A note from Leandra:
Alison has a fantastic release for you this month. She has some mini-Alison's to introduce you to, as well as stunning botanicals, I just know you are going to love it all, plus stencils! All the things you need to make gorgeous art!
Alison will be with you LIVE in our Facebook Group, 'PaperArtsy People' shortly after this post publishes to share all her inspiration.
These stamps are available EXCLUSIVELY from our approved stockists. Check the list at the foot of this post to find a retailer online or geographically near you, it makes sense to order within your country where possible.
Hello all, Alison here, and I'm thrilled to be sharing three new stamp sets and three new stencils with you today. I'm a little nervous as there's some new imagery this time around - and it comes from a personal place. In this release, you'll find berries and branches and... bodies!
Yes, there are sketchy figures peeking out from amidst the botanicals. They are based on the women I've doodled in the margins of play scripts for decades, and they are now making their appearance as stamps. They'll be an exciting new focal point for tags and journal pages, with a mixed media vibe that also combines beautifully with the botanicals on the other stamp sets.
One of the things I'm most excited about is that the coordinating stencil which goes with the Figures contains not just a stencil, but also masks. You don't have to have the stamps AND the stencils - each work independently - but if you do have both, there are so many exciting creative games you can play. Let's dive in and take a look at the branches, the berries and the bodies...
(Because I've been creating extras to go on the wall at the CreativeWorld trade fair in Frankfurt, you might spot multiple versions of all these samples, with slight variations!)
Red Rubber Stamps (A5 set)
I couldn't resist following the same process with the other botanical set in this release - more on that a bit later! 
Price: RRP €23.00 +VAT
Size:5" x 6" (13 x16.5cm)
All stamps are individually trimmed onto cling foam, with a laminated storage/index sheet.
Alison Bomber Set 54 (EAB54)
Twisted Branches Edition
I'm continuing to explore twistiness with the botanical sets in this release. Here you get some beautiful twining twiggy branches, perfect for layering into the background of a hedgerow or landscape, and sculptural enough to take centre stage all by themselves. With the twisted branches, comes a bough heavy with hips (or berries - however you want to use them), a great mixed media texture element in the form of stamped pen lids, and of course some vintage ephemera and poetic words.
Frosted Branches
Here are those long, sculptural branches, frosted in white embossing powder against some salty watercolour backgrounds. Elegant and ethereal...
It wasn't until I was looking at the photographs that I realised they could also make really good seaweed foliage! In that case, the pen lid texture works as watery oxygen bubbles amidst the stems...
These wonderful words about tangled branches are a fragment from an Oscar Wilde poem called Charmides.
I mounted the panels on white pre-folded cards, and added simple stamping to the envelope to create that coordinated look which makes me happy.
"Watercolour" Berries
One big difference with these berries from my previous berry stamps is that these are solid or silhouette versions rather than outline sketches. This means they work brilliantly for one of my favourite techniques - "watercolour stamping".
Not only can you apply multiple ink colours at one time, but if you use water-reactive inks such as Distress Inks or Oxides, you can spritz the inked-stamp with water for an organic "watercolour" appearance. This can really make the stamp look so different - from the precision of a non-watery stamping to secondary and even tertiary stampings with a progressively softer look.
I loved these effects so much that I kept things very clean and simple around the berries... that gorgeous Guarantee label (mostly in partial stampings for just a hint of detail), and the simplest of words. "All is peace here," is a fragment from Walt Whitman's Specimen Days.
Pen Lid Berry Branches
Here's where things get clever with this set... you can make your own berries. These panels use the tall twigs combined with the pen lid texture to create berry branches with as many berries on as you want to put there!
I stamped the branches in a permanent or archival ink, and then used a combination of Distress Inks in Lumberjack Plaid and Crackling Campfire to stamp the pen lids repeatedly, quite loosely, across the twigs - including secondary stampings so that sometimes the inks were paler.
Taking a water brush, I softened the texture into rounded berries - sometimes leaving a bit of detail visible, sometimes not.
I absolutely love the text texture stamp in this set. It's from an old book of music and it works beautifully to add a bit of vintage detailing. As always, the large words are specially chosen by me to complement the other words and pictures on the set.
Alison Bomber Set 55 (EAB55)
Figures Edition
Here they are! Meet the curly-haired, doodled figures who are ready to move from the margins of my play scripts to centre-stage in your mixed media projects! They each have different moods and personalities, which shift and change according to the colours you use with them. And you can also shift the emotion from melancholy to jaunty with just a slight change of angle when you stamp these women. Alongside, you get soulful words, vintage elements, and some mixed media texture to play with - light-hearted bubbles of joy and hope (pen lids again!).
My Soul in Nature Trio
You'll know by now that I love to work in trios and series, and this is one trio created twice over (those spares I mentioned for the PaperArtsy booth at CreativeWorld). These tags feature a combination of the new products. At the heart of things, of course, are the three female figures, in dreamy soft shades of purple and mauve.
They are set against mop-up inky, painty backgrounds - the dresses are just what was there in the background. Where this woman's face had just a bit too much inkiness on it, I added a wash of paint just to soften it and bring her face into the foreground, and I did the same with a couple of the others.
The new Brickwork stencil (more of that further down the post) gives them somewhere to lean - while delicate seedhead stems grow up the wall behind them (and you'll see more of that stamp in just a minute too!).
All of that layering is made possible (or at least much easier!) because of the coordinating stencils and masks for these Figures.
Of course you could stamp and cut your own masks to allow you to stencil and stamp around the women (we've often done that with botanical flower heads and so on in previous releases), but the masks make it so simple. Plus they are properly durable - unlike the paper masks I often stamp and painstakingly cut out and then lose, or crush by mistake!
This stamp plate has some text texture from the same old music book, this time with the address of a London piano salesroom - and I think I counted four separate fonts within this piece, so it's brilliant for adding subtle vintage detail to a background.
Dried hydrangea petals from my garden are additional proof that I can "see my soul reflected in nature" - another fragment of Walt Whitman, this time from Leaves of Grass.
Bubble Women
I hope this pair of tags will show you what I mean about the mood changing when you change colour, even a little bit. (I can't wait to see how they look in the hands of some of you vivid rainbow creative types!!) Here are some light-hearted bubble women, full of optimism in their dreams and hopefulness in their belief.
There's a hint of Brickwork stencilling in this background (again, you'll be properly introduced to the stencil down below), spritzed and flipped over to give a geometric look, but softly geometric!
I stamped the women over the inky textures, and embossed them for extra pop. Then, using the masks, I inked around them, creating a shadowy background. With the mask still in place, I stamped the bubbles in Uncharted Mariner Distress Ink. Some bubbles I tinted with watery washes of Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic. Others simply got a dot of light.
The large words on this set are impactful ones, I think - and work really well with the figures to animate their thoughts. And the tiny text texture stamped around the tags adds delicious detail.
The lightness, the floating bubbles, the powerful words, the shaded tinting of the women's skin to give a touch of dimension... From a fairly simple place, these tags ended up surprising me with the depth of their emotion.
Bright, Beautiful, Bubbly
In this collection of cards, I've combined the women and the bubble stamp with the Bubbles stencil (you'll see it below!) for a multi-layered positive atmosphere... and this time, there are no Figures masks involved - just the stamps used directly on the background.
Even over these textured salty watercolour backgrounds, these figures can hold their own when you stamp in a dark ink and/or add some embossing powder to make them pop. And I really love the random textures and colours which turn up in their faces!
The layered bubble sizes really give a sense of depth as well as positivity. (You'll be able to watch this whole process over on my YouTube channel in an upcoming episode, so keep your eyes peeled.)
I haven't had a chance to play with the women in a journal page yet... I can't wait to do that! I think they will be perfect as a focal point within mixed media layers and textures.
Alison Bomber Set 56 (EAB56)
Berry Branches Edition
There's a sprig of shiny berries here - with the highlights already built in - and a perfect hedgerow stamp of twining branches with tiny berries (or seedheads) on the stems. Add to the mix some delicious crackle texture, a wonderful vintage pocket watch, and some theatrical memorabilia, and words to combine in different ways, and you have a flexible set which will work throughout the year.
Bright Berries
You'll notice that there's quite a lot of overlap in the project samples I've been creating for the two botanical sets... mainly because anything I tried with one set of berries and branches, I then wanted to see how it looked with the other set!
These panels are full of vivid colour, as the berries move from the precision of the first stamping to progressively softer, wilder, watery, secondary and tertiary stampings. The stems are in Potting Soil Archival, and then I used only Crackling Campfire and Lumberjack Plaid Distress Inks for the berries. Just look how the colours shift as you add the water!
I'm so happy with the extras on this plate. The Ibsen "poster" isn't actually a performance poster, but rather an advert for his collected works in book form. I simply wanted to have that beautiful font available as an ephemera stamp! I used Dragonfly and River Deep Mattints to add a wash of contrasting colour to the advertisement (as well as some background splatter).
The vintage clock is a treat (just wait until you see how it looks with a gold frame towards the end of this post!). We had some clock-based diagrams in October's sets, and now we have a full pocket watch to play with. And what can I say? I'm in love with the crackle texture stamp...
"The grass, the thicket, and the fruit tree wild," is from Ode to a Nightingale, perhaps John Keats' most famous poem. And Walt Whitman is back (scoring a hatrick on this release - one fragment on each set!) with "the soothing silence", from The Poet in Nature.
Vintage Berry Postcards
The beautiful vintage French postcards on PaperArtsy's latest tissue paper Postcards PT13 form the background for some simple berry stamping and painting. You'll spot that this is another project where I tried out both EAB54 and EAB56 stamps to see how they looked...
I glued the tissue paper to some plain cardstock and cut out individual postcards before stamping with Potting Soil or Coffee Archival ink. I love both the berries and the berry branches just as they are so - on some postcards - that's exactly how I left them!
But with others, I used Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in London Bus, Cherry Red and Toffee Apple to add a hint of burnished colour. In a few places, I used Blueberry to add deeper shading for extra dimension.
A little bit of crackle texture and a few words added here and there, and that was about it. This was so simple to do, but I absolutely love the look.
Those postcard backgrounds are doing a lot of work, of course, but there's something really gorgeous to me about the organic botanicals hovering over the vintage handwriting.
Elegant Berry Stems
There's something about these berry branches which seems to have encouraged me to embrace simplicity... or maybe it's just the presence of that word on the plate. That's the power of words to influence us, I suppose! I knew that I wanted to design "solid" berries rather than line sketches so that they could be stamped over complex backgrounds, and be used with the watercolour stamping technique, but I didn't realise quite how obsessed I would become with that latter option! You've already seen a version with EAB54, but these are even better, I think.
When designing it, I had thought that I would mostly use this berry sprig horizontally or at an angle, as a branch spreading across a tag or journal page. But stamped completely upright it has an elegance which really surprised me. And these clean and simple cards make me so happy. I could do this all day and in all kinds of colours!
Here I've stuck to the wintry colour palette I've been using for this release, but there's no reason to limit yourself with this stamp. In a winter landscape, vivid red berries add a glorious touch of colour. In the midst of burnished autumnal golds and oranges, those same berries give a richness to the palette.
But earlier in the year, you'll see them in their unripe greens and soft yellows. Or just go abstract and have berries in any colour of the rainbow you like. (And they look glorious in neutrals too, just so you know!)
I did some improvised masking with off-cut snippets of card that were lying on the desk to allow me to stamp the Ibsen advertisement "behind" the berries. You'll see these cards in an upcoming episode over on my YouTube channel, so keep an eye out for that making-of video. But be careful... you may end up as addicted as I am. I think I need help!!
Frosted Berries
And here are the EAB56 Berry Branches in action in white embossing powder against the salty watercolour backgrounds. I teased you with a mention of them at the very start of the post, so I feel I should give you a proper look!
I love the tiny berries nestled in amongst the twiggy hedgerow stamp. I really can't decide whether I like them better in frosted white on the card, or in dramatic dark blue on the coordinating envelope!
I love the tiny berries nestled in amongst the twiggy hedgerow stamp. I really can't decide whether I like them better in frosted white on the card, or in dramatic dark blue on the coordinating envelope!
Moonlit Berries EAB54 and EAB56
Just before we move on to the stencils, take a look at these moonlit berries. These tags have both the EAB54 Twisted Branches and the EAB56 Berry Branches in action, set against the Tim Holtz Moon Mask.
This is the advantage of a silhouette image as opposed to a line drawing... it has a strong presence over a background. And oh, how I love both berry sprigs set against the glowing moon...
... not to mention the subtle variation of the twiggy options which come with each berry branch. Distress Ink backgrounds, of course - Villainous Potion, Chipped Sapphire and Hickory Smoke, for the most part - with the stamping done in a combination of Villainous Potion and Black Soot.
This is the advantage of a silhouette image as opposed to a line drawing... it has a strong presence over a background. And oh, how I love both berry sprigs set against the glowing moon...
... not to mention the subtle variation of the twiggy options which come with each berry branch. Distress Ink backgrounds, of course - Villainous Potion, Chipped Sapphire and Hickory Smoke, for the most part - with the stamping done in a combination of Villainous Potion and Black Soot.
Don't forget, there's that added detail on all the berries of having the dot of light on each berry already built in to the sketch as a design element - a time-saver, that one!
Alison Bomber Stencils {Large}
Price: RRP €6.58 +VATLarge Size: 6.25" x 9.5" (16 x 24cm)
Robust mylar designed to offer longevity, deep texture and easy clean up
PaperArtsy Stencil 500 by Alison Bomber (PS500)
Bubbles
Botanical Bubbles
These large bubble rings are so good as a layer in a mixed media piece, whether the style is abstract, geometric, industrial, botanical, or pretty much anything else. You've already had a glimpse of them in action alongside the salty watercolour women, but here they are in an even more layered environment, and I love what they bring to the party.
I created some smooshed inky backgrounds to start me off, and then I sponged Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic through the bubble rings.
Of course, you could sponge them in a much darker, more opaque layer if you want them to have more presence, but I wanted a subtle look amongst the tangled stems.
The circles add a geometric contrast to the organic botanicals, and bring a hint of light right into the depths of the hedgerow. Love it!
Figures
Magic by Moonlight
The magic of having the masks as well as the stencils included in the PS501 Figures stencil set is really on show with these tags (along with a reminder that you really don't need to have the stamps as well - you can make magic just with the stencils).
I blended my Distress Ink background around the Tim Holtz Moon Mask as usual (there are several videos of me doing that on my YouTube channel). Then, with some Blueberry Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic and a blending tool, I sponged my silhouette figures through the outline stencils along the foot of each tag, gazing at the moon.
Along one edge of the standing figure, I added some paler paint - Periwinkle, I think it was - catching the glow of the moonlight, to give her a bit of dimension. I could easily have left the head unstamped - it would look just as good - but on this occasion I stamped in tone-on-tone Cobalt Archival and clear embossed it.
Now it's time for the masks. By positioning the masks over the sponged silhouettes, I can stamp around them, which gives the impression that the EAB54 branches and EAB42 Winter Grasses are "behind" my women. I also love how the masks themselves look when they've had a bit of stamping done over the top of them. Don't worry - they wipe clean easily... but there's a hint there of another really cool way to use these stencils to create cut-out silhouettes to add to journal pages etc.
Shadow Women
Here's a quick look at what we'll be playing with during the mini Live in about a week's time. If you're on the PaperArtsy mailing list, you'll get a heads-up about the exact date and time, with a supplies list in case you'd like to craft along. We'll be creating these Shadow Women...
We'll explore using the Figures masks and stencils, and you can make your Shadow Women atmospheric and eerie, or playful and fun - it will all be down to the colours and stamps you choose to combine them with.
PaperArtsy Stencil 502 by Alison Bomber (PS502)
Brickwork
Seasonal Walled Garden
Again, you've already seen some of these bricks in action with the Figures above, and they're going to be so scrumptious used with texture paste for a stony look. (Watch out for some textured stone walls on my YouTube channel soon!) But for now, I've used them as a very simple background for these seasonal panels, celebrating time passing in a walled garden or orchard.
On this stencil, you get brickwork in a few different sizes, so that it will adapt to the scale of different projects. And it's all deliberately very irregular and tumbledown - some of it inspired by the wonderful dry-stone-walls you get criss-crossing the British countryside (not that those tend to tumble down - they're built to last centuries!).
I used several colours of Distress Ink to create variations in the brick colours, and then stamped the EAB54 Twisted Branches over the top in Archival ink. (The pen lid stamp from the same set is also here in a minute to add colour and interest to the sky.)
Then with October's Twisty/Falling stencil I layered leaves over the top of the branches, in bright spring greens with added pink blossom in Cherry Blossom and Powder Pink; in more richly layered greens for summer; and more sparsely stencilled in autumn colours as the leaves begin to drop.
And here's that fabulous golden pocket watch I promised you - glinting among the leaves (thanks to the Gold Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic I painted it with), counting the days as the year moves on through its seasons.
I gave the face of the watch a watery coat of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Chalk, but deliberately kept it so that you could see the background as a faint echo. The clock itself is embossed, so I knew it wouldn't disappear entirely when I added the Gold and the Chalk over it.
From bright berries and light bubbles to shadowy bodies, from twining branches to weathered brickwork, I know I've got so much more I want to explore with these new stamps and stencils. I hope you'll be as inspired by them as I am, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the new element - the doodled women.
Huge thanks, as always, goes to the whole team at PaperArtsy HQ, who make all this possible. I love this creative collaboration and the journeys it takes us on. My thanks also to all of you, who offer such heart-warming feedback and create such beautiful work with the designs we share with you.
Huge thanks, as always, goes to the whole team at PaperArtsy HQ, who make all this possible. I love this creative collaboration and the journeys it takes us on. My thanks also to all of you, who offer such heart-warming feedback and create such beautiful work with the designs we share with you.
Remember, I'll be live in the PaperArtsy People FB group shortly to share more of the inspiration and ideas behind these designs, and show you these samples and more (yes, more!). Hope to see you there, and happy crafting, all!
Alison x
You can see more and visit me at...
Instagram: @w0rdsandp1ctures and @b0hem1anh0me
YouTube: Words and Pictures
Website: Words and Pictures
Blog: Words and Pictures
PaperArtsy Stockist List
Our stockists are your go-to source for all PaperArtsy products, and we suggest that you also use the PaperArtsy People Facebook group to source a retailer in your country. Many are members of our FB group and will happily share links to their online stores.
Australia
Bev's Cross Crafts, Spreyton, Tasmania bevscrosscrafts
Crafters Cupboard, Berwick, Victoria crafters cupboard
Hillbilly Scrappin, Nikenbah, QLD hillbilly scrapping
Natalie May Scrapbooking, Dover Gardens, SA natalie may
Scrapbook Superstore & More, South Penrith, NSW scrapbook superstore
Austria
Stempel Wunderwelt, Wilhering, stempel wunderwelt
Belgium
Cart N Scrap Art, Antwerp, cart n scrap art
Créatelier Caracolle, Liège, createlier caracolle
Canada
Boutique Scrapbook Tendance Inc, Quebec, Qc, scrapbook tendance
Clipper Street Scrapbook Company, Langley BC, Clipper Street Scrapbook Co
Glitter & Ink, Belleville ON Glitter & Ink
Paper Art Creations Inc, Leduc, Alberta, paper art creations
Re.defined, Kentville, NS, redefinedforyou
Scrapbook Centrale, Dollard Des Ormeaux, Quebec scrapbook centrale
Scrapbook Centrale, Dollard Des Ormeaux, Quebec scrapbook centrale
Scrap Addicts, Edmonton, Alberta scrap addicts
Scrap and Bean, Edmonton, Alberta scrap and bean
Scrap en Masse, Plantagenet, Ontario scrap en masse
Scrapbooking Fairies, Drayton Valley, Alberta scrapbooking fairies
The Paper & ink Boutique, Calgary, Alberta paper and ink boutique
Denmark
Hobbyboden Scrapworld, Samso hobbyboden
Finland
Klemmarikellari, Turku Klemmarikellari
Piia Paper, Kittilä, Piia Paper
France
Ephemeria, Bourgoin Jallieu, Ephemeria
Fée Du Scrap, Saint Sébastien-Sur-Loire, fee du scrap
Horizon Créatif, Ste Jalle horizon creatif
Kerudoc Creation, St Yvi kerudoc creation
Le Grenier des filles, Pierre Benite
Page de scrap, Saint Pavace, page de scrap
Passion Scrap, Vieux-Conde, Passion Scrap
Scrap by Jo, Saint-Orens-de-Gameville, 31650 Scrap by Jo
Toutencolle, Dun sur Auron toutencolle
Germany
CreativeStempelshop, Leichlingen, Creative Stempelshop
Papier & Feder, Owschlag, papier & feder
Stempeloase Munich, Munich stempeloase
Stempelfee Shop, Hilden stempelfee shop
Stempellaedle, Stuttgart, stempellaedle
Tue Was Di Liebst, Bayern, Tue Was du Liebst
Greece
Decoupage, Vergina
Scraps & Pieces, Agios Dimitrios, Scraps N Pieces
Italy
Pezze E Colori, Lissone, pezze e colori
Piccole Passioni, Siena, piccole passioni
Piccole Passioni, Siena, piccole passioni
Japan
Tiny Dots, Funabashi-shi, Chiba tiny dots
Netherlands
De Hobbystudio, Genemuiden, de hobby studio
Doe@ding,Spijkenisse doe @ ding
Hobbycompleet de Duif, Leeuwarden hobby compleet
Hobbyshop Sandra, Wierden hobbyshop sandra
Stamptable, Roosendaal, Stamptable
New Zealand
The Ribbon Rose, Penrose, ribbon rose
Norway
Hobbykunst, Oslo, hobbykunst
Puerto Rico
Paper Boutique, Fajardi Paper Boutique
South Africa
Kcraft imports Ltd, Centurion 0014 kcraft
South Korea
Torn Paper, Namyangju-Si, torn paper
Spain
Cien por Cien Manualidades, Barcelona, 100 x 100 manualidades
Ideas 10 Manualidades Y Scrapbook, Bilbao ideas 10 manualidades
La Sonrisa Creativa, Valencia, la sonrisa creativa
Les Coses de Raquel, Barcelona
Scrap & Papers Experiences, Barcelona, scrap papers experiences
United Kingdom
Amelia's Creative Crafts, Studley, Warwickshire Amelia's Creative Crafts
Art from the Heart, Harrogate, Yorkshire art from the heart
Crafts at The Malthouse, Herstmonceux, East Sussex, crafts at the malthouse
Countryview Crafts, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire countryview crafts
Loobi Crafts, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, loobi crafts
Procraftynation Ltd, King's Lynn, Norfolk Procraftynation
Sir Stampalot, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire sir stampalot
Stampers Grove, Springbank, Lilliesleaf, Melrose,Scotland stampers grove
The Artistic Stamper Craft Store, Faversham, Kent the artistic stamper
The Forget me not Kraft Kabin, Rochford, Essex, The Forget Me Not Kraft Kabin
Twilight Crafts, Radstock, Somerset, Twilight Crafts
USA
Artistic Artifacts, Alexandria, VA artistic artifacts
Artistic Studio Creations, Fayetteville, Georgia Artistic Studio Creations
Everything Scrapbook & Stamps, Lake Worth, Florida Everything Scrapbook & Stamps
Free Heart LLC, Denver, Colarado, free heart llc
Joggles, Coventry, Rhode Island, joggles
Messy Papercrafts, Temecula CA Messy Papercrafts
PaperCraft Clubhouse, Westbrook, Connecticut, papercraft clubhouse
Scrap-A-Latte, West Babylon NY scrap a latte
Scrapbook-N-Memories, Harrisonville, Missouri Scrapbook N Memories
Simon Says Stamp, Columbus, Ohio simon says stamp
Stamped Designs, Dover, New Hampshire stamped designs
Topflight Stamps, Irmo, South Carolina topflight stamps
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