Xmas 2014 #3UP {Tricky Things}

Hi everyone Leandra here again, almost at the end of this round of #3UP. Tonight we have 3 ladies who I have been referring to at my Tricky Dickies. They are all attempting to do those difficult things that many of us avoid. These lasses are up for it! 

And yes, they are made enough to admit doing these things are some of the favourite things to do! These ladies are therefore masters and gurus of Tricky Things.

First up it's Gabby Price, (@FreyaTom). She is using tissue paper with paint and water! Yes it is possible. Gabrielle is happy to show you have to use it with paint, without it disintegrating into a soggy chewed up blob of mulch. Here we go!

I am more than a little taken with stamping on tissue paper! I love the versatility and the effects! It has meant that I can create a using a mishmash of images that I turn into people which makes my heart sing! Now, what to make? I wanted to make something for the festive period and so I bought three plain porcelain baubles that came in their own box and knew they were just the thing! Lucy, Julie Ann and I plotted to use the same stamp set (LPC030) but I couldn’t help but dip into other sets by Lynne Perrella as they are just so fabulous!

Step One:
I started by painting my box Turquoise and then dry brushing Chalk over the top, both colours are from the JOFY Limited Edition Set 2. I then sanded the whole box back. I stamped lots of Lynne Perrella images onto tissue paper and painted the reverse of the images. This is one of the most satisfying things to do but you do need to make sure you turn the tissue paper over and paint the reverse! You can lose yourself painting, pausing to turn the tissue paper over to see how the image builds up! You do need to think about the order that you paint in – if I paint a face then I need to think about painting the eyes and lips first as I use Vintage Lace for the face colour and this has such a good coverage that it can cover up smaller details so you want those done first!

Step Two:
For the lid I wanted to still be able to see through it so when I come to find them again next year I know what’s in the box! I knew I needed to feature one of my created people and there is only one person we think about at this time of year! So I stamped out a head, a nightshirt and two ‘legs’ and painted them on the reverse (Hot Pick Christmas 02, LPC026 and LPC029). I then stuck them to a piece of card and then cut out the whole figure. I did this because I didn’t want the glue to show on the transparent lid. I usually use Multi Matte Medium as my glue of choice for tissue paper and I’m pretty slap dash when I use it! I must confess to being a little amused by my Santa! He looks like he’s off to bed after a busy Christmas and as he’ll be put away when the decorations come down (on New Year’s Day in my house!) then that’s terribly appropriate! 

Step Three:
I had had a sneaky peek at Julie Ann’s gorgeous project and as she had used the Lynne Perrella stamp all the way around her lovely box I decided to use snippets of the images along the outside.  I anchored some the images with a hand so that they weren’t ‘floating’ along the side (the hand is from LPC016). I tried to stick to a limited colour palette so it didn’t matter which images I used. I only used five colours in total (Cherry Red, Turquoise, Chalk, Yellow Submarine and Vintage Lace). As a final flourish I added a little brown Distress Ink around the sides of the box – this made it look a lot less ‘new’!

Step Four:

The baubles were painted in Cherry Red, Turquoise and Chalk and then I added two Santas per bauble, again painted on the reverse. As the Santa image needs to curve around the bauble I allowed the tissue to ‘wrinkle’ naturally around the face. I added coloured butchers twine and hung them on the tree! 

Huge thank you to Julie Ann and Lucy for their company tonight in this post, and to Leandra for letting me play along! Such a privilege to be encouraged to play with your very favourite things!

Gabrielle x

Next we have Lucy Edmondson (@CraftyLuce). Lucy has a bit of a thing for portfolio pastels, if you are not familiar with these, they are basically a wax crayon. Lucy is going to show us how to stamp on top of them, yes she must be magic! Ink and wax...lets see how she does it!

Hi everyone, Lucy here! I was experimenting with Portfolios recently, and wanted to exploit the wonderful vibrant colours to the full! I wasn’t very happy with my previous efforts so I looked back at Leandra’s blog post here, which was full of techniques and tips. It occurred to me that if the wax in the crayons would sink into sucky cardstock when you heated it, enabling you to stamp on it. So what about Stampbord,  which is also a porous surface? I gave it a go on some tiny pieces and I loved it! I had a problem, though. Gabby, and Julie Ann and I had decided to use this gorgeous Lynne Perrella set and the one inch and two inch square and domino size pieces of Stampbord just weren’t the right dimensions for the postage stamp size images on the large collage stamp. I then realized though, that the postcard size Stampbord is exactly right for the whole image! Result! That led me to making a quadruple slide mailer as it was also the perfect size.

Step One:
My aim was to go as bright as possible and then have white highlights, so I chose Yellow, Green, Red, Pink, and Light and Dark Orange Portfolios. I warmed the Stampbord piece with the heatgun first to help the application of the crayons. It’s a thick piece so this takes longer than with cardstock. I aimed for the lighter colours towards the centre with a framing of Red. Then apply your heat gun. It will go wet-look and swimmy for a few seconds and then matte. When it is matte it has been absorbed. If it stays shiny you have applied too thick a layer of crayon and the clay surface cannot absorb it all. You will need to mop some up with a tissue. It’s best to avoid having to do this as it looks patchy so try not to overlap layers of crayon.

Step Two:
It’s best with Stampbord to take the piece to the stamp rather than the other way round and press it down firmly. Ink the rubber it thoroughly with Jet Black Archival. For this particular stamp and size piece, lay it down as shown so you miss off the edging strip on one long side so you get all the little images on.

Step Three:
Use an emery board to sand around the edges. You can then use a Stampbord scratch tool or the tip of a craft knife to etch in some white highlights. To finish the project I painted the Slidemailer all over with Old Gold Fresco. I coloured some cardstock with Portfolios in the same way and same colours as for the Stampbord and stamped with a selection of Lynne Perrella images. I glued microscope slides to four images and adhered in the apertures, and added another image inside the cover, and on the back (not shown).

Finally, I glued the Stampbord piece to the front, trapping a piece of ribbon behind it to tie in a bow, and edged it with a string of pearls.

Thanks Everyone
Lucy

Finally tonight it's another familiar face, Julie Ann Lee (@woletz1). Julie Ann is one of our most adventurous #PAtwits. And one of the most humble. Those of us who watch her exploits are constantly getting our socks blown off by her creativity. She blends paint colours beautifully into one another, she makes utterly bonkers items, but always does it in such a thoughtful manner. Not content with simply stamping onto shrink, Julie is using paint onto shrink plastic..watch what happens next...

Hello Julie Ann here from Magpieheaven. For my favourite technique I’ve chosen to work with Shrink Plastic. I know that some people find this a frustrating material, but with Fresco Finish Paints it provides a fabulous surface for stamping, and it’s so satisfying to be able to create your own co-ordinating embellishments. This project started life as a box of Marks and Spencer’s Truffles, which I wanted to recycle PaperArtsy style! If you look on my blog, you will see full details of my process.

Step One:
I painted it with Gesso, then NougatFresco Finish. For the lid, I used Grunge Paste coloured with Chocolate Pudding Fresco, pushed through a Prima stencil and a big paper rose made with Paper Artsyflower dies and some Hot Picks stamping. 

Step Two:
Lucy, Gabrielle and I planned to each explore how adaptable the Lynne Perrella stamp from LPC030 could be, and I stamped it onto painted and brayered tissue before using it a slightly different way with my Shrink Plastic. 

Step Three:
I learned so much about Shrink Plastic from Lin Brown, France Charles and Carol Quance’s imaginative use of it on the PaperArtsy blog. I’ve found that Polyshrink works really well and, even if it curls to begin with, don’t panic! It always smoothes down flat eventually! You need to rough up your plastic with a sanding block first in cross-hatched patterns. Then apply a diluted coat of Fresco Finish. I used Guacamole. It won’t look well-finished, but when the plastic is heated with your heat tool the surface becomes beautifully matte. The next step is to die-cut your Shrink Plastic. I used a PaperArtsy leaf-shaped die which comes with the Grunge Flower #1 set, although I have sometimes drawn and then cut out shapes. I punch a hole in the plastic at this stage. Although holes were not needed for this project, I like to cut out plenty of shapes while I have my die-cutter out and use extras as charms, and that hole can be very useful later. 

Step Four:
It’s best to place the plastic paint side down on the inked stamp and press with little circular strokes. You can hold the plastic steady while it’s melting under the heat tool, by placing tweezers or a skewer in the punched hole to prevent your work flying away! I chose those images on the large plate that I thought would best adapt to being ‘singled out’ on the leaves. Once I had enough, I edged them with Treasure Gold and attached them to the lid with a blob of Glossy Accents.

I was really pleased with the effect of those contrasting tiny green leaves with the more neutral shades of the box! Thank you PaperArtsy for introducing me to this and so many great techniques and materials!

So are you going to master of these tricky dickie techniques too? IF you get a minute, show us what you can do too! See you back here again tomorrow!

Leandra

We would love you to go in our challenge draw for a prize from PaperArtsy, a voucher to spend in our online shop. Link up your creativity HERE. All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. This link will close 17:00 (London Time) December 31st 2014, the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00, Dec 31st, 2014.

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