A note from Leandra:
It's a big release coming your way ... albeit in mini sizes! I'm sure you'll agree Alison's mesmerising tutorials and explanations encourage us all to jump in and have a go. This release is going to result in so much new content on her YouTube channel I am sure. I just know she is absolutely fizzing with ideas!
Presented here is her second release of mini stamps; numbers ABM009-ABM016 are new, and we have re-branded the original numbers 1-8, and added colour to the index sheets, so they are also below for you to see too as a reminder.
There are more 'firsts' for Alison's range!
- Her first mini stencils - 5 designs available, and, drum roll,
- her first 4 paints! We all know how much Alison loves her greens and blues, so we have developed with her some of the 'holes' in our range that she wanted filling first! So, how exciting is that! These are going to add to her favourite frescos she already uses most!
Alison will be along to share with you LIVE these new products and ideas over in our Facebook Group, 'PaperArtsy People' shortly after this post publishes
These stamps are available EXCLUSIVELY from our approved stockists. Please check the list at the foot of this post to find a retailer online or geographically near you, it makes sense to order within your country where possible. Our retailers also endeavour to join the designer's live to share their direct shopping links - this makes it super easy for you to find a store with product in stock immediately.
Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures, with so many exciting things to share with you. This is going to be a LONG post! But there are lots of pretty pictures along the way...
If you are here for the short version, then this section shows you everything new in this bumper release, so scroll for images. Further down, I'll share more about each of the lines and show you plenty of inspiration too, of course!
First up... Mini stamps. Do you remember these? My original 8 minis? Well now they are on 'my' designer index sheets, and they have new numbers. That already happened a few months back, but as they are wintry in style, I thought now is a good chance to remind you of them all, in full colour too! If you would like to see the examples from this release, head here to the original launch post.
Alison Bomber Minis ABM001- ABM008 (already released)
Are here's a look at the 8 NEW minis ABM009-ABM016. You will notice they come in pairs, but they work alone too! More on all that later in the post...
In PaperArtsy land, if you have new minis, you also sometimes get to design new stencils, so we have those too!! Majestical mini things coming your way ....
Plus we have new tissue paper to talk about. Tissue is so versatile in crafting terms and, at this time of year, it's also great for gift wrapping!
And here's a really exciting adventure... new paint!! Leandra and I developed these colours back in June, and finally they are here to share. My very own colours - brand new to the PaperArtsy range!! So let's start there shall we?
Alison Bomber - Fresco Chalk Paints
Let me tell you a bit about how I landed on these colours, and then we'll take a closer look together ...
Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints
Price: RRP €5.26 +VAT Size:50ml (1.7 fl oz)
Matte, chalk paints suited to all surfaces. Quick dry, mix of coverage opacity (see the chevron on the bottle). Over 200 colours available across the PaperArtsy range. UV resistant, water based, indoor-outdoor, non-toxic, low VOC chalk paint. Our paint chemists have over 120 years experience between them, and are distinguished for their inimitable quality.
It won't surprise you that my first collection of paints is inspired by nature and includes shades of my all time favourite colours - blue, brown, green and grey! As you'll see, all these new designs are taking us into nature's beautiful landscapes, and the new paints are designed to blend into those landscapes perfectly, echoing the trees, the earth, the fields, the evening skies and the morning mist.
They also mix up beautifully, creating a palette of vintage naturals and neutrals which remind me of linen fabrics or Farrow & Ball paints, perfect for Georgian interiors a la Jane Austen, or old stone buildings with beautiful shutters (like the ones near PaperArtsy HQ in the Dordogne!), as well as landscapes and botanicals.
Fresco Finish Paint by Alison Bomber - Twig (FF239)
Twig is a soft brown, perfect for bark, twigs, earthy fields and faded foliage. In partnership with French Roast (my all-time favourite brown up to now!), it's going to be brilliant for creating dimension on tree trunks and branches - capturing the light in contrast to French Roast's shadows.
Fresco Finish Paint by Alison Bomber - Leaf (FF240)
Leaf is a fabulously fresh green, perfect for spring and summer foliage and grasses. It has a brightness to it, and since it's semi-opaque, it's great for creating that glow of sunlight through leaves. it's also going to look great as part of coppery patinas and mossy decay.
Fresco Finish Paint by Alison Bomber - Misty (FF241)
Misty is pure magic... an ethereal, mysterious colour hovering somewhere in the air between white and the lightest of blue, green and grey tones. From a misty morning to fluffy clouds high in the sky, from spring blossom to white roses and hydrangeas, it's going to bring an atmospheric light into anything it touches.
Fresco Finish Paint by Alison Bomber - Dusk (FF242)
Dusk is inspired by those glorious ombre skies you often see just as the sun is setting - the point where the bright blue of the day is shifting into the deep blues and purples of the evening sky. It's also going to be wonderful for so many of my favourite florals - lavender, violets, bluebells.
As you can see, I've been having fun dyeing some seam binding to create beautiful vintage shades of fabric, using the paints individually and in mixes...
Without giving too much away (!), here's a glimpse of the paints in action with some of the new mini stamps and stencils... There's more about how I created these panels further down the post, once we get to the stencils.
Alison Bomber - Mini Stamps
Alison Bomber Red Rubber MINI Stamps (approx credit card size)
Price: RRP €4.90 +VAT
Size: generally credit card (ish) size images
All stamps are individually trimmed onto cling foam
I can't wait to dive into these new Mini designs with you. Both the stamps and the stencils are inspired by the countryside surrounding me here in South Bohemia. They take us deep into nature’s beauty, whatever the season.
You can combine them to build landscapes with depth - distant trees and a foreground of grasses, fungi, berries or more trees - or stamp them as feature elements all by themselves.
As mentioned before, they come in pairs - two grasses, two "watercolour" trees, two mushrooms, and two fir trees. Rather than naming samples, each section is headed with the name I've given each stamp in my head!
Enjoy the forest year round with just a change of colour… summer foliage, autumn leaves and mushrooms, winter whites, fresh spring greens. Let's, as the Czechs say as they head out for a walk, "go into the nature"...
You can combine them to build landscapes with depth - distant trees and a foreground of grasses, fungi, berries or more trees - or stamp them as feature elements all by themselves.
As mentioned before, they come in pairs - two grasses, two "watercolour" trees, two mushrooms, and two fir trees. Rather than naming samples, each section is headed with the name I've given each stamp in my head!
Enjoy the forest year round with just a change of colour… summer foliage, autumn leaves and mushrooms, winter whites, fresh spring greens. Let's, as the Czechs say as they head out for a walk, "go into the nature"...
Alison Bomber Mini 009 (ABM009) - Tangled Hedgerow
Tangled Hedgerow
For ages, I've wanted to create a tangled hedgerow for my other botanicals to grow out of, and these minis were the perfect opportunity to do that.
ABM009 is known in my head as Tangled Hedgerow, and the very first thing I wanted to try was stamping it with some of my older umbels (AB041 Pressed Umbels Edition) over a simple ink splotch background. I love the varied stems in this stamp - different grasses and leafy stems all reaching for the sunlight...
I couldn't resist trying out one of my favourite techniques with this Tangled Hedgerow - some "watercolour" stamping using Distress Inks. By using multiple Distress Inks to ink up the stamp, you can then stamp "in focus", or spritz some water onto the stamp and get a fabulous watercolour effect... By varying the colours it can be summer in the meadow, or glorious autumn.
As you'll see, there's definitely a focus on landscapes with this release, and in this sample I used the Tangled Hedgerow over a simple watercolour background to add detail over the soft-focus background... and the colour tones take us into a wintry landscape with sculptural dried stems still standing in the frosty morning.
Watch out for the CRAFTalong mini live coming soon on the PaperArtsy People FB Group when I'll be showing you how to create these watercolour landscapes. It's really very simple, I promise! For these, I used some of the Semse paints we had for the ArtsyCrafts Retreat at PaperArtsy in June (find them here on the PaperArtsy website). The background can be as messy as you like...
... because the stamps are going to take centre stage when you add them over the top...
And once you peel back the tape, you'll reveal a miniature artwork! Full reveal coming below!
Tangled Stems
Alongside the Tangled Hedgerow come these Tangled Stems. Their foliage has an almost fern-like quality, and the tiny tips at the top can have a look of seedheads, berries or flowers, depending on how you use them.
You probably spotted in the process photos above that I used the Tangled Stems on half of those watercolour landscapes, creating a coordinating series, so I might as well show you those to start with...
And even though this blogpost is going to be plenty long enough, I do just quickly want to show you the full quartet together! Working in a series is a central part of my creative process, so seeing them as a group matters to me.
You can see in the group photo, that I also tried out the Tangled Stems with one of my older botanicals (AB044 Winter Umbels Edition)...
And it works beautifully for the watercolour stamping technique - shifting from the wintry landscapes above to summer or autumn with no problem...
But my favourite thing to do so far with these Tangled Stems might be to turn them into flowers!
Simply stamp the basic stems in a permanent ink. I used Ranger Archival Leaf Green.
And then use a fine-tipped brush - mine is a Pentel water brush - to add tiny dots of watercolour paint to each of those seedy tips, and see how it transforms the whole look.
Watercolour Firs
If you've watched any of my swatching and doodling videos over on YouTube, you'll know that I very often end up painting very simple little landscapes - and this next pair, the "watercolour trees", grew out of those landscapes. You get trees in two sizes on each stamp, which allows you to play with depth and distance. And oh, how much fun I've been having with these Watercolour Firs!
For lots of people, fir trees are associated very strongly with Christmas, but we are surrounded by them all year round here in the Czech countryside - and I promise they are just as beautiful in summer as in winter! Over simple stripes of watercolour - blue, green, then blue again - I stamped the tiny trees in Stormy Sky Distress Ink on the horizon line.
I then added the larger ones in Rustic Wilderness Oxide (with maybe some Peeled Paint DI also in there) by the water's edge. I spritzed the ink that was left on the stamp with some water, turned it upside-down and stamped the "reflection" into the water. A few lines of white penwork highlight ripples in the water. And some of my older stamp sets provided the perfect words...
Of course, the whole point of these "watercolour trees" is to enable you to create a soft watercolour effect with your stamping. Using a variety of Distress Inks and Oxides, spritzing occasionally with just a little water, and doing secondary and even tertiary stampings, you can create a whole forest in just a few seconds.
But, of course, it's also irresistible to add the fir trees to snowy landscapes... these ones with some magical salty watercolour skies over the snow, and some simple words from older stamp sets. These trees are mostly stamped in Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans Distress Inks, with some touches of Chipped Sapphire to add variation.
Once you've created your snowy tree-filled landscape, you can fill the skies with whatever you like - a large die-cut snowflake, a greeting, or perhaps a very special visitor (courtesy of a limited edition Tim Holtz die-cut in this case)!
Watercolour Foliage
In my head, this second watercolour trees stamp is known as Watercolour Foliage, mainly because the smaller stamp can form hedges as well as distant trees. Also it is so much fun creating seasonal variations as you change the colours. And it's the foliage that does the changing...
These watercolour tree stamps look pretty unassuming at first glance, but just look what you can do with some layering! Using multiple Distress Inks - Peeled Paint, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive and even some Stormy Sky in the background there - plus occasional spritzes of water and secondary stampings, you can create glorious forests with almost no effort. This would be a delightful card topper, just as it is, or a wonderful start to a journal page.
And with some decorator's masking tape, you can make four landscape paintings almost as quickly as one. Again, don't worry - you'll be able to watch this process unfold in the mini live CRAFTalong coming your way soon.
I mask the watercolour paper off into quarters and sweep on very wet washes of watercolour paint, so that they are quite pale backgrounds. Once those are dry, I ink up the stamps - starting with the small, distant trees. (Anyone else getting echoes of Father Ted throughout this post? "Small... Far away..."!) Usually, I'll dab on more than one ink colour.
Then I just keep layering the trees up, occasionally spritzing either the inked stamp or the paper if I want a softer look. Use the larger trees in the foreground to give a sense of depth. And on one of these I've also added some of the Tangled Hedgerow in the near foreground. Layer, layer, layer!
And here's just a little sneak peek of work in progress with another landscape, framed up and ready to be the background for one of the stamps you're just about to meet...
Spotty Fungus
The Czechs are absolutely obsessed with wild mushrooms. At this time of year, there are announcements on the news about good fungi-gathering weather! I haven't gone for anything mycologically exact on these playful mini mushrooms (you may meet some more detailed fungi in future stamp sets!), so this one is just known as Spotty Fungus.
I say there's nothing mycologically precise about these, but Spotty Fungus is very clearly inspired by the Amanita Muscaria a.k.a. Fly Agaric. There are some fabulous stories around the Fly Agaric - make sure you drop in to the Live Launch to hear how it's connected to flying reindeer!
For this tag (and the partner tag featuring the next fungi stamp!), I made a background with Crackle Glaze (French Roast underneath, then the glaze, then Snowflake over the top. Using the stamping platform means I can re-stamp for detail if too much gets lost under my Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics. You can see most of what I used in the photo, plus some Dragonfly Mattint to add the sky later... the transparent Mattints won't cover up any of that gorgeous crackle!
Fungi come in all shapes and colours (and I mean ALL shapes and colours) so you can really let loose with these images. Me... I like the neutral zone, so you won't be surprised to see a brownish-grey version here! A bit of paint brayered and sponged onto a small kraft cash envelope gives the mushroom a shabby chic look that I really like. (It is, of course, part of a quartet, so watch out for more of these coming your way further down the post.)
And here's that wooden frame you saw earlier, now with a fungi foreground focal point in front of the autumnal forest scape...
The stamping platform was in action again, to allow me to layer up my washes of paint. What a fabulous colour Kiwi Gold is! It's so good on its own, but also mixed with the Tinned Peas to brighten up the green. Cinnamon, I'm afraid, is no longer available, but Brown Shed is a good alternative for this kind of rich chestnut brown. And Shadow Mattint is - unsurprisingly! - great for adding shadows.
A quick bit of fussy-cutting, some sticky-fingered gluing of autumnal embellishments, and I've got a landscape diorama which makes me deeply happy.
Gills Fungus
The delicate structures on the underside of a mushroom cap are known as gills, so when I'm thinking about this stamp, I think of it as the Gills Fungus. It's a bit of an in joke, as my mother's name is Gil (only one L, like my Alison), and she's a fungi fanatic - so it could also be Gil's Fungus!!
Sometimes it's nice just to keep things really simple - especially on a first stamping... Just a chance to get to know the image, and try out a few paint effects. You very often get spots of decay and discoloration on the cap of a mushroom, so as I was painting these I tried out adding extra dots of colour to the wet paint ("wet in wet", that's called, in watercolour terms), and just let the pigment do what it wanted to do.
Here's another of those cash envelope fungi - money mushrooms, if you like! Let's take a closer look at those backgrounds first this time. Some new (to me) paint colours - Kiwi Gold, Olive and Desert Bush - along with my (old version, slightly darker) Hey Pesto... definitely a magic combination for this time of year as summer turns to autumn.
Again, I sponged a bit of Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic over the brayering to create a place to stamp my Gills Fungus, and used a watery wash of French Roast to tint the cap very subtly. I love how the background brayer textures echo the scribbly grass stems. This would make a great way to give a gift card or money as a present.
And here's that partner to the Spotty Fungus crackled tag you must have spotted above... There's just something so right about combining crackle and mushrooms - organic, decaying, fascinating... they have so much in common. A bit of ephemera from older stamp sets, plus the perfect words, "the hidden life that breaks forth", (from AB045 Crocus Edition), and we're done.
Fir Trees
In contrast to the watercolour tree pairing, this pair of pine tree stamps give you lots of sketchy detail to play with. Again, being evergreen, they can move through the seasons... there's nothing quite like a pine forest in spring, with the sunlight slanting through the branches and the pine needles springy underfoot.
Since I was playing with Mini designs, I thought I would try out these watercolour tickets sent me by Fuumuui, as they are just the right size for some little pine trees! I added some very simple watercolour washes of paint - letting the colours blend while still wet.
I used a permanent ink to stamp the trees, so that all that sketchy detail will be preserved, whatever I do next. I think they already look pretty good like this...
But adding a bit more watercolour paint over the top brought the trees to life in a whole new way. I love the simplicity of this, and it's going to make a brilliant bookmark!
But there's no denying the beauty of evergreen trees in winter, of course. Silhouetted against the snow, they give dynamic structure to the bare landscape. On a simple Distress Ink-blended background, spattered with tiny droplets of water and then with paint, I stamped the tiny Watercolour Firs at the horizon line, and then added the Fir Trees and tinted them in the same Chipped Sapphire and Wilted Violet tones as are in the background.
It's also really fun to play with these using the watercolour-effect method with Distress Inks and Oxides. I love softening the sketched lines to create a misty effect. And again, with repeat stamping, it's so easy to create a fir forest in seconds. You could add a stamped and fussy-cut berry branch over the top, or simply add a greeting and you've got a beautiful Christmas card in no time.
Evergreen
The second pine tree stands proud and alone, evergreen and beautiful. You can absolutely use him to create a forest, or stamp him in the foreground with other trees behind him, but he is also designed so that you can turn him into a very special festive fir...
And I can't resist showing you them as a pair... I know they are simple, but sometimes (just sometimes) less is more!
Funnily enough, in the watercolour-stamping version, this Evergreen reminds me of a Christmas tree lot, with them all lined up for sale, rather than a forest... is that just me?! I used a damp brush to soften the ones in the background - that helps them look more distant - with the foreground trees in full focus.
So, if that's a tree lot, once you've bought your tree, you can bring it home and decorate it! You could add a simple doodled wooden barrel for it to stand in, or add lots of presents at the foot of the tree (sketched, die-cut, or just lots of differently coloured squares of card).
I used the fabulous Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Gold (give it a good stir to mix in the heavy gold pigment and it will reward you with a glorious shimmer) to add shiny baubles to the branches - and you could add glitter or tiny dimensional beads, sparkly twine as tinsel. The sky is the limit!
I used the fabulous Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Gold (give it a good stir to mix in the heavy gold pigment and it will reward you with a glorious shimmer) to add shiny baubles to the branches - and you could add glitter or tiny dimensional beads, sparkly twine as tinsel. The sky is the limit!
And that was such fun that I couldn't resist giving it another go. This time, the baubles are done with Tim Holtz's Distress Mica Sprays. (Just spritz a bit onto your craft mat and dip a fine-tipped brush in it.) The ivy you can see in soft focus here and in more detail on the golden tree above is one of the new mini-stencils... which brings me perfectly to the stencil section!
I think all these tiny stamps are really versatile, and open up lots of new playful possibilities for landscapes and layering and in every single season. I can't wait to combine them with my other designs - it's going to be so exciting - and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with them too.
Alison Bomber - Mini Stencils
PaperArtsy Stencils {Mini Size}
Price: RRP €4.90 + VAT
Mini Size: 3.5" x 3.75" (9cm x 9.5cm)
Robust 250 micron mylar designed to offer longevity, deep texture and easy clean up
What a treat to have some tiny stencils... and if a couple of these seem familiar to you, you're not wrong! I'm overjoyed to have a small scale stencil of my much-loved large Berries, and the tiny version of the ivy (also available in the giant size) is fast becoming one of my all-time favourite stencils! Plus you have lots more fabulous fungi to play with.
PaperArtsy Mini Stencil 037 by Alison Bomber (PM037) - Tiny Berries
Tiny Berries
These tiny berries are just perfect for layering into backgrounds. They're going to combine brilliantly with so many of my botanical stamps - allowing you to create soft-focus background layers for the the detailed stamps to pop against.
In this case I used gentle Pumice Stone, Speckled Egg and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks to add the berries to the card and envelope. Some minimal ephemera collaging over the top and one of my all-time favourite quotes add up to a simple, thoughtful card. The Rumi quote is featured on AB003 Music & Silence.
And they are gorgeous with some Grunge Paste through them - always one of my favourite stencil techniques. I used my new paints - all four of them, Dusk, Leaf, Misty and Twig - mixed with Matte Glaze to create the ombre background, and then added detail to the stencilled texture with the paints themselves.
Something definitely crept into my creative soul as I was making these, because here's another gentle card, celebrating the power of silence. The Fungi Family you're about to meet is layered in with the Tiny Berries - first of all inked in Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap, and then with some darker Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood added by hand. Another powerful quote from the same AB003 Music & Silence quote set completes the atmosphere. (I'm wondering if my subconscious was thinking of the Sylvia Plath poem, Mushrooms...)
Spotty Mushrooms
You know me... I love to work in groups, pairs, trios and series, so as we explore these fungi stencils, you're going to see my "repetition and variation" mantra in action! Obviously, it's optional whether you make the Spotty Mushrooms spotty... this stencil gives you the choice. Here I have gone spotty, with some Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone ink over Snowflake paint. I also added some shading at the bottom.
I can't believe how effective the Snowflake paint looks, blended through the stencils onto kraft card. I also used the outer square of the stencil to create frames for a couple of these... You could leave any of these just as they are, or add some extra detail, as I've done above.
If adding detail is your thing, then you can go even further. Here, I've done some penwork, adding simple doodled outlines (well, "inlines", really). You can use the stencil to help guide your pen, or be brave and go freehand. The shape is already there to help you. And I copied the grassy scribbles from the Spotty stamp version!
Fungi Family
I adore this Fungi Family (you already saw them alongside the Tiny Berries above, as well as them starting off on their kraft card trio journey). I love them all lined up in a tidy row, with a few extra family members added at either end, and extra shading through the stencil with some ink giving them just that bit more definition.
But they also look great when they're allowed to be more messy and grungy (this time with a couple of family members left out!). I've added penwork detail to the stencilled image (yes, we're back with those brayered mini cash envelopes again!), and I don't think you would even know it's a stencil. It looks hand-drawn and hand-painted!
And I absolutely love them with Grunge Paste smeared through to create that dimensional delight! Again, the new paints are in action - Dusk, Misty and Twig, mixed with Matte Glaze - to create this atmospheric panel.
Gills Mushrooms
Instead of optional spots, this stencil gives you optional gills... but they can also work as grass stems. That's how I've used them at the foot of this tag, along with lots of scribbly penwork on the fungi themselves, plus added spots of paint (so now these are spotty mushrooms too!). I did also use the gills as gills if you look at the "upturned" mushroom in the middle - tracing the gill outline with my pen to start me off.
Here are the gills in full-on gills mode. You could go over again with the pen through the stencil if you wanted to add more detail after the ink-blended layer.
And I have to just quickly show you the kraft trio all together... that's the whole point of a trio, after all!
Tiny Ivy
Ivy is one of my favourite plants in the garden. I know you need to keep an eye on it and not let it get too boisterous or too near the house, but when it's this tiny I think you're probably fine! The giant ivy stencil was wonderful for large scale journal pages, but this one is perfect for tags and cards and ATCs. It's utterly scrumptious used with Grunge Paste... I can imagine this added to small wooden boxes or frames as a brilliant "carved" detail.
This ivy works beautifully as a frame for a photo or words or another image (as you saw with the festive firs earlier), and it's so much fun layering up the different strands to create winding trails of ivy across the paper. And yes, you guessed it, the AB003 Music & Silence quotes are back again...
I also knew I was going to love combining it with my other botanical stamps. Here it creates the perfect bower for one of the Pressed Umbels AB041 to grow out of.
As you can see, I'm really enjoying having these mini stencils to create with. I know I've only touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I'll be able to get up to, and I can't wait to see how you include them in your creative playtime.
Printed Tissue: Winter Botanicals
Printed Tissue Paper by Alison Bomber (PT16)
Price: RRP €4.20 +VAT
Size: 30" x 20" (67 x 47 cm) 4 per pack
And finally in this mammoth release - it's last but definitely not least! - I'm so excited to reveal this festive tissue paper, filled with berries and branches, mistletoe and firs. And there is some really delicious ephemera adding vintage delight in between the clusters of botanicals. It’s going to be perfect for card-making, for journaling and tags, or even for wrapping up gifts!
And it doesn't have to be just for Christmas. There are lots of botanicals here which will be fun to play with year round. Here are a few tasters of what I've been up to with it so far...
And it doesn't have to be just for Christmas. There are lots of botanicals here which will be fun to play with year round. Here are a few tasters of what I've been up to with it so far...
Festive Rainbow Botanicals
With just one sheet of this tissue paper, you can create multiple cards using my Rainbow Botanicals technique. (I only used about half of one of the four sheets in the pack to make all these.) And by changing up the positioning, every card can include a slightly different cluster of botanicals.
Just glue down your chosen area of tissue paper onto a pre-folded card. Use a soft decoupage type glue, or add a bit of water to regular acrylic glue so that it is easily spreadable.
Then add layers of Mattints, building beautiful ombre rainbow backgrounds. (I've shared a YouTube video here on how to do this with my older botanical tissue paper PT08 - just head to the Words and Pictures homepage, and put "rainbow botanicals" into the search bar, and you'll find it.) I think you could just leave it right there... they already look great. Maybe add a word sticker or two, and that could be that.
But I can never resist adding a bit more painting detail over the top. And picking out the details somehow allows the Mattints to glow even more in the background! I used all four of my new paint colours, plus a wealth of other Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics.
I'm not sure I can manage a full list - and I'm always mixing them further on the craft mat as I go, in any case!
Definitely in the mix are Brown Shed, Dusk, Dusty Teal (discontinued, sorry, didn't realise! Bora Bora or Calypso would work instead), Evergreen, French Roast, Hyde Park, Kiwi Gold, Leaf, Lipstick Red, Misty, Twig, Wisteria plus - of course - some Snowflake for the final splatter.
Art Journal - Inside and Out!
The large scale of the imagery on this tissue is fabulous for using in journals of all shapes and sizes... and even on the covers too!
For this page spread, I started with a coat of gesso to soften the book text and prepare the paper surface. (Old books can sometimes be very absorbent.) I brushed on some of the Leaf Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic, and then used a watery brush to "cut" loosely around the edge of the fir tree forest on the top edge of the paper. I glued them in along the foot of the pages, and added some white pen and ink detail, as well as some watercolour depth to the trees themselves. The words are from the AB005 Winter Edition quotes set, and the Tim Holtz snowflake die-cuts add an extra flurry of snow.
I've had this kraft art journal on the go for a while, so it's already pretty chunky on the inside, but the plain covers were a bit boring... That's easily fixed just by gluing on some of this gorgeous tissue.
I used watery washes of Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic to add highlights to some of the berries and leaves, and now I love the rustic look of my journal cover!
Snippets and Leftovers
The trouble with this tissue paper is that you can never throw any away... even a scrap might come in handy!
These tags and the rusty fabric all use leftover snippets of tissue which were lying around on the craft table as I was making the other samples.
A leftover strip glued down onto a white tag and water-coloured gives you a really zingy fresh-looking tag to attach to a gift, or use as a card-topper.
I love the ephemera elements which give you a touch of vintage detail, but in larger sizes than they appeared as stamps originally. Combine them with some festive die-cut greenery, and you've got a treat of a gfit tag.
And I couldn't resist gluing a couple of snippets to some rusty fabric from my stash, creating a beautiful element for using in a journal page or for collaging with.
Festive Arrangements - work in progress journal page
I love the clusters and gatherings of greenery and berries on this tissue paper, and here's a journal page which makes the most of them.
Putting together natural garlands and wreaths and arranging vases full of seasonal branches is one of my favourite parts of festive decorating. I glued as much of the sheet as I could into one of my largest art journals. (Open like this, it's 12 x 16 inches, about 30 x 40cm.)
I started with a coat of clear gesso to give a bit of tooth to the slight sheen of the tissue surface. And I really mixed my mediums for this... from watercolour to Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic to Mattints...
Watercolour works fine for most areas, so you can use it throughout the page if you like. But if you want to add colour to any of the black berries, you'll need an opaque paint or ink for that.
I found that my new paints are absolutely perfect for painting mistletoe... Misty is wonderful for the berries, and combining it with Leaf gives you the exact shade you need for the foliage. I also enjoyed mixing Leaf and Dusk to create depth in the pine needles, and Twig is perfect for the twiggy bits of the hawthorn next door, as well as for the pine branches.
You'll notice in these later photos that the page is still unfinished. I've done that deliberately so that I can share the rest of the process with you in a YouTube video very soon. It'll be one of my regular episodes - so either a Wednesday or a Friday evening. Keep your eyes peeled!
You'll get to see exactly how I mix up my mediums - switching to whatever is best for any given image, and sometimes using multiple mediums within one element. And I've only just started adding Mattints to zhuzh up the background. Watercolours will also work for that, so watch this space... (or rather the space over on the Words and Pictures YouTube channel!).
Thank you so much if you're still with me - I know this has been a mammoth post! There's just so much to share and, as you can tell, I'm pretty excited by all the new possibilities.
I hope you'll enjoy stepping into the world of landscapes with the new Mini Stamps, and going on a fungi foray with the Mini Stencils. I know nobody NEEDS more paint colours, but I am so thrilled with my new Frescos - gorgeous nature-inspired additions to the PaperArtsy line... what an honour! And I hope you're as excited as I am by the new Printed Tissue. I know there are so many more possibilities to explore, and I can't wait to see how you will play with these new products.
A HUGE thank you to the PaperArtsy crew for all that they do. It's a joy and a privilege to collaborate with such a brilliant, knowledgeable, hard-working and creative company of people. Thank you for making these adventures possible!
You can see more and visit me at...
YouTube - Words and Pictures
Instagram - Words and Pictures and Bohemian Home
Website - Words and Pictures
Blog - Words and Pictures
Facebook - Words and Pictures
1 comment:
I love your new release, Alison! I made time to see the items and get them all ordered. I will look forward to meandering my way through this lovely post when I get home from work. Have a great day!!! 🙂
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