NEW PA Products {Feb 2016} Kay Carley

Hi Everyone, Leandra back with exciting news!

Normally we make you wait for a few days of product releases to find out who we have signed as new Designers! But not this year as I am fit to burst! Tonight we have 2 blog posts for you, each features a BRAND NEW DEISGNER! 

And the first of these is the delightful stamp designer, tutor, and writer: Kay Carley.

Kay's stamps fall into our Eclectica³ Series which, as the name suggests, is a diverse bunch of designers, each with their own unique style. 

Kay has been working in the craft industry for what seems like forever, (she doesn't ever age though! I think she is a secret princess!). She is well known for her meticulous style, stunning demonstrations and expertise across numerous mediums, and of course her work for various magazine titles.

Kay used to design stamps many years ago for The Stamp Man under the 'Aspects of Design' label. These new designs she is releasing now for PaperArtsy certainly seem to be a sister series to those earlier creations; you can still clearly see Kay's preferences, her distinctive style, and her go-to elements of flittery, glittery gardens.

I am thrilled to introduce you to Kay's very slick, commercial style of design that is so elegant and professional. We are thrilled that Kay is back designing stamps, and I am sure you will get a lot of use from them!

Kay's stamps are available to buy NOW, see the list of stockists at the foot of this post for details!

Here's a video introduction to Kay's new products and lots of lovely samples!!

Kay has selected a support crew of super talented crafters.  I'll hand over now to Kay who will introduce them, and share with you some of her own work too. 
Enjoy! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, a very excited Kay Carley here to show you my newest stamps designed for PaperArtsy!

I love working with flower stamps but in particular I like working with flower stamps that aren't 'true to life' and have a slightly quirky feel (hence me loving JOFY stamps SO much)! So these two debut sets for PaperArtsy are my 'take' on Cosmos and Alliums.

With EKC01 (the Cosmos type flowers), I drew them with 'bendy' stems so that they wouldn't look 'stilted', however I still designed them in such a way that it gives you scope to manipulate the stems a little (before stamping) if you so wish to. As you can see from Chris's sample above, if they are painted so that all the stamped detail is obscured they do actually look quite 'true to life', giving you the best of both worlds! 

Cosmos always summons up warm summer days to me, so I incorporated some words into this set to reflect this and although 'days of summer' is all one stamp you can easily snip between the words to give you more 'wording scope' such as 'dreamy days', 'summer days', 'summer dreams' etc..

EKC02 is based on different types of Alliums, and for these I felt it was important to design them with straight stems so that they can easily be manipulated to either bend to the left or to the right thus giving you scope for lots of different compositions.

I also added a couple of tiny little flowers (taken from the main flowers) which can either be stamped as if they are falling from the main flowers, added as a background or borders, layered up onto the main flowers to give more dimension or stamped on top of the grass to turn it into mini stemmed flowers.

I really tried to give you lots of different possibilities with both of these sets as we all like being able to create many different projects using just one or two stamp sets. Talking of which it is now time to introduce you to my VERY talented 'wingmen'.

Tonight we start with Helen Chilton

Helen is a super-talented crafter who is already well known in the crafting industry. She never fails to both amaze and inspire me with the way she can turn her hand to anything! I just love what she is able to achieve with stamps and paint and the way she can interpret stamps and give them a totally different slant. Do pop over to her blog to find out for yourself (click on her name)

'Fabric Allium' using EKCO2 by Helen Chilton

These stamps begged for the fabric treatment, stamped in Frescos and then stitched round and embellished.

'Tweet, tweet!' using EKC01 by Helen Chilton

I felt layers of delicate painted tissue paper petals just suited this birdcage and the stamp designs. The petals were very versatile - I used them for leaves and the wings on the bird.

Next up we have Chris Dark.

Christine is another super talented lady who in my eyes is a superb artist as well as an amazing colourist and crafter. I am always 'blown away' by what she can create using layers of inks, paints and stamps. In my eyes, she has a style all of her own which I have admired for a very long time! Do go to her blog to see more of her work.

'Dreams' using EKC01 by Chris Dark

I've grown Cosmos in my garden for many summers so Kay couldn't have come up with a better set of stamps for me and there are so many options for them with such lovely element stamps and sentiments too. For this sample I enjoyed giving it a 'painterly' style.

'Alliums' using EKC02 by Chris Dark

Another of my favourite garden flowers is the Allium. I love the delicacy of Kay's drawing on this set and those little butterflies are adorable. I can't wait to try out some more layering options for this set too with lots of occasions when they can be used because of the included sentiments.

Our third contributor tonight is Emma Humphreys.

Emma is a crafter with a more clean and simple style and she was able to give my stamps a feeling of 'freshness' and simplicity. I loved how she kept the backgrounds very plain which cleverly put all the focus onto the stamps themselves. 

Colourful Cosmos using EKC01 by Emma Humphreys

These flowers are absolutely perfect for adding layers of colour and definition. Whilst I've used Fresco Finish paints here, I'm also looking forward to trying them out with other mediums.

'Delicate Allium' using EKC02 by Emma Humphreys

A little bird pointed out to me that these stems could easily be bent before stamping. Oh wow! This adds so many different possibilities and brings the finishing touch to a simple but effective card. I think I'll be making more like this with the other flowers.

A huge thanks to my support crew, such lovely ideas! Now it's time to show you what I've made with the stamps (although after seeing their fabulous creations I nearly gave myself the sack! However I've got a few step-outs so you can see exactly how mine all came together.

Project One: Dreamy Cosmos using stamp set EKC01 by Kay Carley

First I've made a very simple papier mache fridge magnet ....

Step One: I began by painting the front and sides of the papier mache heart with Snowflake Fresco Finish paint to act as a base, before sponging on a background of a Hint of Mint using a piece of Cut-n-Dry foam. I then stamped the leafy swirl onto the heart several times using Sage Fresco Finish before stamping out one of the Cosmos flowers twice with archival black ink. (It was quite hard to get a good impression of the Cosmos flowers, as you can see below, so after this I touched up the stamped image with a fine black multi-liner!)

Step Two: Now comes the fun part........adding some colour with the gorgeous Fresco Finish paints! I chose to use a wet paintbrush when painting the petals with Sherbert, Lilac and Pansy and only a damp paintbrush when applying Sage to the stems etc... All of these colours are opaque so applying layers of colour with a wet paintbrush allowed me to still be able to see some of the design details underneath. Once I'd painted the flowers in this way I wanted to intensify the depth of colour of the leafy swirls so I lightly went over them with a light green Copic marker.

Step Three: Next I dabbed Sherbert Fresco Finish all around the edge of the heart with a small piece of Cut-n-Dry and then painted a small strip of Snowflake onto the heart before stamping out 'dreams' with Pansy Fresco Finish.

Step Four: Once all the paint was dry I then traced over the wording and the stamped cosmos with a fine black multi-liner in order to put all the detailing back in. Then I gave it a quick whizz with the heat gun to make sure this ink was thoroughly dry before painting the flowers, sides and the word panel with Fresco Finish Pearl Glaze. Once this had dried I painted the entire heart with two thin coats of Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze.

Project Two: Springtime using stamp sets EKC02  by Kay Carley

I've also made a framed canvas picture to go on my wall. This was my very first attempt at painting onto canvas - unfortunately the pictures don't do it justice due to very dark rainy days as I was creating this! As finishing touches I sewed on seed beeds and glued on tiny rhinestones too which really catch the light ....well.......when there is some!

Step One: First I cut a piece of canvas material to roughly 6x6" and then masked off all four sides using masking tape before painting a layer of Snowflake Fresco Finish to act as a base. Then using a piece of Cut-n-Dry I sponged on a layer of Hint of Mint Fresco Finish with just a little dab of Lilac mixed in here and there. (As I chose to sponge these colours on, it also allowed some of my base layer of Snowflake to peek through here and there too which I really liked.) Once this layer was dry I repeatedly stamped the grass across the base of the panel using Sage Fresco Finish.

Step Two: Next I laid my Allium stamps onto the panel to see where I wanted them to go then after removing the stamps I sponged Sherbert using a small piece of Cut-n-Dry roughly where the Allium heads were situated. Next I stamped out some leafy sprig images with Sage Fresco Finish and added my main images using an archival black inkpad.

Step Three: Once I could see where I had any gaps (top right corner) I stamped a little butterfly using Sage Fresco Finish. Then I painted all the images using Fresco Finish paints in Sherbert, Lilac, Pansy, Hint of Mint, Sage and Snowflake. (This is when it really started to come to life!)

Step Four: After painting in the images I again lost some of the detailing of the stamps so I painstakingly traced back over all of the previously stamped black outlines with a fine black multi-liner before removing all the masking tape and sewing on seed beads to the Allium heads and gluing on rhinestones to the little spriggy flowers.

Then all that is left to do is to pop it into a frame and hang it on the wall!

I cannot thank my very talented 'wingmen' enough for creating such stunning samples for me. They all brought their own style to my stamps and did an absolutely amazing job! I am totally thrilled with the way they have showcased my very first release for PaperArtsy. I really loved designing these stamp sets as they are the sort of stamps that I enjoy using and my wingmen tell me that they enjoyed using them too. (Although they could have been telling me fibs ;) !!!) Lastly I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Leandra for this fabulous opportunity.............blimey I sound as if I am at the 'Oscars' so I'll shut up now ;)

I shall be posting more samples of what I made using these stamp sets both on my blog here so do check back regularly.

Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/kay.c.wilson.1) 

and Pinterest too (https://uk.pinterest.com/kaycwilson1/)

It's so lovely to see new designs come to life with colour and a bit of imagination! Kay and her team have done a fabulous job tonight, please leave them some feedback as it's such a nervous time for them all, and to get your comments means the world to them all! Well done Kay, this is a fabulous start to your stamp collection, we are thrilled to have you on board!

All tonight's wing-men have detailed step out's explaining how they made their samples on their own blogs too, so do drop by and take a look by following the links from their names.

These new Eclectica³ Kay Carley stamps are available now from your favourite PaperArtsy stockist. As you know,  we do urge you to support independent retailers, online and in store by shopping with them regularly.

EDIT: 30 mins before we published this blog post, Leandra did a live demo with Kay's stamps on Periscope (sample above). You can view Periscope streams live in the Twitter app, or get the Periscope app to view on your IOS device, also available on android.

In this scope, learn how to make a painted background using the reverse side of a piece of Cut and Dry Foam, then over-stamp and add colour detailing with Fresco Chalk Paints.

Here's the live scope from Kay's release...

Below is a list of the retailers who are ready for you to buy, so don't wait, visit them now to purchase Kay's stamps before they sell out!

We'll see you back here again in a few minutes for another product announcement at 19:15 GMT!!

~Leandra 

United Kingdom
Artist Trading Post, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Birds in the Barn, Marks Tey, Essex.
Blade Rubber Stamps, Bloomsbury, London.
Clacton Arts and Crafts, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
Countryview Crafts, Potton, Bedfordshire.
Craftylicious, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
Imagine That..., Upminster, Essex.
Loobi Crafts, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
Papermaze, Ipswich, Suffolk.
Stampers Grove, Edinburgh.
Swanstitch, Deal, Kent.
That's Crafty, Romford, Essex.
The Artistic Stamper, Faversham, Kent.
The Craft Barn, Merstham, Surrey.
The Craft Box, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

The Craft Den, March, Cambridgshire.
The Forget Me Not Kraft Kabin, Hockley, Essex.

Continental Europe
Expression-Hobby, Marcinelle, Belgium.
PaperiSaDe, Turku, Finland.
Kerudoc Creation, St Yvi, France.
Stempelfee-Shop, Hilden, Germany.
Stempeloase Munich, Munich, Germany.
Bianca's Toko, Drenthe, Netherlands.
Hobbycompleet de Duif, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Leuke Stempels, Nijverdal, Netherlands.
Big Time Stempel, Gockhaisen, Switzerland.

USA/ Canada
Frantic Stamper Inc, Eagle Point, Oregon.
Simon Says Stamp, Columbus, Ohio.
Tupelo Designs LLC, Sugarland, Texas.
Vintage in KC, Johnson, Kansas.

Asia/ Pacific
Tiny Dots, Chiba, Japan.

Crafters Cupboard Pty Ltd, Berwick, Victoria, Australia.

If you would like to sell PaperArtsy stamps, stencils, or paints in your store, please contact Leandra or Mark: sales@paperartsy.co.uk or call us 0044 1277 212911

We look for independent shops who are full time retailers, and teach classes regularly, either online or in person.