PaperArtsy: 2019 #3 Mail Art: Envelope Collage with ECF {by Nikki Acton}

2019 Topic 3: Mail Art

Nikki has produced some magnificent mail art for us tonight. Using several envelopes to create a larger piece of art, she's created a wonderfully textured piece that's way more than the sum of its parts.

Hi everyone, it's Nikki from Addicted to Art here with you today, and I'd like to share my take on the our Mail Art theme using Courtney Franich's stamps with a little bit of Alison Bomber and Sara Naumann thrown in too!

Courtney's stamps are just a little different and I love them - perfect for abstract art, creating texture (or texture effects), background and collage. There are lots of different elements on each stamp set which can easily be mixed and matched.

Envelope Art featuring PaperArtsy stamps (ECF04, EAB07, ESN24) and paints - with Tim Holtz Large Stems Bigz die.

My original idea was to create a random envelope collage. I found a square panel to use as a base and some small (A7) kraft envelopes. When I realised how perfectly they fitted on the panel - this more structured composition was born.

I used stamp set ECF04; you can see above how I have randomly stamped several elements in paint onto my background envelopes. (These were first brayered with my selected colours, 2 with blue tones dominant and 2 with more brown).

I used Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics for brayering the backgrounds and for stamping the textures - with ink being used for the words. My selected colours were: Sea Glass, Surf's Up, Chalk, Eggshell, Pine Grove, Sargasso, Pea Coat and London Night.

The central envelope was a collage of different stamped elements from ECF04 and also ESN24 (Sara Naumann) as the postmarks tie in with this theme! I stamped on photocopy paper - some with the waste paint off my brayer and cut and tore them up. Then I played with my composition.

It was a little bright so I toned it down by dry brushing with Chalk paint.

To complete the project I added an Alison Bomber quote from EAB07 (Dreaming and Doing) and added some die-cut flowers painted with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics.