Tracy Meets Grunge with TS {by Autumn Clark}

Hello darlings!  It's Autumn Clark here today, with such joy to be back on the PaperArtsy blog and to share the excitement of the new Tracy Scott launch with you!  

I've had a total blast playing with these gorgeous stamps and have created several project ideas for you to get your creative juices flowing, from tag book to bookmark to journal page, I hope will spark a play session of your own...

I almost always start a project with a gel printing session and went with earth tones to show how Tracy's stamps can go both bright and rustic, which I hope you will agree.  I used a combination of PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics in Nougat, Terracotta, Rusty, Sargasso (TS), Jade (TS), Chocolate Pudding and Toffee.  Later in the process I pulled out my Infusions powders and chose A Bit Jaded and Rusty Car.

I used Tracy's entire collection for these projects, including the stamps TS104, TS105 and TS106 and the stencils PS497, PS498 and PS499.  Find a stockist HERE.  And if you didn't catch Tracy's FB live, make sure to join the PaperArtsy People FB group HERE to stay up to date and catch all future lives.

You might have noticed from the photo of my Infusions box on my table that it was an extremely sunny day in my little art room.  I could not find my smaller gel plate, so I had to use the monstrosity and with the sun pouring down on it, I found my paint was drying at rocket speed.  But I am always fond of this half printed effect because I love the impartial prints and faded portions of the stencils mixing into the paint.  Part of my process includes blotting through the stencils onto prints.  Below shows how I did that with PS499.  Later you will see a fun idea I came up with to make the most of the white spaces in my prints...

I printed heavy duty plain cardstock and both sides of several premade large tags by Dina Wakely.  I used the floral designs from PS497 and PS498.  

 

I cut my favorite sections of the prints into card fronts.  I folded the tags in half with one end meeting the tag reinforcer on each of the three tags, then glued them together to form pockets where each tag met the next.  This concept was inspired by a Fodder Challenge 2023 project.

While the tags were clamped together to dry, I worked on each card panel.  I began spritzing water on the white spaces in the gel printing and sprinkling on my Infusions in Rusty Car.  Because I had used normal cardstock, the Infusions seeped into the paper, rather than sitting on the surface like it would with Bristol or watercolor paper.  The great thing about this is that the paint still sits on the surface and the effect is really unique.  

To make the pieces a bit more intense, I coated them with Mattint in High Viz, which also serves to seal the Infusions.  Next I colored two scraps of Bristol paper with Infusions in Rusty Car and A Bit Jaded so I could use them as a stamping surface.

Here's a sampling of the panels, which remind me of torn wallpaper.  What fun!

I stamped so many of the images from Tracy's stamp sets TS104, TS105 and TS106, first onto Bristol paper for watercoloring with Distress Inks, then onto my dried Infusions stained papers in different colors of ink and off white embossing.

I fussy cut these images to give me a variety to pick from to complete my tag book and cards.

I layered the images onto my tag book and used Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge to sponge some of the white spaces to complete the backgrounds.

I used the leftover gel prints to cut smaller tags to fit into the pockets and to cut tag reinforcers for those.

Here are the front and back of my completed tag book, finished with sentiment stickers, sari ribbon and twine...

With my leftover fussy cuts, I began to complete the cards.  I really had fun with this and tried to hone in on the trademark mandala loving Tracy Scott style by using geometric repeats in the cards.  Often, I cut the flowers in half to achieve this effect.

I was craving a little white contrast for these pieces and thought a bit of text would be just the trick, so I grabbed Eclectica³ stamp set 54 by Sara Naumann (ESN54), which had some great jumbo text that worked beautifully with the butterfly theme.  I used off white embossing powder for this, which finished my cards and bookmark nicely.

I had one large piece of gel printed paper left and several of my fussy cut images, so I pulled out my floral journal.  I've shared numerous projects over the years on my blog with Tracy Scott and Jofy stamp in this journal.  I thought adding another from this project would be a great way to remember these fun projects and color palette.

The spiral journal is filled with watercolor paper, so I was able to use the Infusions in A Bit Jaded to add some color on each side of the page, then I tore the edges of my gel print and glued it down the middle.  I used some leftover stamped flowers from set TS105 as leaves for the focal flower and a smaller gel printed tag, which hadn't found its way into my projects.   

In the end, what a collection of projects!  I hope they've inspired you today!  I had such fun and have enjoyed sharing with you.  xx, Autumn

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