Thursday, 13 February 2025

February 2025 - With 3 Things: Woven Pouch {by Keren Baker}


Hi friends, it's Keren from (@craftstampink) 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.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ (minus the felt and fabric)...


Today I have made a woven zipper pouch- let's take a closer look.

Here's how it came together..


Gather products that match in colour...giving Refresher vibes (anyone in the UK remember those?!).


Paint large pieces of fabric- the left is putting paint straight on the fabric, the right swipe is using watered down Frescos (roughly 2/3 paint, 1/3 water).


With only 2 colours, mixing them is the perfect way to get perfectly toning extra colours.


You can see my clean up piece of fabric- but the gorgeous stencil was too delicate to get a decent result as the paint was seeping under the stencil- maybe next time I should add spray adhesive on the stencil to stop that.


Whilst I waited for the fabric to dry on the washing line, I got to stamping. JOFY stamps are beautiful and of course stamp perfectly. I do like to over-stamp when using fabric, so a stamp press comes in pretty handy.


Now to prepare some strips for weaving using a rotary cutter- just cut twice as wide as you need the strips to be.


To avoid raw edges, simply make them into bias strips all ready for weaving.


Adding double sided fabric adhesive to the reverse of the stamp images meant it would be easy to iron them on once the pouch was put together.


Ahh the weaving- my brain was not prepared for the struggle or effort! Firstly, prepare your weft- I found a large cardboard box and stuck pins into them.


This is where I nearly gave up. Once you've woven the diamonds (which are at a 30 degree angle to the weft), you then have to create the 'cube' pattern.


The brain strain was worth it- a wonderfully tactile piece of woven cloth.


To secure the weave, just add some stitching around the edges. Now I arranged the flowers-can anyone see a chicken? How I wished I'd seen it when creating it and would have made it look more 'chicken-y'! I stamped on acetate for the black outline flower.


I love the painted fabric- the Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints are just awesome. It was fun creating my own substrate and they're such happy colours to work with. Limited supplies really does encourage creative thinking. What is really exciting is the way that you can create nearly seamless blends on fabric. 
We'd love to see your stamped fabric projects!

See you again soon,

Keren 




Monday, 10 February 2025

February 2025 - With 3 Things: Miniature Flowers {by Jenny Marples}


Hi friends, introduction it's Jenny (Pushing The Right Buttons) 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.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...


Today I have made an arrangement of miniature flowers... let's take a closer look.

After receiving those mystery supplies my mind immediately went to the idea of making flowers, but the stamps in the JOFY76 stamp set are quite large so I decided to use them with lightly sanded shrink plastic and permanent black ink.

As you'll see below, by adding small amounts of Little Black Dress and Snowflake PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint to the Sunshine and Flamingo ones (and by mixing those two together) you can extend your colour palette.

Following advice from a previous post on the PA blog I watered down the paint before applying it to the surface of the shrink plastic.

After cutting out each stamped image and heat shrinking them (deliberately curling them along the way) you can the paint the reverse and edges of each cooled piece with undiluted paint. If needed you can also touch up bits of the front too.

Knowing these flowers will be seen from all angles you can add your own details to the back of the flowers with permanent black and white paint markers. Those noticeable black and white stripes in Jo's original designs can be replicated on the edges of the flowers and also on the paper-covered wire stems. You can protect your painted flowers with clear nail polish.

Now it's time to create the larger flowers with the individual petals and centres. Use a fast bond glue that dries clear throughout the assembly process.

To stick the stems to the base of the flowers I recommend threading beads and a bead cap onto the wire before bending it over at the end. Glue them together and allow to dry.

Below you'll see some suggestions for the ways you can then embellish the stems with extra beads, twisting the wire and by adding miniature painted leaves - I used dies from CoolKatzCraft to cut mine.



To hold the finished flower stems I'd found an old bottle but it needed improvement, which is where the PS086 stencil came in useful. I found it easier to use a permanent black marker to trace the design onto the uneven surface before filling them in with a couple of coats of the Little Black Dress PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint.

I suggest adding something like sand into your finished container to help hold the flower stems in place. And you can add extra stems decorated with beads and bits of broken/old jewellery and the smallest flowers to complete your arrangement.

Here are some close ups of the finished stems...





Well that was fun! I'm off to find out which other PaperArtsy stamp sets will help me create more miniature flowers.

Jenny



Friday, 7 February 2025

Concertina CD Art Book with NEW Seth Apter Stamps {by Tracy Hickman}


Hi everyone,

Tracy Hickman @anonymous.palette and @tracyhickman_artist here with you today highlighting 3 fabulous new Eclectica stamp sets designed by Seth Apter for PaperArtsy.


I created an 8 page Concertina Artist Book to fit inside a CD case as an upcoming birthday gift to my father who’s is turning 83 years young this year along side a disc filled with all his favorite tunes. (My Dad has a vintage car with a CD player ;)

The Passage Of Time circle stamp in PaperArtsy Eclectica by Seth Apter (ESA45) kicked off the idea of a project with a visual theme of time and its progression. Seth in jest dared me to use all the stamps so this hatched the multiple page concertina format and the stamps slowly building on the pages to help force the sense of time and marks growing over the years.

I experimented with creating alcohol inks with Infusions to color stamped transparencies on the front and back pages and loved the stained glass effect created, (more on this later ;) Also loved incorporating some vintage elements and a hidden slide pull of the word 'Fearless' in PaperArtsy Eclectica (ESA43), not to mention having fun with all the glorious stamping.




The vintage photo of my Dad as a kid set the tone for the palette and I wanted to convey celebration with these mid value hues: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Caramel, Agave and Spanish Mulberry. I used 3 lighter value paints in each color and 3 darker value paints for stamping noted below…



Creating the Concertina: Using a paper trimmer, I grabbed 2 pieces of 300 gm Watercolor paper to cut these down to 4 pieces. These measured 4.5” tall by 4.75” wide when folded in half to fit inside of the CD case. 1” wide white Artist Tape was run vertically between the 4 folds to connect. I love this tape as it can be stamped on or painted over and wonderful in journals.

I did create a simple mock up using copy paper to flush out the idea and sizing that was very helpful, measure twice and cut once! The size of the 1 3/4’ square corresponds to the dimensions of the amazing grid frame in PaperArtsy Eclectica Set by Seth Apter (ESA43). I centered and cut out the first square with a blade then would pencil through the cutout onto the next page and cut to make sure all the squares lined up perfectly. The openings are cut slightly bigger than the stamp.



This is where the fun really started! Using a small circle gel plate, I stamped the 3 PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Caramel, Agave, and Spanish Mulberry, starting them spread out farther at the beginning and increasing the amount of circles as they progressed, playing up the progression of time. The PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are necessary for a project like this so the book pages don’t stick together inside the case.


Let the stamping begin! After laying out the stamps in order of use, I got to work with the 3 lightest values of my selected hues: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics - Sand, Fuzzy Cactus, and Haze (a fave). Adding white to the background colors would have been easy butt I was in a time crunch. The stamping also started out more sparse and gained momentum toward the end further enhancing a sense of time My first job.

Below, I chose the remaining stamps with the darkest of the hues, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Toffee, Jade, and Plum, accelerating the amount of stamping again as the pages progressed. I probably added just a smidge too much on page 3 but sometimes the project wants what the project wants!


Add some stamping with Embossing Powder for some sheen and added dimension. I chose 2 stamps from PaperArtsy Eclectica by Seth Apter (ESA44) to direct the eye and add some additional contrast. WOW! Embossing Powder Inspired by Seth Apter - Space Dust (WW06X) and Emerald Creek Baked Texture Powder - Well Rustic Indigo was used on two of the stamps. See below.


Now for some embellishing… I used transparency film to stamp the grid frame stamp in PaperArtsy Eclectica by Seth Apter (ESA43), one of the major focal points in this project. The back of the film has a texture to it, and that is the side where you want to stamp. When turned over you have a beautiful smooth crisp image through the shiny front of the transparency. HIV I stamped a bunch (as not a great stamper) knowing I needed 2 full stamped grid frames for the front and back and 12 additional frames with the center grids cut out for the 6 internal pages.


Now for the alcohol ink experiment using PaperArtsy Infusions 😍. I selected Golden Sands, The Sage, and Raspberry and sprinkled them into 70% Isopropyl Alcohol, available at any pharmacy. Using about as much alcohol as I would add to watercolors, I painted the colors onto the textured side to the transparency film for a beautiful stained glass effect.


The six circle stamps spread across all three stamp sets were die cut and embossed with Lindysgang - Boogie Down Black Embossing Powder. Waxed book twine was sandwiched between 2 circles to be glued between the black frames from the back and later trimmed. The word stamp ‘Be Fearless’ from PaperArtsy Eclectica by Seth Apter (ESA43) was embossed with Emerald Creek Baked Texture Powder - Rustic Indigo and the words cut in two for the back cover.






A vintage paper target from my stash of ephemera happened to be the perfect size and came out to play to frame the transparency for the front cover along with a rusted key glued and sewn with that same waxed book twine to add to the hidden word “Fearless”.


There were quite a few steps, and some missteps along the way, (I accidentally glued the transparency upside down on the back cover and had to redo the front stained glass piece to match so it lined up. Also, I “misplaced” the plus stamp in PaperArtsy Eclectica by Seth Apter (ESA43) somewhere in my disaster of a studio but, I know right where it goes and will add when found, I’m not gonna let Seth down! But, overall so much fun to make! Check out the finished pages and concertina.





Love love love this stained glass effect using PaperArtsy Infusions with alcohol ink!


The stamps start out more sparsely…


The stamping gaining momentum and center circles building in contrast as well, and yes they spin!


The heaviest amount of stamping with all colors and added embossing powder for the finale.



And who doesn’t love an interactive pullout!


My Dad’s favorite quote is “Fear Not The Risk” and “Be Fearless” seemed the perfect punctuation to this CD Concertina Artist Book showcasing these new PaperArtsy Eclectica Stamp Sets by Seth Apter (ESA43), (ESA44) and (ESA45).

So loved working with these stamps, all three will be future go to’s for sure. I’m also looking forward to using these CD cases (they are really affordable and come in multi packs) for future concertinas. How awesome would these CD cases look on a shelf or coffee table filled with art? And, my husband while admiring, informed me that they also make cardboard box covers for these that would be fun to adorn as well.

Stay creative Peeps! 🎨
Tracy