Day 1: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

PaperArtsy Twelve Days of Christmas

As our lives settle back to normal with the kids back at school and Christmas fast approaching, we thought we’d spend 12 days featuring the new Nut and Meg Christmas Stamps from PaperArtsy's Squiggly Ink Collection as created by our lovely Design Team people.

PaperArtsy recently released some new Christmas stamps called Nut and Meg. Not only will we focus on those stamps, but you’ll see some other Seasonal favourites sneak in along the way. We hope you enjoy this feature. Please leave a comment, and each day a lucky person will win the featured stamps of the day.

Day 1: Featuring Julie Harrington and Nut and Meg Plate 1
Julie is from Australia, she is the designer of our Urban Snapshots collection. Julie is an avid photographer, and her creative-style evolves in a new direction every year. Currently she is into digital scrapbooking, and she blends this with a more physical mixed media approach. She loves strong colours, and we enjoy her vibrant, unique individual approach to her creativity.

For the Birds 
by Julie Harrington
Using our new little papermache birdhouse, Julie made a colourful roost for the little metal squiggly bird. Julie describes how she made this:

Coat the sides of the house with the Ice Blue viva paint and the top with the Metallic Blackberry  colour. 

Once dry I stamped the little snowflake from SINM1 on the walls. Then I mixed a little of the Ice Blue Precious Metal Colour with the Viva Transparent crackle and I painted that crackle mix onto the walls.  It was pretty amazing.  It has actually crackled the bottom layer of paint as well so that what shows through is the natural colour of the Paper Mache box. 

On the roof I put some of the Platinum Crackle Paint which I mixed with a light moulding paste.  It crackled beautifully, and shows the Blackberry through from underneath really well, plus you get that crunchy snow-like texture from the moulding paste. 

For the decorations I stamped the lights from SINM1 and cut them out.  Coloured them to match the colour scheme and attached them to wire which I strung around the roof. 

I also stamped out the presents from SINM3, coloured them in, cut them out and glued them around the bottom of the bird house. 

For the metal bird I used the little bird from the birdcage on SINM6 onto Kiss Me Pink Ten Second Studio Metal. I cut the bird out and stuck it onto the perch.  I thought the roof needed something so it’s got this old flower off one of those house decorating flower stems that were all the rage about 15 years ago, with a sparkly, white brad in the centre.

Down Under "Frozen" Christmas 
by Julie Harrington 
This card uses a lot of left overs from other papers that have been made while cleaning up excess Viva Decor paint off brushes etc. Choose a selection of papers that work together, and stamp the tree SINM1 on each of the papers. Cut out all the tree segments. Punch circles from the lefts overs of these papers.

Onto a paint-streaked piece of card arrange punched circles randomly, and draw wobbly circles around each punched piece. Now decide which of the coloured segments to use for the tree, and stick them onto the background.

Stamp and cut out the present, and stamp the bird (SINM5) colour and secure on the present.
Smother the entire composition with Viva transparent crackle paint.
You can’t see it in the picture very easily, but the texture from the crackle is a relly nice effect. It makes the whole card front look like a scene "frozen" under clear ice.


 

Viva le Tree 
by Julie Harrington
Start by stamping the reindeer (SINM1) onto white cardstock using Weathered Wood Distress Ink.
Then using a credit card, scrape Viva Décor Precious Metal Colour Paints (Lime  and Pearl Grey) over the top until its as messy as you like it.
Stamp out the tree 4 or more times onto 4 or more different background papers.  Cut out the different layers of the tree and choose a selection to make up the tree. Glue onto the background.  

Stamp out the Christmas lights (SINM1) and the presents from (SINM5).  Cut out.  Glue some presents directly onto the back ground and using foam pads position others so that they sit raised off the background.
Place blingy brads or other buttons on corners.
Assemble using double sided tape or dry glue onto green card stock to match the viva paints used.

Rudolf picks caramel for 2009 
by Julie Harrington

The Reindeer card (or moose as I keep thinking of it) is a quick and easy card for Christmas.

Stamp out reindeer onto white cardstock and then colour using colour pencils or watercolours.  I used a caramel Bo Bunny paper as the backdrop.  On a piece of contrasting plain cardstock stamp the small snow flake and on an even smaller contrasting piece stamp out “Happy Holidays”.  Assemble.  I used glitter glue on some of the background dots on the card, the presents and on the reindeer’s stars and antlers.



A big thanks Julie for her inspired ideas with these stamps and paints.


PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 1 and 5 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, and is open to all players worldwide.