2019 #13 Mushrooms: "Pinkeltjesland" with JoFY {By Ellie Knol}

2019 Topic 13: Mushrooms

Ohh you are in for a surprise, not one but two projects from Ellie today - she loves her mushrooms! And as ever, she is great with plenty of tips for you ~Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Ellie Knol from PAPER-STAMPS-COLOR with you today, and I'd like to share the making of a frame with mushrooms, from a paper napkin and stamped images from two JOFY stamp sets.

When I think of mushrooms I think of gnomes; friendly little creatures living in the mushrooms. So I tried to picturize it with 'Pinkeltjesland', a scene of the little town where Pinkeltje lives, he and his whole family of gnomes. Pinkeltje is known here in the Netherlands from a series of children books, written by Dick Laan (see picture down here).. 
... they were hiding when I took this 'photograph' .. shy as they are, hehe.

Using the paper napkin with printed mushrooms as a backdrop for the stamped images of JOFY46 and JOFY61, is a nice start for the project.

I chose to add only a little red to the stamped images on the edge of the frame to make all stamped images pop. I love the contrasts between the whites and reds.

I painted the background with Fresco Finish Eggshell to match the color of the paper napkin. 

TIPS for working with paper napkins:

- to separate the top two layers.. stick a tiny piece of tape onto the bottom layer (the one you won't use) and the two top layers are separated easily.
- with a wet water-brush.. draw a line to the paper where you want it to be torn; this will make it tear easily along the wet line.
- to glue it down: add decoupage glue to the surface; put your paper napkin onto the background and dab it with a wet cloth. This will prevent it from sticking to your fingers for instance, and it helps to get rid of any air bubbles or wrinkles. Leave to dry first, before adding a layer of glue over the paper napkin. This will prevent it getting damaged during the gluing process.

I love the tiny circles stamp from the JOFY46 stamp set.. it's so versatile... I added it to the grass to tie the paper napkin's pictures and stamped images together.

I stamped the bubbles (tiny circles) from the big toadstool onto the background before gluing the fussycut of the image to the background.. that's always an option when details of a stamp are not easy to fussycut. 

I think this is going to be a gift for the bedroom of our one-month-old-baby-granddaughter; I think I will have to read Pinkeltje books to her in a few year's time. 

Surprise: 

I have a second project for you; same stamps, another paper napkin, a spread in an art journal. When starting the above project for this theme I stamped all the images in black and brown, not sure which color I would prefer with the red toadstools. I went for the brown ones

... why not use the black ones straight away.. ??
It's always fun playing in an art journal. 

I painted the background with Fresco paints to match the colors of the napkin, to fill the whole spread, as the paper napkin was not as big as the two pages.
The edge is Fresco Finish paint too, drawn with a Needle Nose Dispenser Bottle. I filled the bottle with thinned down Fresco Finish Snowflake, a paint I use a lot! 
You can fill the bottle with any color of course! 

Playing with paper napkins is one of my favourite techniques.
Read through my notes to see some tips about easy use /working with this delicate paper, it's so easy to ruin a whole project when messing it up with the decoupage glue.

I don't know about you, but (being a happy crafter) I always have some new ideas or techniques in the make (in my mind) .. 

Thanks for joining in with me today, and as always I appreciate it when you comment- tell me what you've learned from this post, or what you liked.. or maybe you have some tips / ideas for me? I'd like to hear from you!! Thanks...

Have a crafty day ... 

Ellie Knol

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