Monday, 2 March 2026

Nut Shell Books with I&D {by Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos}



Hi everyone, Liesbeth here. These beautiful PaperArtsy I&D 'Vintage Nude' stamps were once among the very first I ever owned about 20 years ago, and today I'd love to show you how I used them to create two (nut)shell booklets.





I no longer have the original packaging, but here you can see the wonderful stamps featured in this blogpost: PaperArtsy Ink & The Dog Collection: Vintage Nudes plate 1, Vintage Nudes plate 2, Vintage Nudes plate 3 and Vintage Nudes plate 4.

I also used real shells and nutshells, and PaperArtsy Stencils PS234, PS002, PS239, PS173 and PS105.

For the pages I used PaperArtsy Smoothy white stamping card,regular. The perfect cardstock!

Paints I used: PaperArtsy Fresco Paints: Smurf, Banana, Snowflake, Gold and Gloss Glaze.




I started with the shell book, two shells will be the cover. Using one of the shells as a template I cut the double pages out of the folded cardstock.


Time for some layers, first I used the stencils with the Fresco Finish paints Banana and Smurf to paint some marks at the edges of the pages here and there. Later on the paints will work as a resist. I sponged the pages with Distress Inks: Wild Honey, Salvaged Patina, Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire, overlapping areas.


I sprayed some waterdrops to create nice spots, after drying I made a next layer with Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire and the stencils as shown.


Time for the beautiful Vintage Nudes stamps, I stamped them with Tsukineko StazOn - Jet Black. I used every single stamp from the four stamp sets and tried to create nice compositions. I also stamped the small flower (Plate 3) here and there with blue and yellow Distress ink. After that I bleached (watered down bleach and a synthetic brush) and coloured the women and some other details, and finished with a bit of glitter glue.


A hard decision.. shall I paint the shells or not? I did, using the Fresco Paint Snowflake :-) Onto very thin, one layer napkin paper I stamped the small flower (Plate 3) with three different blue colours waterproof ink (I used Versafine Clair), tore them out and glued them one by one onto the shells with Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze. 
I glued the double pages back to back to create a book.



Something was still missing, so i decided to take the amazing Fresco Finish Paint Gold and painted the edges of the shells a bit ragged. It's so shiny..to me the perfect finishing touch!


To 'bind' the book, I added some washi tape on the spine of the booklet, glued some pieces of fibre in the shells and glued the booklet in the shells.



Here you see how the first page is glued into the front shell. I glued the edge and secured the page with clamps till it was dry.


I couldn`t resist making another tiny walnut book, the stamps are so perfect for this! Made in much the same way. This one, however, is an accordion book, 6 pages long.


The closed books. I decided not to paint the nutshell, but of course it's up to you.


This picture shows the beauty of the stamps! And also the layering, glitters, colour pencil make-up and other details. 



Finished! A small shell book and a tiny nutshell book full of lovely Vintage Nudes:-)



Look at that cute nude ladies in their gothic arches, love it!


Another detail of the nutshell pages.



This is the final page of the shell book. The bleached woman pops out, the golden Fresco paint and glitter glue make it shine!
It was a pleasure to create this two books with the wonderful ,oldies' PaperArtsy Ink & The Dog ,Vintage Nudes`.
Hope I inspired you, have fun!

Liesbeth XX


Friday, 27 February 2026

Make it Count with EMW {by Amanda Pink}



Hi Everyone, Amanda (p1nkart) here with you today sharing a project I've made using some of Mags Woodcock's new release.

This is Mag's debut release of A5 stamps and stencils and she has put together a fabulous mix of versatile designs and having been lucky enough to have some play time with them I feel sure they will lend themselves to a cross range of creative styles. So something for everyone! 
Infact, Mag's herself demonstrates this with her eclectic mix of gorgeous samples over on her launch post so if you haven't already be sure to stop by sometime. You'll also find links to all the stockists of Mags new designs at the foot of the page .





Here are Mag's new stamps and stencils. I used all 3 stencils in some way or another and stamps primarily from Mags stampset 002 (EMW002) but I couldn't resist pinching a few from  stampset 002 (EMW002) and 003 (EMW003) aswell.


I have to admit I dithered over my choice of colours this time so pretty much pulled out a few that I'm ordinarily drawn to, played around with different combinations of them and settled on this one: Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Niagara Falls (FF205), Eggshell (FF138), Blue Lagoon (FF131), Terracotta (FF125), Space Cadet (FF68).
It's very rare when I don't include some black and white in my makes so by default PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Little Black Dress (FF19) and Snowflake (FF15) joined the mix too.



As is often the case with me, when my creativity began I had no set plan of what my end project would be. All I knew is that whatever I created was going to have lots of painty layers and this time I'd set the brushes and brayer to one side and rekindle my enjoyment of painting with palette knifes.

Whenever I'm creating painty layers no matter the application tool I tend to either work with a darker colour, then a lighter colour continuing in that way or I switch it up and work the other way round - lighter colour then darker colour.
I find working this way helps build layers of colour, create a sense of depth and also lessen the chances of the colours 'muddying'.

So the 'order of play' was: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Niagara Falls (FF205). 


PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic: Eggshell (FF138).


PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic; Blue Lagoon (FF131).
Looser, dare I say 'sloppy' application can give some lovely painty texture.


PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic: Terracotta (FF125).
With this colour being translucent it allows for some of the other colours to show through while also offering pops of brightness.


PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic: Space Cadet (F68).


Application of all the colours was with a wide edged plastic palette knife, dragging/ scraping the paint on/ down the card in a very loose and free flow way. 



Here's another way I like to use a palette knife to apply paint, one that I find creates some fabulous painty texture and visual interest.

I thought the painty panel needed knocking back a bit with a lighter colour so I went all out with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Snowflake (FF15). 


For this technique I use a slim palette knife, load it up with paint and rather than drag/ scrape the paint on/ down the card this time I 'pat' the paint on to the card. 

  
It's fun and easy to do and the results can really be something special!  


For me, it was this 'patted' layer of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Snowflake (FF15) that brought the background to life and gave it the texture, visual interest and energy that I now realised it needed. 



With the painty layers all complete it was now time to add some stamping detail. 
This is where some of Mag's detail, texture stamps came out to play. From Mag's stamp set 002 (EMW002) I stamped the 'x's' stamp in Ranger Industries- Distress Archival Ink (Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade), the 'ledger numbers' in Tsukineko Versafine- Onyx Black. The  'o's' stamp from Mag's stamp set 003 (EMW003) was stamped in Ranger Industries - Distress Archival Ink (Mermaid Lagoon). 


Below you can see all three stamps layered over each other without losing any of their individual clarity- something I find that tone on tone stamping coupled with bolder stamping allows, especially with fine detail stamps like these of Mags.


Layered stamping also creates a sense of depth which in this instance enhances and further accentuates the depth created by the painty layers. 


Stencil detail next and I go back to basics first and simply draw round the circles of the PaperArtsy stencil by Mags (PS506) with a Sakura Micron Pen (Black). 


Then with the same stencil and some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Little Black Dress (FF19) I created a few outline paint prints of some of the circles. 

To do this I rubbed PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Snowflake(FF15) around some of the stencils circles which allows some of the paint to seep through. 


Keeping the stencil the same way up I placed on my background and applied pressure around the 'painty' circles with my fingers.


I then lift the stencil to reveal paint printed circles.  


As this is one of my favourite ways to use stencils I'd thought I'd add some paint printed numbers too using PaperArtsy stencil by Mags (PS508). 


I was really happy with the resulting touch's of graphic drama the black stencil printed numbers added to the background :).


Not every print was perfect but that's what I like.


Perfectly Imperfect!


To help 'lift' the black stencil printing I added some highlights with a white Posca pen



So from having no real project plan at the start I moved on to thinking along the lines of maybe an art panel but that idea ultimately morphed into a journal page and with a few additional extra's here it is ...



The large focal star is courtesy of PaperArtsy stencil by Mags (PS507) and PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Little Black Dress (FF19). It's embellished with a smaller star from the stencil that I drew round, cut out and painted in the same way as the background. The number 3 is one of the 'bingo counter numbers' from Mag's stampset 002 (EMW002) tinted with PaperArtsy fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Terracotta (FF125).


The focal star sits on some wooden skewers painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Little Black Dress (FF19)), the edges caught with a white pen. They not only allow the focal 'Star' to sit proud of the background but the way they are positioned helps draw the viewing eye in.


The finishing touch being the quote from Mag's stamp set 001 (MWA001)... 'Make it count.' 




I'd had so much fun painting with palette knifes and working with Mag's stamps and stencils that I wasn't ready to call it 'a wrap' so I rustled up a trio of ATC's to not only offer an alternative project idea but also to show that there's plenty of mileage in Mags new designs.


On the whole I pretty much followed the same creative steps as I've already shared....Palette knife painty backgrounds.


Tone on tone and black ink stamping. 
I switched a few stamps out from Mags stamp set 002 (EMW002) and replaced with others from set 001 (EMW001).


Can you spot which?


Only circle paint printing this time.


Mag's doodled flower stamps from set 001 (EMW001) and set 003 (EMW003) as focal's instead of star's. They were delicately watercoloured with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics- Terracotta (FF125) and Blue Lagoon (FF131) the centre's touched with Ranger Industries- Glossy Accents.



A few snippets of ephemera detail thanks to one of the stamps on Mag's set 001 (EMW001) added here n there.


Some light splatters of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic- Snowflake (FF15) and to finish one of the words from Mags set 001 (EMW001 and set 003 (EMW003) assigned to each of the ATC's.

Bloom


Flower


Grow


I think I can now safely say 'that's a wrap'! What an enjoyable creative time I've had. Thanks PaperArtsy and Mags for some terrific new stamps and stencils and for everyone that's stopped by today. I hope you enjoyed seeing and reading and that something I've shared may have sparked your own creative ideas.

Amanda x


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