Waterfall Mini Album with JoFY Products {by Martha Ponsanesi}

Hi everyone, Martha (craftingmartha) here today to hang out with you on the blog.
Have you seen how many lovely new releases have come out? I’ll be getting stuck in myself soon, but for now I’ve made a mini waterfall album using the ever-popular JOFY stamps and stencils.

I absolutely love JOFY’s flowers, they’re so cheerful and whimsical and they’ll brighten up every page of this mini album. 

I decided to create the mini album from scratch, so I picked four of my favourite PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics in Caribbean Sea (FF94), Bubble Gum (FF116), Slimed (FF137), Firebird (FF210)  and the Smoothy A4 White Stamping Card (SCA4), from which I cut out six pages measuring 4" x 4"  and of course I kept the leftover bits too!

I thinned the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics down with water, then used a small flat brush to add some loose stripes to the leftover pieces of card. 

For the album pages themselves, I switched to a larger brush and gave them a full wash of colour...

...a fun and relaxing way to get started.

To make the background a bit more interesting, I used a blending tool to apply the Mattint in Fern (MT03) through Stencil PS231.

I went for a tone-on-tone look with the Mattints on the pages, so along with Fern, I also chose to use Mattint in Shark (MT04), Bellflower (MT17) and Foxglove (MT18) to keep things soft and harmonious. (These last two Mattints are among the newest releases, so if you can’t find them on the PaperArtsy website, you can check the list of PaperArtsy Stockist here).

For the backs of the pages, I used the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics, applying them through the PS309 stencil with a blending tool, for a coordinated finish.

I wanted the first page to set a different tone from the rest, so I grab the JOFY's Printed Tissue PT03 ...

...and I applied with Mattint in Acid (MT14), which created this beautiful blend of colour.

Have I mentioned how much I love JOFY’s flowers? For the look I had in mind for the pages, I needed a floral cluster, there’s a gorgeous one in the JOFY133 set, but I wanted a few more, so, using masking technique, I turned some of the single flowers from JOFY101 and JOFY123  into the clusters I had in mind.

Now it’s just a matter of cutting them out and moving on to the tricky part, building the ‘mechanism’ for my waterfall mini album!

 

Now that we’ve created our pages, we need to build the structure onto which they’ll be applied.
The measurements are shown in the photo, but for convenience I’ll list them here as well: a piece of Smoothy (Regular) A4 White Stamping Card (SCA4) measuring 9½" x 4", with the first score line at 3¼" and the following ones every ¼"; a strip measuring 8" x 2"; and a small piece measuring 2½" x 1¼".

Apply some glue along the spine, starting from the second fold, attaching what will be the last page, and continue with the others in reverse order.

Then finally attach what will be the first page, the one we had previously decorated with the Printed Paper (PT03).

On the shorter side of the structure, glue the 8" x 2" strip in place as shown in the photo…

…and then apply glue over the entire surface to stick down the last page of the mini album.

Decorate the longer part of the structure using the Stencil PS309, this will remain visible when the waterfall mechanism is activated.

Then attach a tab to help flip through the pages. 
The mechanism is now ready!

Using Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white stamping card (SCA4H), create the cover that will serve as the base for the waterfall structure. Cut a piece measuring 11" x 4", with score lines at 5¼" and 5½", and colour it using the same PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics used for the pages.

I liked the idea of echoing the elements used on the pages in the cover design, so I decided to use the polka dots from the JOFY101 set, and later I’ll add some stamped and cut-out flowers.

With the Mattint Foxglove (MT18), I glue a piece of Printed Paper (PT03) to the end part of the inside cover.

And now we can proceed to glue the waterfall structure onto the cover, applying glue only to the area indicated in the photo.

The flower clusters we created earlier, once cut out, make a lovely decoration that also serves as a holder for our photographs, just be sure to apply glue only along the two side edges.

To make the inside cover a bit more interesting, I cut a pocket from one of the leftover pieces of SCA4, then decorated it using stamps from the JOFY133 set.

Inside, you can insert tags, memorabilia, or similar items.

Here is my finished waterfall mini album! I really enjoyed alternating between the purely creative part, decorating with colours, stamps, and stencils, and the slightly more technical part of building the structure, even though it was quite simple.

Here you can get a better view of the inside of the cover, with the pocket and the first page covered in printed paper. I coloured the word “bloom” using Mattint Foxglove, and the little flower was cut out from a leftover piece of Stamping Card.

By alternating colours, stamps, and stencils, I tried to give the pages a vibrant yet cohesive look. The white squares are just waiting to be used as photo mats for the pictures that will be stored in this mini album.

I’m really pleased with how this mini album turned out. The waterfall structure has always intrigued me, it's often used as an additional element in more complex projects, but here I wanted it to take centre stage. Now that I’ve got the hang of it, I’ll definitely be making more! Next time, though, I might not leave the strip that holds the mechanism plain white… I thought it wouldn’t be visible, but the edges are, and I’d prefer them to be coloured.
Can’t wait to see your creations too.

Have fun.

Martha xxx

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Box & Cards with NEW Tracy Scott products {by Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos}

Hello everyone, Liesbeth here with you today, so nice to be back. For this post I have been exploring the new Tracy Scott products that were introduced a few days ago: three brand new stamp sets and three new stencils!

Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you my box and lots of cards. My plan was to have fun experimenting, combining and discovering the nice, funny, Egyptian style stamps and stencils...and I did!

As you can see it got a bit out of hand, it's quite a lot! The reason is.. I really couldn`t stop! :-)

These beautiful supplies were sent to me: PaperArtsy Stamps TS099, TS100 and TS101. And PaperArtsy Stencils PS474, PS475 and PS476.

I never have a plan in advance, I just go with the flow while creating. But this time I found a small blank pizza box (24x24 cm), it asked to be decorated. For the background of the box (and a stack of cards) I also used two A3 pieces of white cardstock. I'd love to show you the process!

First I took the two big pieces of cardstock and started to create two 'master boards'. Using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish-Matte Glaze I glued some different torn pieces of old book paper to create structure.

After a thin layer of gesso I started painting the surface with my favorite colours: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Blue Lagoon and Limelight. The paints were applied with a wet baby wipe.

Using the three stencils I started to decorate the masterboards. For some contrast and vivacity I also added the Fresco paint colours Scottish Salmon, Guacamole and Glass Blue.

With some small sponges, this  colours of Fresco Paint and some gesso I continued playing with the stencils onto both papers.

Time for the stamps! I used lots of different stamps of the stamp sets, perfect for this background and so perfect in combination with the stencils! I used Tsukineko StazOn inks: Jet black, Cactus Green, Blue Hawaii, Mustard and St. Valentine.

The masterboards are ready to use!

Onto two A4`s of PaperArtsy Smoothy regular white stamping card I stamped almost every stamp from the three stamp sets TS099, TS100 and TS101. The ideas immediately started bubbling in!

I cut them out and coloured every piece part with water colour pencils and water.

I cut the masterboards in different pieces for cards and ATC`s. For the top of the pizza box I needed a big square, 22 x 22 cm. I sponged the edges of the cards with black ink.

This way I arranged the different cards with all kind of combinations and bits and parts of the stamps. So much fun!

I coloured the sides and edges of the box with blue ink and stamped the small flower and Egyptian characters with white and black ink. Now the big cat card can be glued onto the box lid.

Onto one of the cards I used a piece of Tracy Scott`s printed tissue paper PT04. I tore out the bee and painted the backside of it with Fresco paint Snowflake, let it dry and glued it onto the card with Matte Glaze. (one of the pictures below)

I matted everything onto blue cardstock and ..ended up with a nice box and a lot of cards!

The pizza box...ready!

The top of the box with the cat and its new big ears, It's sitting onto two 'feather things', the same as the one the flowers are on. The scarabs are the cat`s guards.

Here I used a piece of printed tissue as I explained before, and I outlined the edges of the white stencil print with a black fineliner.

The cat with its own ears, but here I gave it other wings.

Three ATC cards, I used small pieces from the printed tissue (script) and a black fineliner and a white gel pen.

How I love the big dragonfly! The cat`s wings this time was the bow, I just cut it in half. I decorated the cat with the big masque and the whiskers.

A joke! The 'hair` is two wings I cut off the cat, the mouth is pieces of the scarab!

A detail of the dragonfly card.

I really loved playing with the new Tracy stamps and stencils! So many possibilities and combinations...I enjoyed and had so much fun! So much that it was almost impossible to stop.

Hope I inspired you! Keep creating and have fun..!

See you next time, have a nice day,

Liesbeth

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