2016 #11 Our Castle and Our Keep {by Lucy Edmonsdon}

 2016 Topic 11: Our House

Hi everyone Lucy from Lucy's True Colours here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you a post about using Stampbord tiles to make the roof of a house, and turning a row of birdhouses into a little street!

When I first heard the theme was 'Our House' I was singing in my head the lyrics to the 1980s song by Madness, 'Our House, in the Middle of Our Street'. The song goes on to sing about 'Our Castle and our Keep' which seemed perfect for the Lynne Perrella stamps with their crowns, castles, turrets, and keys, which suggest the idea of a house being a place of sanctuary and safety and security. I had in my mind's eye a row of houses with the one in the middle being the focal point and being peopled with faces, so it looked like a lively, homely place to be. In contrast, the houses either side are pretty but quiet, with nothing to be seen behind the windows except wallpaper.

To make my street I bought a row of wooden birdhouses from Dunelm and pulled out the perches!

Step One: The front and sides are going to be covered with cardstock, to cover up the hole. I brayered several sheets with Zucchini, Coral, Bougainvillea, and Purple Rain Fresco Finish Paint and then knocked back with Chalk.

Step Two: I then cut out the pieces of cardstock to fit the front and sides of the houses and built up layers of stamping using a selection of Lynne Perrella Collection stamps and the same colours of Fresco paint. I used the crown from LPC007, the text from LPC014, the castles including the one from the top of the lady's head from LPC006, and the crown from LPC003. I then used some Zucchini and a stencil brush through Lin Brown 001 and then for the piece of cardstock which is going to be used for the focal point house, I did the same using the flower stencil which I felt looked like a fleur de lys from Lin Brown 025. I gave everything a watery wash of Snowflake to tone it down a bit. I then edged each piece with Purple Rain on a piece of cut n dry foam to differentiate the houses from each other when the pieces are glued to the row.

LPC003

LPC006

LPC007

LPC14

 

Step Three: Using one of the brayered background pieces, I stamped the large collage from LPC030 using Versafine Onyx Black and then embossed with clear embossing powder. I have mentioned here before that this was a tip given to us by Alison Bomber and I have found it invaluable for giving a lovely clear dark image, particularly with the very finely detailed Lynne Perrella images, and it also helps to avoid going over the lines when painting as you can buff it off. I added a little touch of extra colour in places using the same colours as before.

Step Four: Now for the roof tiles! I used one inch stampbord tiles and for the faces I painted them with Blush first, then stamped them in the same way as for the collage but taking the tile to the stamp, and then added Bougainvillea to the cheeks and some touches of the other colours. I wanted it to look almost like a party in the attic, but the design would have looked too busy if I'd just had the faces so I wanted to break it up a little. For the more abstract part of the design I stippled some of the paints onto the tiles with a stencil brush first. With hindsight, the Purple Rain came through the designs a little overpoweringly although it's a lovely colour in itself. I stamped these tiles in the same way as before, using the text, and the crowns collage from LPC014 and the row of houses from LPC028. I then used a Stampbord scratchtool to do a little highlighting on each tile, for instance the whites of eyes. Again with hindsight, it would have been better at this stage if I had sanded the edges of each tile to differentiate them from each other when they were put together, but as you can see in the later photo, I managed to do this quite easily once they were in situ by running the scratchtool along each of the join lines.

LPC028

Step Five: In this photo you can see the roof starting to come together! Subsequently I painted the edge along the top and at the front of the tiles with Purple Rain Fresco Paint. In the final photos you can see the turreted chimney and in this picture you can see how I started to make it. I stamped and clear embossed the castle on the top of the lady's head from LPC006 several times. I fussy cut them but left tabs so that I could stick the pieces together. I decided it would be better to have the images glued back to back, for strength and also so you could view them from all angles without the white showing. The chimney was oblong in shape so, for the two remaining pieces, I folded the sides in like a three sided box, and glued them into the pieces already in position. As the roof is sloped, it was all a bit fiddly, matching up the turrets as well!

Step 6: I gave the end houses windows cut from the collage sheet prepared earlier, but excluded any with faces as I didn't want these houses to be 'peopled'. I gave them doors made with white/grey board covered with some of the prepared cardstock and buttons painted with the Fresco colours. For the main house I die cut an awning painted with Snowflake with a resin flower painted with the new Fresco Gold. I used the Tim Holtz Pediments die on shrink plastic painted with Gold above the two windows, which are two of the remaining face tiles, from LPC006 and LPC007. The door is an ATC stampbord piece stamped with the lady from LPC010. Her face has been coloured with Blush and some Pearl Glaze and a touch of the other Fresco colours added and a few scratched highlights. I made faux hinges with flattened gold brads and a door knocker with another flattened brad and a pink tassel. I added another gold pediment above the door.

To finish off the project I typed the words, 'Our House, In the Middle of Our Street, Our Castle and Our Keep'. I added a touch of the Fresco paint colours to them and arranged them on the main house.

In this close up shot you can see more of the details of the main house, with its rather grandiose occupants ready to party in the attic, with its tiled and turreted roof.

I found it quite tricky making this project, and executing the plan I had in my head and I encountered a few snags along the way. Over all, my favourite part is the roof, so I hope it will encourage you to consider using the one inch stampbord tiles for a house roof if you are making something 3d for the challenge. The other idea I had considered was using the large collage stamp to make my roof tiles, so I think that is what I shall do next! Have fun with the challenge and I will enjoy seeing what you make!

Lucy, Lucy's True Colours, twitter @CraftyLuce

 

What a great song in the first instance to get your inspiration from ... Love the concept of this project and the shabby chic subtle decor. Love the tiled and turreted roof, Lynne's stamps are the perfect choice exquisite Lucy! ~Gillian

We would love to see how you interpret this House topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #11: Our House, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Our House link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 12th 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

2016 #11 Our House {Challenge}

2016 Topic 11: Our House

Karla G

Hello everyone Darcy here with another topic, this time a subject close to the heart. Our House. We all love our own little 'Castles', it is the place we feel we can most show off our personalities and creative ideas. Sometimes ideas can get a bit expensive though to follow through on a large scale, so to fulfil that urge the next best thing is to create miniature houses, whether in journals, on cards or as 3d projects.

There are so many examples of Arty Houses online, why are we drawn to them so much? I guess because they are often very simple shapes. Everyone can draw a square and a triangle, pop in some windows and it is instantly a house. it was when we were children and it still is now. Art houses are often brightly coloured, though they don't need to be, but the bright colours and  primitive shapes seems to ignite our imagination and we can really go to town decorating. 

Before we start, let's see who won the Topic 10: Scribbles and Doodles Challenge...

Well how doodle you do? what a fab topic that was. I bet you never knew you had so many doodles in you. The variety was great with both black/white doodles and coloured ones. There was loads of inspiration in your entries, definitely one of the most relaxed topics I think. 

The winner of Scribbles and Doodles  is: Kezzy from Craftyjourney

Email Darcy to claim your prize. Darcydotneedles@hotmail.com

So let's see just how many styles of Art houses we can find. .We have been copying familiar items in miniature form for thousands of years, so it follows that we would want to recreate our homes. We have been encouraging children to play with dolls houses for 400 years, and though these are no longer fashionable with children they are now hugely popular with adults. 

Susie Rogers and Kevin Mulvany are art historians and spent a year creating this stunning Parisian building. (It measure 5 1/2ft x 3ft, in case you fancied having a go)

I always wanted a tree house as a child, it was not meant to be.. but we can all have houses in the garden. These sculptures by Rob Heard are amazing. 

For the smaller garden how about these painted stones. 

Jake Art

Moving indoors, and home decor comes in all shapes and sizes. I love this clay house planter. For those of you still tinkering around with Powertex, this would be a cool thing to make. Here is another house/bottle mashup using Powertex. 

Kavanzo

If teeny ,tiny modelling is your thing then how about these fairy houses. Made by Maive Ferrando, you can see a video tutorial HERE. 

Staying with the tiniest of projects this little house/village shaped book is adorable. 

Randy Keenan

An excellent book full of techniques for creating house shaped pages (like those above) is  'In this House' by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn.

If you don't fancy decorating the actual pages, how about just the spines. Look at this awesome street of books. 

If you are feeling brave about cutting up the pages then you could create a house inside the book. 

Marivi Garrido Bianchini

Or this haunted house sculpture by Malena Valcarcel

If like me you love building things.. and eating crisps.. then this next one is just for you. 

Recycle Daw

A lot of us are used to working on canvasses, whether boards or chunky box ones. Houses make a great focal image for a canvas, can you imagine one perhaps as a New Home gift. 

Here is a video from Nicoletta Zanella showing you how she puts together a mixed media canvas. 

Perhaps you prefer to work in a journal, here is a sweet house page from Kate Crane

Kate also works in tiny matchboxes, these just make you go Aww!

Sticking with matchboxes, why not add some legs, chicken legs of course. I love this Baba Yaga assemblage from Lora Mahaffey I can just imagine it waddling around. 

Cackleandhoot

Of course your art house can be made from anything, literally anything at all. I am afraid there isn't a prize for the strangest mediums, but here are some more to inspire you. 

Old wood, paintbrushes and a ruler make a brilliant house shaped photo frame. We all have paintbrushes that we could use for this. 

KMichel

And maybe this will have you raiding the china cabinet for teacups. 

Roxann Dyess

If chicken legs don't do it for you, how about doll's arms? 

Suzanna Scott

A really fun medium to use is Fabric. The possibilities are endless, From wall hangings to doorstops, bookmarks and cushions..felted, padded and stitched. 

KarnaKarna

MonikaWintermantel

Do you remember the domino craze? I am sure we all still have dominoes stashed away in drawers. Maybe it is time to get them out and make a bracelet like this one from Jekaterina Cuikova.

One of my favourite items this time has to be this tiny house on a ring. I would wear this for sure. 

Elukka

There are simply so many houses that I wanted to share with you, paintings and sculptures, jewellery and odd assemblages. Many were simple wooden shapes, painted with love. So I will finish with another video, this time from Cyndi Cesare, she shows how she decorates some wooden blocks. 

These little and some not so little art houses are a huge favourite of mine. I am hoping they  fire up your imagination. Whether you opt for journalling, or wooden blocks, or fabric I hope you create the house of your dreams. In the past I have taken part in art house swaps, perhaps you and some friends could do something similar. 

Have fun!

Don't forget to follow Darcy's and Leandra's pinterest boards if this topic pushes your buttons, you will see plenty more examples to whet your appetite there! 

I am really looking forward to seeing what you create over the next 2 weeks!

Darcy

Topic 11: Our House PaperArtsy Blog Challenge

We'd love you to share your ideas and link up your creative response to our current blog topic. Take a minute to read the challenge guidelines below.

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Our House link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, June 12th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

1. The challenge is a for you to show how you are inspired by the current blog topic.

Your entry should contain:

- a mention of which post inspired you and why, and 

- a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog.

The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, do your own thing - whatever grabs you!

2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog.

3. We prefer your challenge blog post is created exclusive to our challenge, but if our topic fits perfectly with another challenge, then you may link to both if appropriate.

4. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - it's lovely when you do though!

6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity! 

NB. Link closes at 17:00 Sunday June 12th   (London Time)

7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit voucher to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. The credit voucher includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50.

8. Each fortnight on Sunday, the winner will be announced at 19:00 (London time). In the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. 

9. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy. 

email: darcydotneedles@hotmail.com

Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

2016 #10 Garden of Dreams {by Pavla Hozikova}

2016 #10: Doodles

Hello everyone, it’s Pavla here with a post about Doodles. I have to confess, I never was much of a doodler. I really don’t see anything relaxing about staring at a white page with a lot of black lines. This makes my head ache and for this exact reason, I’m not really a fan of colouring books. So, you ask, why am I doing a post about doodles? Because, luckily, there are these wonderful designers who do the doodling for us. I really fell in love with Emma Godfrey’s stamp sets and I will be doing a project using her circle doodles. Some of you might know, I have this recurring circle theme that pops up every now and then…

Step One: I started with a leftover wooden frame (I believe this one was from IKEA). I gessoed it first, then I randomly applied some paint. I used Yellow Submarine, Blood Orange and a little bit of Smurf on the top (it adds this patina-ish kind of look).

Step Two: I stencilled some dots on top and then went over the edges with a black ink. You can see the difference in the photo - the black gives it a slightly aged look. 

Step Three: Next, I took regular twine and coloured it with black gesso. Then I wound it around the frame.

Step Four: Now, the fun part. I stamped a lot of circles on a piece of cardstock using black archival ink. The circles are from two different sets by Emma Godfrey (EEG07 and EEG15). I coloured them using Daler Rowney acrylic inks. 

EEG07

EEG15

Step Five: Then I cut the circles out. You can see I also turned some of the wheel-like circles into flowers.

Step Six: Finally, I glued the circles to the twine - some to the front, some to the back. I used PVA glue to attach the pieces, then turned the frame over and put a generous blob of glue to the back of each piece and let it dry (I’m a bit of an over-gluer). I added the quote from Lin Brown’s set ELB04. 

ELB04.

I initially wanted to do this assemblage flat in my journal but I really like how it turned out in 3D. I hope you got inspired. See you some other time!

Pavla

Blog: Pavla's Art

Instagram: pavla_art

Wow Pavla this just jumps off the screen. How clver to use the black strings as they now look like doodled lines between the circles. Emma's stamps have worked brilliantly here and those blended inks are just gorgeous. ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Doodles topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #10: Doodles, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Doodles link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, May 29th 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

2016 #10 Hippy Doodle Cards {by Julie Ann Lee}

 2016 Topic 10: Doodles

Hi everyone, Julie Ann of Magpieheaven here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you a post about doodling, which has always been a passion of mine. Whether I'm on the phone; in the Dentist's waiting room or meeting a friend for a coffee, you'll see me compulsively scribbling away on scrap paper, a napkin or the back of a magazine. A little while back I decided to stop discarding what I had scrawled on the back of envelopes and old receipts and decorate projects with it. 

This project is an example of how you can use doodles around PaperArtsy stamped images to create unique greetings cards. You've probably created some quirky and individual designs yourself that should have ended up on cards, canvases or journals rather than in the bin!

Step One: I started with a print-out of a little caricature of my own; but - if you prefer - you could use a stamped and coloured image of a face with a doodled embellishment. I gave Florence, the anxious Flower Child a doodled head-band.

Step Two: As you can see, I used a Craft Card blank and I stamped some of my favourite Sara Nauman script from ESN10 in Snowflake Fresco as a border. Often I find myself doodling around some existing text or patterns and Sara's circles, also from ESN10, make the ideal starting point for some 'stream of consciousness' art! I stamped these in jet black Archival ink.

ESN10 

Step Three: Now for some doodling around the stamped images. I used Micron Pigma pens and Inktense pencils to create these leafy 'Peace' symbols and Hippy friends to reassure anxious Florence. The white highlights are created by dipping a cocktail stick into some Snowflake Fresco and adding little white dots.

Step Four: It's also fun to add doodles to a brayered and sprayed background and the addition of some Infusions, fixed with Satin, Metallic or Pearl glaze would be effective! For this card, I brayered with Snowflake and slightly diluted Smurf, before spraying with Inky Pool and adding spatters from a toothbrush dipped in Inky Pool. The basic technique of using an Opaque with a spritz of translucent works really well for a background like this.

Step Five:  I used Part of the sentiment from Sara's ESN10, stamped in Inky Pool with clear embossing on some pre-prepared 'master-board'. White embossed circles complete this variation on the theme of Florence and her Hippy faces!

Step Six: Gold embossing can help create an impression of doodle links in a golden chain! I also enjoy playing around with the positioning of the eyes to create different effects.

Sometimes I find creating cards a chore, but these cards were so simple to create and doodling around a stamped image is so relaxing and such fun that the process was a pleasure. Once your surface is dry, Frescos are easy to doodle over with Pigma pens like Micron and you can achieve great effects with water-colour pencils, so why not find a simple stamp shape that you like, stamp it out in ink or paint and have a go? This kind of doodling should work well on Mail Art envelopes and journal pages too and you could use it on little gift tags or boxes to make your package really individual and coordinated.

Thank You so much for joining me tonight. You can find out more about how I created these cards and others like them if you have time to hop across to my blog Magpieheaven and you can find me on Twitter, woletz1. Wishing you a lovely creative weekend, full of doodling!

Wow Julie Ann these cards are wonderful.  With your doodles full of personality you have created really unique pieces. i love the faces in the rings, so quirky. Poor Florence really does look anxious, but she needn't be, her headband is very pretty. ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Doodles topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #10: Doodles, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Doodles link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, May 29th 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.