Darcy Wilkinson {Special 10th Birthday Post} Feathers ....

Hi everyone, Leandra here

Well tonight we have a very special treat for you. Missy Darcy asked for feathers, and feathers she got! Now take a look at the crazy things she has been doing with them...shall we say...birds of a feather here at HQ are MR PA and I !! I leave you in her capable hands!

Oh and don't forget! To win a set of these 3 feathery minis, leave a comment on this blog post. We have 3 sets to give away on Sunday. Gotta be in to win folks! Here's Darcy...

"What an exciting month it has been, the blog has been so full of wonderful projects. It really has been a celebration of all things PaperArtsy. I am thrilled to be a part of the Birthday releases, and today I am showcasing 3 new mini stamps".

Today is all about feathers. Here are the 3 new stamps.

MN97, MN98, MN99

Experiments
Firstly I did some experiments and found that if you want a crisp, clean, black image on paper/card then the best ink pad to use with these stamps is a versafine ink pad. This really does pick out all the details beautifully, which is exactly what it is designed to do. Though the others all did OK too. It's always interesting to do an ink comparison, and it does make a difference how juicy your ink pad is too.

I felt these feathers would be best used as background stamps. I have actually been looking for feather stamps to use on background papers for a long time, and these do not disappoint. They really are perfect for the job. So I decided to show you a few ways to use them.

I took some Smoothy Heavy Weight Stamping Card and created these backgrounds. Note, smoothy is a super-smooth card, and so it allows the detail of these images to really be seen, the right ink and the right card are crucial to getting a good result with your stamps. I sorted out my ink pads into 3 groups of colours; pastels, brights and darks and created a tag background with each feather.

Then I dug out an old black distress ink pad, it is really worn out. I used this to make a faded black, almost grey scale background. Then I made another two using Aqua-markers and Metallic markers. I really love these backgrounds, how they all give different effects just by varying the intensity of colour.

Specimen Tag
Next I created a larger background on A4. I spritzed the smoothy card with water then blended on some Honeydew, Nougat and Ice Blue Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint.

I then sprayed with Adirondack lettuce and butterscotch. Next I stamped some of the Sara Naumann images from ESN06, and then knocked back the stamping with more Honeydew, Nougat and Ice Blue paint.

 ESN06

It looked very cold, so I added a super thin wash of Beach Hut Fresco Paint. Then I used my worn out distress black to stamp the feather all over. (I really like the faded look that comes from the dried out ink).

A close up of the details. I wanted a vintage Victorian feel, and this faded look achieves that.

I cut this background down to a tall tag, and attached it to grey board for stability.

I then cut 3 squares of smoothy card and spread on some grunge paste. I stamped into each with the leaf/text stamp from Urban Snapshot Nature 3 set. 

Once dry I added Treasure Gold. I painted some more Smoothy with French Roast Fresco, and matted the stamped squares onto the darker squares.

I painted some smoothy with translucent fresco, then stamped the eggs from US Nature 3. I cut them out and covered each with Glossy Accents. Once dry I glued them to the matted squares. I stamped the bird word from Urban Snapshots Nature 1, and matted that onto painted Smoothy Card. 

Finally I cut 3 tiny tags from smoothy, painted them with Nougat, and dirtied them up around the edges with French Roast. I added ABC to the tags to make them look like specimen labels.

I punched 2 holes in the top of the tag and added a wire hanger with a home-made clay bead.

Evening Bag
Next up I wanted to try the stamps onto fabric. I cut some calico and gave it 3 coats of gesso, I truly love this technique, it makes a really strong but pliable substrate. I gave it a base coat of Nougat and then stamped the feathers in Elephant, Blood Orange and Little Black Dress.

I cut the fabric out into a small bag/purse shape, and stitched the 2 pieces together.

I found some old purses in a charity shop, stripped away the old fabric and I was left with a few great handles. These are the type you glue to the fabric, I found out it was fiddly, but not impossible.

As I was gluing it together I decided the bag needed a small embellishment, so I stamped the bird from HP1104 onto a sample of leather.

 I punched a hole and added a cord. This was then trapped into the purse frame along with the fabric.

Here it is all done, ready for a night out..

Dream Catcher
I wanted to try the feathers on metal. Using Archival I stamped onto the inside of a drinks can. I went around the edge with a dressmaking wheel and cut out the feather. Then I created the feather markings on the back, using a paper stump and a small ball tool. Finally I added a little treasure gold to the front edges.

I wondered what I could use them on, and decided to create a mandala/dreamcatcher.

I took a large A3 size piece of Smoothy Heavy Weight Stamping Card. I stamped the feathers in Snowflake, and once dry I painted over them with Bora Bora. I immediately wiped this back with a baby wipe. The Snowflake acts as a resist, and you are left with the 2 colours.

Over this I created the outlines of the dreamcatcher, using a compass, a 3mm black pen and some of the images from JOFY09.

Close up of the design..

I painted the whole thing using Fresco Paints. Adding small highlights with a posca pen.

Close up of the colour stage ....

Lastly I put a small hole in the end of each feather, I added some linked chain, which in turn was attached to a brad . This was then pushed through the card so that the feathers hang down. To keep them in place I put a dab of silicone glue behind each feather.

The finished piece..

Birthday Love Birds
Next I thought I would try these feathers on canvas. I stamped them using snowflake onto a PaperArtsy canvas, then I dabbed on some masking fluid. Once fully dry I was able to paint over them using Ice Blue,  Sky, Baltic Blue, Pansy and Rose. After drying the paint I peeled off the masking fluid to reveal the white feathers, I then stamped over these with more baltic blue.

Stamping with paint gives a much softer blurry effect. Very different from the inked samples.

This canvas comes with a frame, I painted it with Chocolate Pudding, then Crackle Glaze, then Nougat. Once dry I stamped the feathers with a distress ink, and dabbed some watered down French Roast onto all the edges. At the same time I painted and crackled a piece of PaperArtsy Cruncy Wax Paper in the same colours.

My next job was to draw up a curly branch/vine and a sentiment scroll. The banner is painted with Nougat, Mocha Mousse and French Roast and the stems are coloured with Toad Hall, Guacamole, Hey Pesto and Honeydew. I took the piece of crackled wax paper, and painted the back with Chocolate Pudding, this was now a really strong substrate. I stamped the crackled side with the feather stamps using an opaque Fresco. Because the wax paper now had several layers on it, I found that I could curl the edges and it would keep its shape.

I needed models, or rather two people's heads for my love birds, after sending a weird request to PA HQ, I had photos that I printed out in black and white, then painted.

Next I painted some Smoothy White Stamping Card with Nougat, drew a simple bird shape, and stamped the body of the bird with the feathers and opaques. The card bodies will lie flat, and the wax paper feathers will curl slightly because of the flexibility of the paper, they will be partly glued down.


Do you recognize the love birds..

Here are the stems and scroll glued into place. I added some tiny leaves and flowers.

Once glued together, and with their crowns in place our King and Queen of PaperArtsy were
attached to the canvas.

Here it is finished..

Happy Birthday Mark and Leandra, well done on reaching this fabulous milestone. Here's to many more years of PaperArtsy.

Leandra Says: Hahahaha, very funny...do you secretly want me to die my hair pink then?? LOL Thanks for your clever tribute Darcy, its brilliant! ALL tonight's projects are amazing, who knew so many ideas could come out of a humble feather! Love what you have done Darcy, and I'm also very excited about your final post tomorrow night!

Gillian Says: Wow you have been busy, so many fantastic projects tonight. Loving the new Mini designs. Ha your anniversary canvas is too cool for words.Thanks for sharing in the birthday celebrations. x

If you are inspired by Darcy's post tonight, and want to jump in and have a go, then you should do just that, and blog, Pinterest, or Flickr link your web page showing what you made to our InLinkz tool at the foot of Sunday night's blog post here. 

You need to link by noon (London time) on Sunday Sept 1st. For the weekely challenge we will do 2 prize draws, one for every single entry (including multiple entries), and a second draw with just one entry per name. Successful winners will get to choose an A5 PaperArtsy stamp of their choice.

For tonight's post, just leave a comment, and you could go in a third draw to win a set of the 3 minis featured tonight! Good luck everyone!