3 Things - Fancy Fishy Frames {by Sarah Downes}

Hi everyone, it's Sarah Downes with you today for a 'With 3 Things' challenge post.

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 identical items are sent to 3 members of the PaperArtsy Blogging team. Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a colour product.

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 can incorporate other PA products into the mix if we feel it is necessary.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...

This time I was sent some lovely Kate Crane products to play with. Inside my parcel I found 3 mini stamps, KCM006, KCM008 & KCM021, PaperArtsy Stencil PSSSS25 and a bottle of Infusions powders in the colour ’A Bit Jaded’.

I was very happy, as I love Kate’s stamps and the quirky, little fish appealed to me straight away. The little mark making stamps were also a favourite and I can see me using these a lot in future projects. The word stamps, in a type font, are just the sort of sayings that in fit well with all of Kate’s stamps.

Let’s take a closer look at what I did ....

I decided to have a play with Infusions and the stencil first, to make some backgrounds and layers for my project. I wasn’t sure at this at this stage where this was going to lead. I had a vague idea that I wanted to make a sort of layered or collage type project which would showcase the little fish stamp.

I started by making some backgrounds using the 'A Bit Jaded' Infusions powder. I made a tiny hole in the top of the lid, to make application (sprinkling) easier.

For the first background, I used some 300gsm smoothy, white card which I sprayed liberally with water then sprinkled with the powders. I added more sprays of water till I was happy with the results and then left the card to dry.

I loved all the variations I got with different amounts of water. Especially how, with more water,  the colour developed to show the walnut colour that is present in all infusions powders.

For the second lot of backgrounds I used stencil PSSSS25 by Kate Crane and the 'A bit Jaded' Infusion together. I sprayed the card with water, then I put the stencil down onto the wet card and sprinkled the powder over the stencil. I added a bit more water then left the whole thing to dry before removing the stencil.

I really liked the result. The colour had bled underneath the stencil but the fish and other details were clear. The speckled walnut pattern seemed to stay within the open parts of the stencil. I was definitely going to use this one! I made another couple of backgrounds using this same technique because I loved it so much!

I was enjoying playing with the Infusions so much I wanted to explore a few other ideas. 

Before that though, there was quite a lot of colour that had dried on the stencil, so I sprayed it with water and flipped it onto a piece of card and left it to dry. I got a great negative impression!

I didn’t end up using this one in my project. It will probably get used in a future make. However, I applied the messy stencil to some old book pages too and these did make it into the project as you will see later.

My next idea was to use the Infusions with some 3D gloss gel. Initially I sprinkled the powder over the stencilled medium.

Then on the second background, I coloured the gel medium with the infusions powder first and then put that through the stencil. After removing the stencil I sprinkled more infusions powder into the gel and left it to dry. That way I got the speckle effect on a fully coloured base.

This led me to thinking about sprinkling embossing powder into the coloured gel so I found some gold embossing powder and sprinkled that onto the stencilled gel for another background. I waited until it was fully dry before heating the embossing powder. I loved the shiny, 3D specked effect! I was definitely going to give this a place in the finished project.

Next I got out my Grunge Paste and mixed a dollop of this with ’A Bit Jaded’ Infusion and put this through the stencil again onto white card. The creamy base colour of the Grunge Paste creates a whole new tone!

These didn’t make it into the final project but I decided to have another go and this time sprinkle extra powder onto the wet paste to give it added interest. I liked this better and it did make it into the final project.

My last idea for working with the infusions powders and the stencil was to try to make some really 3D fish that could potentially be cut out and used as embellishments. For this I went back to the tinted gloss gel but added a lot more embossing powder as well as extra infusions over the stencilled images. Look a that dimension!

I now had a lot of lovely backgrounds to play with, so it was time to start thinking about putting the project together.

I decided that I needed to introduce craft card into the layers and maybe some torn up cardboard packaging. I felt this would enhance the colours of teal and walnut, white and gold.

First I stamped out the fish from KCM008 onto watercolour card and coloured these in browns and orange to be a contrast to the jade colour.

I made a decision to make square, craft card backgrounds as my first layer. I also wanted to make not 1, but 3 related projects, because I had created so many lovely layers to work with. On each craft card layer I used torn packaging and also did some inking with vintage photo distress ink through the stencil.

On all the backgrounds I used the little mark making stamps from KCM021 with Versafine Clair ink. I cut them apart so that I could use them separately.

I also added stitching on all the craft card layers to echo the marks from PSSSS25 and KCM021.

On one of the backgrounds, I used PaperArtsy Gold Fresco Finish paint together with bubble wrap and a bottle top to print some details onto the craft card.

The gold paint works with the gold embossing to create some sparkle!

I layered cut out pieces of my Infusion background to create a stage for my fishes.

I added a themed MDF button from my stash to each piece and also added some mark making with a white Posca pen. I cut out the embossed powder fish to use as embellishments.

Time to add the main characters: the coloured fishes from KCM008!

I tried to create a different but coordinated atmosphere for each piece, playing with shapes and textures.

The last detail to add was the words from KCM006. I stamped them on black card using white embossing powder and also onto craft card with black ink. In the end, I chose the craft card versions.

Finally I made a frame for each picture using a die I have, 1 in white, 1 in craft, and 1 using the splattered card I made at the beginning of this project.

 

I hope you like my projects. I had fun making them. It was a challenge to stick to a limited colour palette but I had such a good time playing with all the supplies and I am more than happy with the results.

Facebook: Sarah Downes

3 Things - A Bit Fishy {by Katy Norgate}

Hi everyone, it's Katy Norgate with you today for a 'With 3 Things' challenge post. 

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 identical items are sent to 3 members of the PaperArtsy Blogging team. Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a colour product.

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 can incorporate other PA products into the mix if we feel it is necessary.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...

So here we have some yummy items from Kate Crane. There are 3 mini stamp sets KCM006, KCM008 and KCM021; the fabulous stencil which was a special release for Simon Says Stamps last year PSSSS25; and for a pop of colour we have A Bit Jaded infusion pigment (CS02). And if you look closely, you will see  the new PaperArtsy printed tissue - postcards (PT13), that these items were wrapped up in, so thought this might come in useful too.

Invariably when I start creating, I really don't know which direction I'm heading. The fun thing about working with the 3 items sent: colour, stamps and stencil is you don't have a preplan.; it is about thinking outside the box a bit. So I just started playing, armed with my phone to take photos along the way.

What I ended up with was a variety of background papers, which I utilised to make cards.

First of all I took the A Bit Jaded infusions pigment to start making background pages and potential collage fodder. I used the pigment in various ways. 

I applied grunge paste (GP190) through the stencil onto PaperArty Smoothy card (SCH4H) to give me a dimensional background. Once the paste was dry, I sprinkled pigment to the card, then spritzed with water.  The smoothy card is ideal for this technique as it will take quite a lot of water.

Next up was to sprinkle pigment directly onto smoothy card and also through the stencil, then spritz with water to activate the pigment. For my first attempt below I rather overdid it with the pigment and as a result my card was saturated with too much colour. But I was able to utilise this piece later. 

My second attempt was a bit better ......

So I haven't finished yet! I also used white embossing powder to create dimension with the stencil, by dabbing clear versafine ink through the stencil, then applying the embossing powder. This gives a lovely resist when the infusions is added.

 

Here is the page once dried and the fish cleaned of water drops

I also mixed the infusions pigment with gel medium, to give me a page I could stamp onto. I really love how the walnut crystals add to the colour dimension.

Here is a collection of the variety of pages I created. I have to say A Bit Jaded is probably one of my favourite infusions colours! You can see in this picture how the colour changes its character depending how much water is added. 

I applied some of the printed tissue that came with the package, onto a piece of card too. I mixed the infusion powder with Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paint  (FF15) and applied that though the stencil

I stamped the fish onto the page made with the infusions and gel medium.

 

I also created a reverse image by stamping with Versafine Clair Nocturne, onto a gel press, then printing that onto the same page. Spot the reverse image in the photo above...

I used some embossing powders to stamp the fish onto the previous 'overdosed' page, I referred to earlier. I decided to use some gold and copper powders to compliment the lovely walnut stain that comes through in some of the pages.

I used some of the texture stamps to stamp into the negative spaces of the stencil. As well as for adding detail to some background pages.

It was then time to bring all these items together to make some cards

And here are some of the cards I made. 

This first one, I die cut the heart shape from one of the backgrounds and attached the reverse image fish along side the normal one. I like how the two are sharing their hearts! I extended the imagery by using the texture stamp on the white card.

Here I use white pen to highlight some of the texture stamping and paint. This printed tissue postcard compliments the A Bit jaded colour perfectly I thought. I've heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder.

This card was embellished by inking complementary colours through the stencil, then simply adhering the fish. I've heat embossed the sentiment with gold embossing powder.

 

After mounting the background here, I have used pieces of Dur-a-lar clear film to suspend these 2 fish. These fish were heat embossed onto the Dur-a-Lar matte film.

I liked the grunge paste background so much that I decided this card below needed nothing else really. I heat embossed the edges, and mounted it onto a piece of the infusion and gel medium combo card.

Here is another favourite background that needed little else. 

Here are some close up photos of some of the detail.

  

Thank you for stopping by.  I think you can see from these makes, how these simple items can be used to create so much variety.  

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