With 3 Things: You're all invited! {by Tracy Hickman }

Hi friends, it's Tracy Hickman from @anonymous.palette with you, super excited to be a guest blogger for this 'With 3 Things' blog post.

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 bloggers are sent 3 items in the post. We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send us, there are slight variations (for example on this round we each were sent slightly different stamp sets) but generally 2 of the 3 things will be identical.

I received a wonderful surprise in the mail from PaperArtsy with a Hot Picks Stamp Set (HP1011), a PaperArtsy Stencil (PS106) and 2 PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints, in Taupe and Marbles. I also added vintage book boards for my substrate. The theme this part of year on the blog is 'Nature' and we are launching a new Topic about 'Printing' so I wanted to include both in my project.

The idea for this project came together very quickly: Ann Barnes (@aksbarchitect, part of the regular PaperArtsy blogging team) and I are friends and she has an amazing garden. When I saw the arched door stamp I imagined her garden so I created an imaginary “invitation” to all the PaperArtsy folk as if I was hosting a party in her garden and all were invited (but an imaginary one ;). I made it with formal event invitations in mind to go with the 'Printing' Topic.

My starting point was the stamp set HP1011 with its amazing floral arched doorway that immediately gave me tunnel book vibes. Have I ever created a tunnel book? You may wonder and the answer is definitely no! ... but I was up for the challenge! Ellen Knutson from UFlibraries has a tutorial on YouTube that I watched to get the basic gist of the construction.

I experimented stamping on several types of paper in both black and brown archival inks and ultimately ended up using vellum for the crispest images.

The conundrum I had was the size of the stamp: it needed to be larger and scaled up further for the scenes to create a tunnel. I finally had eureka moment of using a printer to scale up the stamped image. This had me very excited! I enlarged the arched doorway image to 110%, 130%, and 150% and printed on to Canson Mixed Media Paper, a thinner weight that would go through the printer.

The size of the tunnel book and frame 7 1/2 “ wide x 9” tall ended up deciding the size of the cardboard book structure, 9” wide by 10 1/2” tall.  I spent a ton of time on mock ups using duplicate images and sighed with relief when the actual tunnel construction happened and worked out…

I also used the owl stamp in that set and reduced it to 75% and 50% to add to the tunnel. To bring some colour and variety, I had some vintage floral illustration books that were calling out to be fussy-cut. I added them to the floral arches using the larger flowers in the foreground and smaller flowers in the background to further enhance the sense of depth.

Now, onto the background! I’m an oil painter and currently taking a cloud workshop which inspired the background.  A coat of white Gesso covered the book boards and then the fun began!

The back and forth dance of a brush quickly blended three paints, Marble and Nougat with hints of Taupe to make a misty summer sky, perfect for a picnic garden party!

PaperArtsy Stencil PS106 by Scrapcosy followed and was placed strategically on the front cover and both inside pages. I used a few drops of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint in Taupe to tint a paste to spread through the stencil for some pattern and depth. I did have one area on the front cover that smudged but the other areas turned out beautifully. I ended up sticking a butterfly on the smudge in order to conceal the mistake ;) Butterflies fix everything, right?

My tunnel needed a frame! I almost attempted a plaid pattern on it but really wanted some grungy texture to contrast with the “prettiness” of the other elements and a weathered crackled wood look came to mind. 

PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze came to the rescue and I revisited a PaperArtsy YouTube tutorial by Leandra that was super helpful. The first layer of Taupe went down on the front and when the cardboard started to curl a bit, I ended up applying paint it to the back as well and it flattened right out. Once dry, I used a wide plastic pallet knife to apply the crackle paste very thinly and evenly and prepared my 2 top coat colors of PaperArtsy Fresco Paints in Nougat (tying in the clouds) and Chantilly.  The key to the crackle is to apply your top coat generously and fast, so I did so with a wide flat brush, being careful not to go over existing areas of paint. 

Those glorious cracks you can see on the frame started forming immediately and using a heat gun, I was happy to see both large and small cracks come together. I added a bit of Ranger Industries Distress Ink in Vintage Photo around some of the edges and using a brayer (a Mags Woodcock tip) applied some hits of Marble to pull in the sky themed book background onto the frame also.

As further embellishments, the flower stamp in PaperArtsy Hot Picks set HP1011 were also stamped on vellum and printed out in 3 sizes. I even mirrored the image as I wanted the swing of the flower and stem to be very specific on the front cover. Another Eureka moment and now all stamps will be looked at with new orientation and sizes…  

I cut out a whole field of flowers onto mixed media paper, used three colors of Ranger Industries Distress Oxide Inks (Antique Linen, Lost Shadow, and Vintage Photo) along with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Chantilly to create a vintage daisy. I cut off some of the petals of several and used them to stack on top for a 3-D effect on key flowers.

For extra interest, the center of the flowers was embossed with WOW Embossing Winter Ice and Lindys gang Toadstool Taupe which I dotted with an embossing pen.

Now I needed an actual invitation!

PaperArtsy Crunchy Paper (waxed kraft paper) was the perfect accompaniment for a picnic! The blackthorns from PaperArtsy Eclectica Set EAB31 by Alison Bomber seemed perfect to adorn deckled paper with WOW Clear Ink and embossed with a fine Taupe embossing Powder from Lindysgang as a base for a delicate vellum text. I also used the postcard stamp on the “r.s.v.p.” slide die cut and added some of my customs flowers. 

With the inside now all decorated, it was time to work on the covers. 

I wanted to make them interesting but just a tease for what was inside. For the front, I printed out 2 more enlarged doors, cut out the awning and door panels of one and layered them to make the door feel more 3D. 

I added even more dimension with a bit of Oxide Ink in Lost Shadow for shadowing. A vintage flea market escutcheon was the perfect addition to anchor the assemblage and some ephemera from AB Studio and Tim Holtz Ideology were nice add ons!  Note the “for you” stamp from set HP1011 that leads you to the knob to open the Cover….

When I saw the 'Wise Owl Quality' stamp from Hot Picks stamp set HP1011, I knew this would go on the back cover like a signature. To go with this, I included another owl from that set along with a stamped flower quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson from Alison Bomber.  The larger owl is from the PaperArtsy Scrapcosy PT05 Tissue Paper for scale. A feather and a few other tiny labels finished off the back cover.

Thank you PaperArtsy for the challenge and coming on this imaginary picnic with me :)!

Tracy Hickman

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