village of Paper. There were 13 mills operating along the Couze valley back in the height of production; the water is ph neutral, perfect for making paper. Currently there are still 3 active mills, 2 of which we got to visit, the third is more industrial, it makes all kinds of filtration paper, for coffee, perfume testing sticks and loads more. The last of its kind in France.

Hospitality PaperArtsy styley

We enjoyed some evening meals outside too, catered by Ella; gorgeous salads, a range of vegetarian options, plus local meat (our region is famous for duck) and of course plenty of local wine! A very relaxed an informal chance to get to know each other and wind down before a sunset dip in the pool.

Those staying in the accommodation next door had 9 bedrooms split across 3 houses, a large heated pool and extensive outdoor facilities to enjoy. Fresh pastries and bread were delivered to them daily for their continental style breakfast.

Some of our students stayed in nearby Lalinde at our good friend's B&B, an incredible historic house which once was the customs office on the Dordogne river to collect taxes on goods travelling along the river. Those staying in Lalinde still had numerous meals with us at PAHQ,and enjoyed the day trips, we also could offer a pick up-drop off service if required.

Class with Seth, making rusty things, and layering uniquely made pages

Seth had 4 full days to teach all about rusty layers, stamping, texture, and finally arranging pages to each person's preference. The paper made at the mill was incorporated, as were treasures found at the various brocantes we visited. The final project was a representation of the whole French retreat experience, with Seth's newest stamps also having a French ephemeral feel to them.

Treasure hunting at a Sunday morning brocante (flea/ antique stalls)

We visited a Sunday morning pop-up Brocante-market in a beautiful village, plus we went to a permanent brocante just near PaperArtsy HQ for a good nosey too !

Day tripping - to the historic town of Sarlat, we had an official tour

We also went to Sarlat, a stunning historic town with an incredible history where the local tourism office gave us a tour. We bought tins of Foie Gras (a specialty pate of this area) to take home, Unexpectedly there was a vintage car show on with rows and rows of 'chitty bang bang' style cars! This was all followed by a leisurely picnic lunch beside the river, at the foot of Beynac Castle.

Here is the class photo, final day of happy crafters all holding their finished projects.

This gives you a partial sense of the highlights from our 2025 event, it really was something quite special. Very personal, friendly, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We also enjoyed a fabulous final meal at the incredible restaurant in our village, such a nice way to end the event, and Saturday evening we ate at restaurants in Bergerac as it was the annual 'Fete de la Musique' with over 20 musical bands playing in the streets all across the old town area, a highlight of the year here for sure!

Many thanks to Seth for his spectacular teaching. We have 2 more events planned in June and October of 2026 with 2 more PaperArtsy designers, so keep your eyes peeled, booking will go live in January!

Mark Making Stamps

January Release

ESA43, ESA44, & ESA45

January blog launch here

Non-traditional designs as focal points are a big part of my creativity, and in this artwork, the embossed jumble of numbers serves as the main feature.

I love the versatility of this stamp. You could use it as a whole, choose just a few segments, or stamp it multiple times to cover a large area. The gaps in the design could be filled in with different colors, numbers, letters, words, or marks. Or, as in this piece, can be left as is so that the background shows through.

All of my stamp sets typically include stamps that are both linear and curvy as I enjoy the contrast between the two graphic elements. Lines always make me think of journaling so I placed the largest of the two lined stamps from this set in such a way that it can be used for text. Both the circle stamp and the Spanish tile stamp add the curvy contrast.

You can read more about my January release here

Tracy Hickman featured the stamps of this release on the blog here in a funky colour palette, layering paints and inks to reflect a timeline of songs as a gift for her father. This project was a CD cover, where the CD featured favourite songs from his life.

Mini Marks

May Release
EM121 to EM128

Blog Launch for May release here

Using EM122 here, provides a strong focal point to this piece. It draws you into the artwork while the design and placement helps to move the eye to the rest of the surface. It also echoes the branches of the tree in the image on left side of the piece.

The way I used EM124 here - with strong contrast as a top layer - enables it to serve as both a background and a focal image at the same time.

The wonky grid from EM125 allows for so many possibilities as the spaces can be filled in with colors, designs, numbers, letters, words, etc. Or can be left as is to highlight the background underneath. More art samples for this release can be seen here on the PaperArtsy Blog

Amanda Pink featured this new release on the blog, using the entire collection of new minis, and adding painterly layers, texture and grunginess to create a mixed media art panel. In quite a stark contrast though she slipped in some clean stamping and delicate subtle colouring / blending as well.

French Ephemera

July Release

ESA46, ESA47 & ESA48

Frescos: Admiral, Castleton, Kiln & Pumice

July product launch on the blog here

The designs within this release were quite different to my usual PaperArtsy offering, and that is because I had in mind the retreat I was teaching at PAHQ, so we figured a French style vintage ephemera vibe was order of the day!

The 4 newest paint colors are all opaque. You can almost think of them as tinted gesso due to their chalky matte finish. The colors are rich, strong, and all have a lot of depth. Perfect for the early layers of a mixed media work when you need to ground the background. Also good for later layers when you need a fully opaque paint to switch gears or adjust an imperfection.

The grunged-up, vintage imagery stamps were used to add detail and authenticity to the very many paper sheets used in the ArtsyCrafts retreat project. Set ESA47 gives you more options, whether you are looking for meaningful quotes or grungy vintage flavor. Or both.

Set ESA48 stands on its own, with vintage-looking labels created with French text. Most can be easily translated just with a glance and a quick search on the Internet will translate the others.

These are perfect for travel journals and planners - no matter the destination. But what I especially love about this set is that the phrases can be masked off, giving you the option of 9 blank frames that can be filled with anything! More samples from this July product launch can be found here

Mags Woodcock featured this new release on the blog, using these three new stamp sets (ESA46, ESA47, ESA48), and the four new Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics, Castleton (FF231), Pumice (FF232), Admiral (FF233) and Kiln (FF234).

Her idea for the project was to create a series of cards or sheets of paper with a vintage style photo of a guest at a retreat. A little like a check list, marking everyone as present. She then held these together on a vintage style clipboard.

Textural Minis

September Release

EM137 to EM144

September minis product launch on the PaperArtsy blog here

I love a series of mark-making tools, and minis are the perfect vehicle to use in building up painterly backgrounds over collage papers, or even make your own collage papers.

Eight new designs here, in these compact, credit-card-sized, deeply etched, red rubber stamps for your creative makes.

These mark-making stamps, are perfect to be lost in your backgrounds or front and center as an abstract focal point. As always, they are designed so you can use them your way and in your style. These stamps lean into the linear but sometimes also include a bit of curve to add some softness.

Looking a bit like a wonky honeycomb, EM139 also reminds of roof tiles -- the kind you might see on a gingerbread house. The many gaps here enable you to present an explosion of the colors of your choice.

The design of EM143 is my take on a cancellation mark printed by a postal service over a used stamp on an envelope. Of course the design can be used is so many other ways, including as a background detail or even lines to write on. That being said, my sample art here highlights all-things postal!

With this release, I now have 72 PaperArtsy minis available. Hoping you have been inspired by the stamps, images, and ideas shared in the launch post here.

Ann Barnes featured these versatile mini stamps on the blog here. She created an entire booklet as one large (albeit divided) page, and it was so cool to see how all of these stamps worked together. When the page was folded into the booklet form, seeing each stamp image highlighted on its own was the crowning glory.

End of Year Project: Paper Strips

This past year I have been leaning into the concept of finding the magic. The idea is to be able to create on a substrate larger than your planned project and then search for the magic on the surface and cut to size. This enables you to create without overthinking and just enjoy the process of layering. Given my love of washi tape, it is hard to believe that I have never tried this process to create strips. But, thanks to this PaperArtsy post, I now have! Read on...

I used all four of my newest Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic colors - Admiral, Pumice, Kiln, and Castleton - and a gel plate to create a soft background. This section is about the background layers of your project.

I layered and layered all the colors onto a sheet of printer paper. I always start by mixing two colors directly on the gel plate and then pull. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The Pumice acts as the perfect neutral to mix one at a time with the other colors to create a lighter tint. The enables me to end up with a lighter surface, so that the stamping in the next step can be more prominent.

Once you are happy with your background, you can start to stamp. Because you will be cutting the paper into strips, you can stamp and layer without much worry about how it looks. You will find the magic. I am using a permanent ink so the designs do not smudge and alternating between using and not using an acrylic block.

Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Use different stamps and different ink colors. Do not be afraid to stamp over and layer over and over and over again.

Once you are happy with your background, take out your choice of cutting device and start making your strips.

For this project, it is all about the strip. So I kept cutting until I ran out of paper to cut.

As I get closer to finishing any project, I always assess. Here I thought some contrast would be nice and I decided to get that but again mixing two paint colors on the gel plate, spritzing some water, and adding splatters with a small paintbrush.

It is a small step but it makes a big difference!

Working this way eliminates stress and brings you back to the joy of creating. If I wanted to create a more traditional art piece - say 6 x 6 inches - I would create a viewfinder of that size, move it around the surface, and when I found the magic, I would cut. And knowing me...repeat!