2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour with ESA {by Amanda Pink}

  2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour

Ohh I adore these clean and crisp blues, and doesn't Amanda make the most amazing backgrounds?! And I love how she adds those striking layers on top! The shadow it is just wonderful to make the word pop! Read on to see how she has pulled this beauty together!
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Amanda Pink (ink-a-pink) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a mixed media art block that I have created for the current theme 'Favourite Colour'. 

Blue has always been a favourite colour of mine along with the classic monochrome colours of black white and grey so it was pretty uch a given that they were my chosen colours for the theme. 

My art panel is the result of lots of paint layers, detail stamping, a touch of stencilling and some embossing that along with the 'sectioned' finished design come together in 'Unity'. 

PaperArtsy have so many blue and grey Fresco Chalk acrylics there was lots of 'umming' and 'arring' deciding which to choose. In the end I thought why not go big and use all the colours in two of PaperArtsy colour families: 'Bright Clean Blues' (Blue Oyster, Summer Sky, Smurf, China, Glass Blue, Twilight) and 'Greys' (Snowflake, Concrete, Koala, Elephant, Slate, Little Black Dress). 

If you aren't familiar with PaperArtsy fresco colour families or are interested in finding them out  you may like to check out the end of this blog post here where they are all listed.  

Not sure of the size I wanted the finished piece to be I created a masterboard working on a piece of  PaperArtsy Heavy Smoothy as I knew it would take the layers.  A brayer is a great tool to use for this type of creativity as it allows for quick application and can also give the paint some texture when applied.

For a gradual build up of layers and depth of colour I alternated between the two colour families, So for every colour from the 'grey' family I laid down I then laid down a colour from the 'bright clean blue' family ie, Koala, China, Elephant, Smurf and so on repeating the process many times over. 

So far along and following my creative muse I felt the need for another colour outside the 2 colour families so in keeping with the 'favorite colour' theme I added some Inky Pool, one of my absolute favourite PaperArtsy colours.  

Many layers later (lost count how many) I was pleased with how things looked 

 Close up

The brayer application of the paints created texture like I  mentioned at the start and  I thought the two colours families had played well together. 

 

To add some detail to the masterboard I introduced some stamping using a selection of stamps from Seth Apter Set 13 (ESA13), Set 16 (ESA16), Set 24(ESA24), Mini 41 (EM41) and Hot Picks Set 2101 (HP2101EZ) .

I chose stamps that I thought would work well together but would give a good mix of letters and numbers (HP) shapes, text (all be it broken and obscure) and texture (ESA). For each stamp I used either a Fresco Chalk Acrylic (Snowflake, Inky Pool) or ink. 

Although some stamping appears more visible than others (intentional) they are all there. The large sets are A5 size, and the Mini is a credit card size stamp. These are such useful images when building up layers with paint.

 

 

The small white circles you may have spotted are all thanks to Lin Browns stencil 001 (PS001).

 

I like the 'openness' that you can create by simply drawing around a stencil design. I don't know about you but all too often I reach for the mediums to apply through the stencil when sometimes all that's needed is a pen!  

This was the section of the masterboard I cut to size and mounted on an art block. 

 

For the focal 'Unity' plaque I used the 'Unity' stamp from Seth Apter Set16 (ESA16)

The word was embossed on to a piece of the remaining master-board. I think embossing always helps an image stand out far more than ink stamping does and that's what I wanted. 

  

Using the excess master-board ensured a seamless connection (a 'Unity') between the main background of the art block and the background of the focal plaque.

A 'Unity' which I emphasised more by creating 4 connecting sections in the finished design.

I had such a great creative time making my art block and overall I'm happy with how it turned out. It's not often I create with so many colours and I've never on any of my makes used all the colours from one of the PaperArtsy colour families let alone two before but I'm so glad I did this time. They may not all be clearly visible in the finished piece but they all played their role in making it what it is. Same goes for the stamps. 

I wonder, what's your favorite colour? Favourite PaperArtsy colour? How many colours do you usually create with? Have you ever used all the colours from a PaperArtsy colour family in your work? I'm sure many of you will have but if you haven't why not give it a go and make something in your own creative style. 

Thanks for joining me today/ tonight 

Keep on Creating 

Take Care

Amanda

x

Blog: ink-a-pink 
Facebook: Amanda Pink 
Instagram: p1nkart 
Pinterest: PinkArt

2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour with ESN {by Sara Naumann}

  2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour

This is the cutest little pocket niche, and what a great tip to fold before adding colour and stamping so you can get the right details on the front facing sections! Love that clear embossing too! It really looks cool on those old papers to introduce a transparent layer!

~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Sara Naumann with you today, and I'm here to share an easy little pocket-style book. I have a thing for these simple folded booklets—I love how it makes a fun presentation for tag art, notes, little treasures, and could easily be adapted to any style or favourite colours. 

Speaking of favourite colours...(or "favorite colors" for my fellow Americans!), I was hard pressed indeed to choose as I tend to love them all! But blues and greens have always been my go-to colors and honestly, when I feel down or find myself crafting for therapeutic reasons (we've all been there, right?) then I tend to reach for those shades. 

Blue often represents sea, sky and open spaces, as well as freedom and imagination. Greens, of course, relate to the earth, renewal and hope. Blue and green go well together not only in terms of their colours, but also because of these feelings. In coordination with the nature theme, I've chosen a new and an older set of stamps: Eclectica ESN47 has those large leaves and inspiring quotes, and Eclectica ESN54 has our "magic" and seahorse. When I'm designing a stamp set, I always try to make sure it will coordinate with other, older stamps you already have so you can get the most mileage out of your stash!

This folded pocket book is a classic, and one that's easy to do in an afternoon if you're looking for a project that enables you to either go clean and simple or break out allll the stuff. Plus you can fill the pockets with all kinds of stamped, stenciled, and painty things.

 

First, you'll need an A4 sheet of cardstock—nothing too heavyweight, Smoothy 240 is perfect—and some paints and your brayer. When working with multiple colours, I find it's easiest to choose one dominant colour (Fresco Finish Marbles), then a secondary colour that I'll use less of (here,  Fresco Finish Aqua Duck Egg). Then, I pick a few more contrasting colours to use in smaller amounts as accents. I'm splattering with Fresco Finish Gold, then Fresco Finish Mouse Ears, and edging and reverse-stenciling with Fresco Finish Slate.

You can either fold your paper first, or paint first. I'm going to fold this one first. 

 

First, fold it into six even sections. 

Then, fold in each corner as shown. A bone folder really helps, you want those folds to be crisp!

Fold the piece in half the long way.

Position the piece with the long edge closest to you, then fold in each side as shown.

Tuck one corner into the other.

 

Then I unfolded the piece to paint it. This means I can plan my painting, stenciling and edging on which section will be in the front, and what will be on the back. When I brayer-paint my background, I'll put a little dollop on my craft mat, run the brayer through the paint and then across the cardstock. I like to leave some white showing for contrast. I brayered with Fresco Finish Marbles first, then let it dry and brayered a bit of Fresco Finish Aqua Duck Egg.  

 

I love some Grunge Paste texture! Here I'm using the PS272 stencil, which is a great one for abstract patterns. 

Scrummelling some Grunge Paste through your stencil gives interest and dimension—of course you can tint the Grunge Paste with paint but I'm a big fan of the natural bone colour that adds just the right amount of contrast to a painted background.

Bring on the gold! Splatters of watery Fresco Finish Gold paint give some metallic shine and more contrast. Let it go over the Grunge Paste-stenciled design too.

Then repeat the procedure with another colour of paint, like the adorably-named Mouse Ears. This is a darker, leafier green and you only need a touch to create some really gorgeous contrast. It seems to have blue tones as well as green, which makes it perfect in combination with Marbles and Aqua Duck Egg.

When the paint is dry, then just fold up your pocket. You can then have a look at what portions of the booklet you want to accent with more splattering or stenciling. I decided to pull out PS204 and stipple a bit of Mouse Ears on the inside back of the pocket.

Glue the bottom together—I use a bit of white glue on a toothpick.

Now it's time to fill up your book!

Each fold will create a little pocket, so you have space for all kinds of things.

So what to put in your pocket book? Well, I love little paper treasures and notes, personally... but you could also tuck in a gift card, a special recipe, a thoughtful note or small gift item.

  

This is a layered combination I really love—the ginkgo leaf from Eclectica ESN47 with the seahorse from ESN54 heat-embossed on top and painted with Marbles and Mouse Ears.

Here's the gingko leaf again, clear-embossed, cut out and layered on top of a reverse-stenciled background done with Fresco Finish Slate and the PS272 stencil. The text stamping is from Eclectica ESN54, and is the dictionary definition for "wanderlust".

This is a favourite quote and one that works nicely as a bookmark-style piece. The postmark "button" at the top is from ESN54.

The leaves here are from Eclectica ESN47. I stamped them with a blend of the blue and green paints, added some Gold and then clear-embossed on top to give some durability before cutting them out and placing them on the front of the pocket.

Then, just tuck your treasures inside the various pockets!

After everything is folded and assembled, you can add any finishing touches... more stamping, a bit more stenciling or splattering, some edging, twine or ribbon. And while I've only made one of these little pocket books, it occurred to me that you could make several and bind them together to be a larger book of pockets!

I hope you enjoyed the read today and the colour inspiration too!

Blog: Sara Naumann

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