Bloom Board (with Eclectica: Darcy stamps by Gillian Simson)

Hi everyone, Gillian here, it is great to be back on this side of the blog rather than behind the scenes. Tonight's post is very exciting as I am getting to create a little art with none other than Darcy's new collection of stamps *squealllll*. 

I started out by using some Grey Board and my collection of PaperArtsy postcards.

Next I layered the postcards using Matte Medium, once the first layer was dry I then went back over with thinly cut strips.

Now decisions, decisions ... what colour of Fresco's to work with. I opted for Antarctic, Yellow Submarine, Tango and Peacoat. Just lightly brushing the colours over.

Followed by Yellow Submarine 

Next up was Tango, followed by Peacoat.

I then stamped the border from EDY07 using Versafine Onyx Black around the edges of the Grey Board. 

Next I stamped the swirls from EDY07 using London Bus.

I then stamped the flamingo from EDY05 onto Smoothy White Stamping Card before colouring with London Bus, Zesty Zing, Tango and Limelight. 

 EDY05

Next I stamped the quote from EDY07 and the flower wheel also from EDY05 onto Smoothy White Stamping Card, I used London Bus and Zesty Zing to colour the stamped image.

I then started to play about with the composition .... now this is when my thoughts turned to how the flamingo wasn't going to look like he was just floating in thin air! The flower wheels suddenly become the "lightbulb" moment!  I drew some circles which were then coloured using Toffee for the flower wheels to sit into *are you with me* .... can you tell where this is leading?? I decided since the flamingo is quite quirky he would look ideal situated on a pull toy cart. Back out came the strips of leftover postcards to create the frame of the cart. I used one of the Junkyard Findings Metal Zipper for the handle.

I had so much fun creating this quirky little art board and can't wait to see what else Darcy comes up with next in her designer collection!! Gillian. 

A huge thank you to Gillian from PaperArtsy HQ. Welcome back to the blog Gillian, it is so good to see you coming out from 'behind the scenes'. We know how hard you work so it is wonderful that you could take time out to create this piece. This is a stunning board, full of texture and vibrancy. You absolutely did the new stamps justice, creating a real fun and quirky project. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00 (London time) Sunday 2nd February 2014

Card {with Vintage Ink and the Dog and regular I&D stamps by Suzanne Czosek}

Hi everyone, Suzz here. I have popped back to the PaperArtsy blog to bring you this card project. It is full of interest and texture and I hope you enjoy seeing the process. 

I have been busy playing with my gelli plate and the Fresco Finishes (Claret, Snowflake, Vintage Lace)  to create a pretty-in-pink background. 

I started playing with equal parts of Claret and Snowflake on the Gelli Plate as the base color mixed together. I took a strip of sequin waste and used it to pull the paint off and added in Vintage Lace.  I ended up with a few different pieces of background papers. .

I picked out one of the backgrounds,and began by stamping the Wings Plate 1 in Ranger Archival Ink - Potting Soil. 

Then I decided to mix in some script from Vintage ID02  using Ranger Archival Ink - Aquamarine. 

I  added a few more butterflies and text  from the Wings set in brown,layering them over the stamped script to build depth. 

I decided that the brown text needed framing. So I placed a bingo chip over the sentiment and used a brown pen to circle the words.

 I loved how the circles turned out, and decided to stamp in some splotches from the Hot Picks Xtra01 - Backgrounds.

To finish it off I added in a few smaller circles by inking up the end of my stylus and pen on the ink pad and stamping them around the circles.

 Finally I stamped another butterfly and layered it over the main image,  I then used watercolor pencils to add a touch of blue and yellow on  all the images. To add further interest I distressed the edges with a prima tool before matting onto black cardstock. 

I hope you feel inspired and I can't wait to see what you come up with if you get a moment. Suzz. 

A huge thank you Suzanne from PaperArtsy HQ. It is great to see an example of Fresco paints being used on the Gelli plate. A wonderful background for all your details. The pink and blue blend so well and make the brown focal images even more striking. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00 (London time) Sunday February 2nd 2014

Tulip Canvas {with ELB Tulip Die and Vintage I&D stamps by Helen Mazengarb}

Hello everyone or should I say G’day! My name is Helen Mazengarb and I am an Australian crafter who loves texture, stamping, stencilling . . . well actually anything that helps me alter the surface that I’m working on. I started scrapbooking 12 years ago and in the past 2 years I have branched out into mixed media. I am lucky as I get to teach art journaling at my local scrapbook store.

Last year on my holiday around Britain I purchased the Tulip #1 Cutting Die from Leandra. I have always been fascinated with tulips, they are my favourite flowers and I was even called ‘Tulip’ for a number of years (I am half Dutch) plus my front door has two tulip stained glass panels in it. This was my inspiration for today’s mixed media piece.

I decided to make a ‘Welcome’ canvas for the wall near the front door. I hunted around my craft room and found a 10 x 10 inch canvas board that I had previously glued paper pieces onto and coated with gesso. To begin I used a piece of Cut-N-Dry foam plus Mermaid and Bora Bora and dipped it into both colours and swirled the paint over the canvas mixing as I painted. 

Following this I stencilled the Reversed Chicken Wire with Archival Aquamarine ink in random spots.

I then mixed some Aquamarine Treasure Gold and Beach Hut with Grunge Paste and stencilled through the Mini Bricks stencil. 

To add some more interest to the background layer I used the script stamp from the Vintage Ink and the Dog collection ID01 and the Aquamarine ink plus the smaller postmark stamp and Archival Cornflower Blue ink.

Time to begin the tulips. I used some heavy art paper, GrungePaper is also ideal for this idea too, and die cut 3 sets of tulips from the Eclectica: Lin Brown Tulip dies. 

Using Candy Floss, Orchid and Claret to create a Hot Pink, I painted the petals and then edged with Royal Amethyst Treasure Gold. When piecing together I used some dimensional glue to hold the back two layers apart, which seems to accentuate the layers nicely. I curled the thin petal with my paintbrush for added dimension at the front. I painted the inside of the thin petal with Candy Floss and then stamped the script stamp, the one used earlier, with Claret. 

Using some vintage music paper I cut out some stems and leaves, these got painted with Limelight and Tinned Peas. After adhering the flowers to the canvas I used some watered down Beach Hut to shade around the tulips and leaves.

In my stash I found some canvas letters and adhered them on with gel medium. I coloured them with Treasure Gold Limited Edition #5 (Limited Edition TG is generally only available from PaperArtsy at the shows they do), buffed them up and then outlined them with a black PITT pen. I found some butterflies in my stash and coloured them with Treasure Gold: Copper. Finally I used my Cerulean Portfolio soluble oil pastel and edged the canvas and voila it’s finished.

I hope this has sparked your creativity, and inspired you to get out your PaperArtsy dies. 
See you again later in the year, Helen.

A huge thank you  to Helen from PaperArtsy HQ.The individual layers here, of paint, paper, paste and diecut shapes, all complement each other so well. This is a wonderful canvas, high impact but easily achievable, the perfect motivation to get out all those great PaperArtsy dies.

A little bit of a secret, but I've heard that the powers that be at PAHQ might be releasing some pretty stamps to go with those ELB dies in the next week or 2! shhhhhhhhh you didn't hear it from me OK! Just keep it between us!

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00 (London time) Sunday February 2nd 2014

GD: Pam Thorburn #3 Love These Two

Hi everyone, Pam here again with my third example of the fun you can have making your own backgrounds for scrapbook pages.

Today's page features my two when they were young and sweet! And it was the idea of sweet which became the starting point of this layout-I wanted sweet and pretty. So let's get started on how this layout came together.

I will let you into a little secret. I throw away nothing! It doesn’t matter if I make a mistake on a project, I’ll either work through it, or I’ll put that piece away, and start afresh. Here’s an example of a previous project that went wrong. I had just started this project, when I spilt water along the edge. It ruined the project on that occasion, but since I knew I would be doing a messy layered project today, I decided to use this damaged piece of cardstock. The squares are there from my previous attempt.

So the first thing I did was to tear up some patterned papers. I raided my scrap paper drawer and found these Hot Off The Press papers that came free with a magazine a while back. I tore them roughly and adhered them, together with some music and book paper, randomly across the page with Matt Medium.

Next I watered down some Fresco paint (Nougat) and washed it over the entire page. This knocks back the colours and helps to unify the elements.

I then used StencilGirl - FadeHorizontal 9x12 stencil across the entire page. I used a stippling brush with Irish Cream and removed excess paint before pouncing the almost dry  brush through the stencil. As this is a 9x12 stencil, I had to reposition it to cover the 12x12 cardstock.

Next I added a layer of stamping. I took the whole sheet of Hot Picks: Stamp & Die Set 02 . I painted a block of Snowflake onto my craft sheet to use as a stamp pad, and used the complete sheet of frame stamps to cover the entire 12x12 sheet of cardstock. I love that grid effect you get using the whole sheet of frame stamps. Isn’t that background so pretty and interesting? I love it!

 Hot Picks: Stamp & Die Set 2

I wanted to add some direction to the background so I added some more strips of paper.

I thought the papers jarred a bit against the background-I was looking for a softer feel, so I painted over the strips with Snowflake paint to blend it in to the background. That way I have some subtle texture and interest, and the directional strips help in the next step, which is to do some misting!

To make the mists just mix up 4 parts water, to one part Fresco Paint, and apply using a misting bottle. First I used Candy Floss I  but it seemed a bit bright, so I wiped most of it off with some paper towel. Then I tried  Sky, and Toffee which I like a lot better. (You can see here I decided to re-orientate my paper so the lines went across the page.) 

I was almost happy with the background but to tone done the brightness of the drips I did some more random stamping over the paint drips using snowflake paint and Ink and the Dog: Background Plate 2. The background did take some time, but it was great fun, and I know I now have a unique background for my scrapbook page. The next steps were to layer up the other elements and to add the embellishments. I cut out some label shapes from the free magazine paper and arranged them onto the background. You will note that the cardstock has buckled, but that's not a problem-just flatten it under some books, or just put it into your page protector and it will soon straighten out. When you add a lot of water to paper, it's inevitable that it will buckle a bit.

I added some cut up pieces of plasterer's tape and added those towards the bottom of the page. I like how the mesh pattern echoes the grid pattern of the background. I adhered some lace under the photo- little details like these add interest and complexity to the layout. And then I added the title.

So now, let's talk about the embellishments! I used the leaves from Eclectica Shapes 03 and Prima Wood Bellies as well as a chipboard heart from my own stash. I painted them all with  Rose mixed with a little snowflake. When that was dry I stamped over them using the script stamp from Ink and the Dog Background Plate 2, then rubbed Treasure Gold Spanish Topaz along the edges.

 

The flowers are Petaloo and Prima. I stamped a sentiment from Hot Picks Xtra 03  onto cardstock and framed it with a Prima Resin frame onto which I rubbed some Treasure Gold to bring out the texture of the frame. Then it was a matter of layering up the embellishments into a pleasing arrangement around the photo. The self adhesive pearls scattered around are by Kaisercraft.

Here's a close up of the embellishments.

So there you have it- one sweet scrapbook page about two sweet little kids! I do hope you will join in this week's challenge to make some unique backgrounds for your scrapbook pages or mixed media projects. Than you all very much for your comments and support during my first week as GD, looking forward to next month already!

~Pam~

Leandra Says: Well I am not a scrapbooker Pam, but this really makes we want to jump in and do some layouts, Lord knows I have a zillion photos of the kids waiting to be scrapbooked (it's my retirement plan!). Love how you have worked so well with the stamps, texture and paint this week. Truly fantastic! Thank you!

Gillian Says: This is such a pretty layout using more muted tones combined with all the fabulous textures in the background. Another great composition Pam. Thank you for all your projects this week.

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Pam's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday February 2nd 2014.

GD: Pam Thorburn #2 Autumn Walk

"Hi everyone, Pam here again with another background technique for a scrapbook page, this time using stencils, paints, mists and Grunge Paste"!

This page is about a fantastic Autumn walk I did at Lochgoilhead in Scotland. For this layout I got out a selection of Autumnal coloured Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints.

 When I start a scrapbook page I really don't ever have much of a plan. I thought for this layout I might need some autumnal coloured paper, so the first thing I did was to create some patterned paper to use. I got out a piece of old patterned scrapbook paper that I no longer loved, and changed it up by brayering over it with some Fresco Paints. I used Pumpkin Soup, Claret, and Haystack. Next I stamped and stencilled randomly across the painted paper. I figured that the paper would be pretty well covered up, so it really didn't matter what the stencilling and stamping looked like because I was really just after some autumn colour and texture. In fact, I wasn't even sure at this stage how, or even if, I would use it!

Then I began my scrapbook page in earnest! I used Kraft coloured cardstock, as it suited the Autumnal colour palette. Using Fresco Paints, in my chosen colours of Pumpkin Soup, Haystack and Claret I randomly stamped over the bottom third of the cardstock using feather stamps- Mini 97, Mini 98, and Mini 99. Again, it was ok to stamp roughly, as I just wanted to give an impression of random leaves on a forest floor-and I didn't want the impressions to be so perfect that they actually looked like feathers!

Mini 97

 Mini 98

Mini 99

I built up some more layers, firstly by overstamping the feather stamps with a script stamp- Lin Brown ELB05. Then I got out the grunge paste and some stencils-What fun! I used a spatula to spread the paste through the stencils. I used Stencil Girls Curvy Stems along the bottom, and Mini Tiny Circles around where I intended to place my photos.

ELB05 (Available soon)

When the paste was dry I decided to colour the Grunge Paste. I replaced the stencil, and using an almost dry brush, I rubbed some Haystack Fresco Chalk paint through the holes in the stencil. 

 

                I then dry brushed some Claret Fresco Chalk Paint over the area.

I adhered a strip of my previously painted paper, and a piece of lace across my page on which to ground my photo. After that I made some mists by diluting Fresco Paints with water. I mixed a small amount of paint and water in a ratio of around 1 part paint to 4 parts water in a spray bottle. I held the paper vertically to get some nice drips running down the page.

 

Next I matted my photos onto some black card to make them 'pop' from the page, and affixed them to the background. Then I used a Sizzix die to cut some leaves from the paper I painted earlier, and adhered those to the page also.

I also die cut an oval from the painted paper, and a scalloped oval from black card using Spellbinders dies. I stamped the sentiment- Lin Brown ELB06- on the oval and matted it onto the scallop before adhering it to the page. 

 ELB06 (Available soon)

 

Then it was time to add some embellishments. I took some Prima Wood bellies and some Prima Flowers and used the sprays and some fresco paint to change the colours to suit the page. When they were dry I adhered them along the bottom of my photos together with some metal flower embellishments.

At this stage I thought the stencilled leaves at the bottom needed something to make them pop a bit more. So I took a purple watercolour pencil and traced around the leaves, then got a small, damp paintbrush and smudged the line a little, and took a white pen and highlighted some edges of the leaves. I also flicked some of the paint-mists over the background. Finally I adhered the title. 

 

Here's a peek showing how the layered embellishments add dimension. 

So there you have it, a fun to do mixed media scrapbook page. I do hope you'll have a go at using some of these techniques.

~Pam~

Leandra Says: Ohhh, love the colour scheme cue taken from the photo, and how the whole piece just evolved so beautifully. The purple and white edging around the leaves was a lovely touch to make those pop, and even back at the very beginning the feather stamping was such a great way to start.

Gillian Says:Utterly divine Pam, the textures, rich warm tones and dimension = a stunning layout.

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Pam's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday February 2nd 2014.