PaperArtsy: March 2025

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

March 2025 - With 3 Things: Flowerpot {by Floss Nicholls}

Hi friends, it's Floss from floss_workshop.art with you for a 'With 3 Things' challenge post.

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 bloggers are sent 3 items in the post. Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a couple of Fresco Paints, and in 2025, everyone will receive identical products.

We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send, the whole idea of this challenge is to do something crafty in our personal style with these 3 items. We are allowed to bring other PA products into the mix if we feel it is necessary. I decided not to add anything else into the mix this time...

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...Tracy Scott stamp set TS076, her stencil PS367 and two Fresco Finish chalk acrylics in Blue Lagoon and Rusty.

These are not typically the colours or stamps that I would generally choose for myself, especially together, but I do like this 3 things challenge PaperArtsy gives us and so after scratching my head for a while, I thought they'd make a pretty funky flowerpot design... and so I grabbed a flower pot that needed a plant and set to work...I made the design as a wrap around as I initially was thinking that I may add some signature stitching into the design...here's a sneaky peek before it was glued onto the pot and varnished...

...you'll see it wrapped around the pot and varnished at the end...

Not having used these two colours together on their own before I thought I'd mix them to see what other shades I could make...

I particularly liked the tertiary shades (No2 and No4) and so I reused them in segments 7 and 11 (see colour wheel numbering above) to make a further mix giving me an even wider range of colours to choose from.

I started off by thinking I'd use a soft tissue / papier mache application onto the pot and impress the rubber stamps into it, to make the images more indented, so I tried a test piece on cardboard first. I did have a lot of fun playing with this idea! It was messy and sticky, it took ages to dry, ages to clean the stamp and definitely worth avoiding!! The outcome needs working on so I parked that idea there and used another method...

I wanted to use the stencil in panels and so I used the gel plate to pull two pages. One using the Rusty acrylic followed by Blue Lagoon and the other vice versa. I waited for the first layer to completely dry before adding the second paint to pull the print.

I then stamped a large selection of the PaperArtsy Stamp set TS076 designed by Tracy Scott onto acid free plain white tissue paper using Ranger archival jet black ink.

I measured the circumference of the pot (it was not tapered) and so the piece of rice paper I would be using to put the design onto was completely oblong/rectangular. I chose rice paper because it would be more forgiving when gluing it onto the pot. It's at this point here I will add that I used a fine texture paste onto the pot to give me a flat working surface (the pot originally had a textured pattern surface I did not like) and let it fully dry. I gave the surface a light sanding so that it would have a slight 'key' to glue the rice paper onto when it was ready to stick on.

I started auditioning where the design would sit and how many panels may feature around the pot...

I had the colour wheel to hand to see the shades I had available to work with

I started painting on the reverse of the tissue stamped designed ready to use a wet paintbrush to tear them into individual parts.

I actually really liked the way the surface colours on the roll off sheet from my gel plate printing showed through the rice paper giving it a rather rustic background element...I decided to stick it onto the back of the rice paper!

I decided also to tear the gel prints into strips to use between the mask images and glued them into place using a gel matt medium..

I used a very watered down wash of Rusty and Blue Lagoon acrylic paint between the torn segments of the gel prints I made using PS367

I allowed the gel prints to over hang the rice paper so that I could cut them accurately in line with the rest of it after it was all pasted together. I offset the masked images rather than aligning them...I thought this was more in keeping with what a tribal design may represent and how doing that, it would allow me more freedom with placing the other stamped images.

After I trimmed the rice paper to size I added more of the rubber stamp designs from Tracy Scott stamp set TS076 over the design to build attention to detail.

I particularly liked using the triangle and square shaped stamps along the torn edges of the gel prints to merge the two paper designs together. I decided against adding stitching this time after all but I am still glad I worked on the flat surface and added it to the pot as it made stamping the extra details onto the design much easier and without the fear of slipping and smudging anything.

I then added the finer details into the design...

Once I had added the little details to each area I glued it onto the pot using a heavy gel matt medium and waited for it to fully dry. I then used three coats of water based dishwasher safe mod podge varnish to completely seal the art onto the pot. I did this upside down and on a bottle so that nothing would stick to my work surface.

It was then ready to house a plant...

Or some paint brushes!!

I really hope you've enjoyed what I have created here and that it may have inspired you to give the three things challenge a go...or upcycle a plant pot...my son said I should make more pots colourful!

Until next time, enjoy arting,

Much love

Floss x

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Monday, 10 March 2025

March 2025 - With 3 Things: Cards {by Etsuko Noguchi}

Hi friends, introduction it's Etsuko from Pixienst with you for a 'With 3 Things' challenge post.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ, I was very excited!

PaperArtsy Stencil by Tracy Scott (PS367), Tracy Scott stamps set 076 (TS076), PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Rusty (Seth Apter), Blue Lagoon.

I have added these along with the products given. PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Gold, PaperArtsy Mattint - Glow, Dragonfly, Printed Tissue - Tracy Scott (PT04)and Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white card.

Today I have made the Tribe cards let's take a closer look.

So first of all I used two colours of fresco on the card to create the base for the background.

The colours were not applied in solid, but a small amount of water was added to make it uneven with brayer.

The TS076 motif stamps was stamped on these backgrounds using Ranger Distress Oxide-salty ocean, Archival Ink-Saffron.

Faces and their parts were created for use these cards with Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black.

I also detached and joined the facial parts of two different tribes into two different frames. ( Sorry, only one frame photo is shown here but will be shown below.)

The stamped faces were made using two existing colours and bordered with gold and black paper.

Let's take a closer look at the face of each tribe.

Each part is now complete.

Let's build up the layers., I put a burlap in between the layers to give a crisp look and I want to add a bit of an organic feel. What do you think?

To make the card a finished product, a gold and black paper border was added and finally a burlap with the warp thread removed.

I used the given stencil to make a gel print for the photo on the previous card but It could not be built up well. So I came up with the idea of using the same stamp set to use these gel prints to make another two cards.

The leftover paper from the above card was used as the central background and the TS076's motif was embossed with gold and silver embossing powder on black paper as the focal point.

Like a flags of the each tribe.

Gel-printed paper was then placed underneath to complete the process. The gel print on the right was negative and the print was a light colour all over, but it was interesting so I adopted it. Then Tracy tissue paper (PT04) glued with MATTINT- (glow and dragonfly) on the blue background.

These are the last two completed pieces with Alison Bomber stamp set 37 (EAB37) quotes.

I have a lot of fun playing PaperArtsy's products every day. And this time they gave for the exciting 3 Things theme! It was great fun and I was so absorbed in making it that I lost track of time. If you are interested in following the process of this blog, please try 3 things in your own way.

Thank you so much.

See you again soon!

Etsuko xxx

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Friday, 7 March 2025

Gothic Arches with NEW Lynne Perrella Stamps {by Liesbeth Fidder de Vos}

Hi everyone,

Liesbeth here with you today.

Have you seen those wonderful new Lynne Perrella stamps release last week by PaperArtsy?

This year on the blog, we have been given free reign to do a deep dive into one of the PaperArtsy product ranges, and for this post I was very happy to be given these three new Lynne Perrella Collection stamps (LPC073, LPC074 and LPC075) and I'm totally in love with them! I'm looking forward to sharing my gothic arch book with you.

The PaperArtsy Lynne Perrella stamps have always been my all time favourites on earth. I love the historical atmosphere, beautiful fine details, wonderful faces and the collage style of these stamps, magical! As soon as I saw this 3 beauties I immediately thought about the past, long ago.. and castles and gothic windows. I decided to create a gothic arch .... something!

Searching in my stash I found an old book cover, with fabric and a beautifil golden print. I got it from my friend Riitta in Finland. It was perfect for my idea. At this stage I never know what I will use next. I just start and see what happens. Of course my real starting points are the new stamps of the Lynne Perrella Collection LPC073, LPC074, LPC075.

I decided to make a gothic arch book cover and 3 big stamped pages, one for each stamp set. I drew a template and cut out the arch two times (front and back) out of the old book cover, keeping the golden print at the front cover.

Using my template, I cut the three pages out of Heavy Smoothy stamping card. I made them a little bit smaller than the book cover. Using PaperArtsy stencils and Fresco Finish paints I painted the edges of the pages. The stencils I used are PS234 and PS264. Fresco paints: Lawn, Chalk, Persimmon and Summer Sky.

Now I coloured the entire page with Distress inks and a blending tool. I made big overlapping areas with 4 or 5 colours. The one shown here is built up with yellow and greens. The PaperArtsy Fresco paint now works as a resist. I wiped them clean with a dry kitchen paper.

I also inked the other pages, at the right side yellow and red/pink and at the left side yellow and several blues. I finished every page with a bit of dark blue: Chipped Sapphire, to match the blue cover. I stamped the different stamps from LPS074 onto the blue page. I used Tsukineko StazOn-Jet Black for this, because of the bleach I use later on. I masked some important parts like faces and used PaperArtsy Stencil PS105, that wonderful crackle part, and some Distress ink-Chipped Sapphire.

All those wonderful details on the stamps are perfect to add here and there. Sometimes you have to use the stamp without an acrylic block and bend it a bit. Press it in a bended position in the ink and print. Often the detail you need is at the edge of the stamp, like the trinkets at the womans back. That's easier!

I removed the masks and started the finishing touches. Using watered down (and sometimes pure) bleach and a synthetic brush I bleached faces and some details. After drying I coloured the faces with colour pencils, and made some accents with a white gel pen. With a black fineliner I outlined the pattern of the stencil. To make some shadows I used charcoal, wiping it with my finger to create a soft edge. I sponged the edges of the pages with black ink.

The pages are ready, here you can see the charcoal shadows. The red and green pages are made about the same.

I love how they turned out, this stamps are really perfect for this techniques.

Now I am going to make a book out of it. First I glued the pages on dark blue cardstock and cut them out 2 millimeters from the edge. I decided to add even more shadowing with charcoal, now the stamped images pop out! I painted the insides of the covers with blue watercolour paint and punched holes in the cover and pages. Using PaperArtsy Fresco finish Gold I sponged the cutted edges of the cover, and also a bit at the back side.