Wednesday, 13 May 2026

Old and New with TS {by Katy Norgate}


Hello everyone, Katy Norgate here with you to share a journal page I have created using Tracy Scott stamps, stencils and Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paints. I am delighted to share my first 'Tracy Scott blog' post with you. My brief for this make was to dive into Tracy's past releases. I have been fortunate enough over the years to attend several of Tracy's workshops at Art from the Heart in Harrogate, UK, as well as having subscribed to many of her online classes. I am drawn to her beautiful large and colourful designs and as a result now have a decent collection of her stamps and stencils, as well as all her vibrant Fresco paint colours. 




I am going back to Tracy's Eclectica days here, as you can see from the old product number on my stamp set (formerly ETS24, now TS024). This is one of my all time favourite sets of hers and when she recently released the accompanying stencil PS474, I knew this was the design I was going to work with and get playing. I have also used the complementary stencil PS125, in addition to PS160 and PS200, 



For colour, it had to be a bit of nearly everything!! If you have seen my previous blog posts or social media posts, you will know rainbow is my favourite colour! So here is the list, with links, to the Tracy Scott colours of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints I have used - Deep Sea FF198, Coastal FF237, Bermuda FF224, Cerulean FF200, Prawn FF98, Cherry Red FF86, Cerise FF136, Flamingo FF226, Lily the Pink FF218, Berry Nice FF216, Persimmon FF209, Banana FF91, Firebird FF210, Zinc FF235, Pea Coat FF27, and finally the addition of some Snowflake FF15 
In addition I use Tracy's texture stamp set TS065




I decided to work in my large Dyan Reaveley Dylusions journal. The size of these pages work perfectly for Tracy's big designs, and it is the journal I have used for most of her workshops in the past.

I began by creating the background; sticking to analogous colours, in tones of turquoise. I finger painted until the page was full. 




I then applied Bermuda paint through stencil PS125, and then darker tones through PS160 and PS200 to bring these patches of colour together more harmoniously. 






Above is the finished result .....for now.

The next stage was to create the flowers using Fresco Finish Chalk acrylic paints through the stencil PS474, building colours with each layer of petals. Tracy did a fabulous Facebook Free Mini Live demo (TS024 & PS474) for PaperArtsy back in August last year (2025); this can now be found in Tracy's Facebook group: Tracy Scott Creative Cafe  here. If you haven't joined this group, it is a must; there are literally 100's of online classes, free tutorials and her new Release Videos in the Guides section!

I used a sponge to apply the paint through the stencil shapes onto 240gm PaperArtsy smoothy card stock SCA4. Three colours for each flower for the most part, but you will see I only do 2 layers for some. Here I have used Lily the Pink, Cerise and Berry Nice, working light to dark.



The trickiest part is lining up each layer to complement the stamped images, but using the stamps as a reference, I sort of worked it out, not perfectly, but you will see once complete, it really doesn't matter. 



I repeated the process with the colours shown below, so that I had different coloured flowers to work with. 






Below, the paint layers are finished. 

 
These pages look quite untidy, but that is fine, as the flowers will be cut out when they are finished.


The next stage was to stamp and emboss the flowers onto the corresponding painted flowers. This is a great technique to enhance a stamped image and give it a raised texture. 

While I know many of you will know how to use embossing powders, for those that might not be as familiar, please allow me to explain. 

Firstly you are best using a slow drying ink to stamp your image. You could use a clear ink, for example VersaMark, but there are many brands on the market; and then add a coloured embossing powder, or you can use a coloured ink for example any of the coloured VersaFine Clair inks, as I used here, along with a clear embossing powder. Each give a similar result. If I want a bright white finish, as you will see later, I prefer to use a clear ink, and white powder, since no white inks are quite potent enough for my tastes. No reason either, not to use a coloured ink and a coloured powder together, but it seems generally unnecessary to me. The options and supplies out there are enormous!

I used Versafine Clair nocturne ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. Once you have stamped your image, and sprinkled your chosen powder, you then apply heat with a heat tool and watch the magic happen as the powder melts.

This image is with the clear powder applied to the black ink .....


And here is the image with the powder melted. If you look at some of the close up images at the end, you will see the gloss and embossed relief, this technique gives you.



Here are my embossed flowers. I think the stamping and embossing really transforms the flowers. You can see I have mixed up the paint layers so that some of the flowers have white base petals. Now to fussy cut them all out!! Some of the stamped flowers have overlapped a bit where I didn't leave enough room, but again this was easily remedied in the the way I set out my floral arrangement as you will see later.



It is now time to put all these elements together, adding enhancing details to the background and then some flower arranging. I'm not gonna lie, this took the longest LOL!!

Firstly black and white pen to outline some of the stencilling.


White embossing with this swirly stamp as detailed above. 


I then decided to add a bit of a border in one corner, sponging Berry Nice though the random circles of PS474, and then stamping, very loosely, over that with the complementary stamp from PS024. What a versatile pairing these 2 products are!


Some stamping using the snowflake acrylic paint, as well as with black archival ink. Then some painterly splatters of white and purple.


I auditioned the flowers in various poses ... across the middle, down the side, diagonally, but settled on this corner arrangement. I used dimensional tape to top the larger flowers with smaller ones, and kept some of the smaller ones loose for balance to the arrangement. 


I added a few sequins for additional embellishment as well as more painterly splatters. 


There was a bit of a gap in the top left hand corner, so decided to use sentiments from TS028 (Formerly ETS28). I white embossed them onto black card. 




I'm calling this page complete. I really enjoyed the process. I genuinely believe in releasing this stencil PS474, Tracy has made my favourite stamp set PS024 even more versatile. I am now asking “Tracy .....PLEASE can we have a similar stencil for PS025?!!”

Think of the different colour combinations you could use here?!

Here are some photos of the finished page.





Here are some close ups of the finer detail ...










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Monday, 11 May 2026

Slimline Box Tutorial with KC {by Autumn Clark}



Hello everyone, Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint here with you today to share a fun way to turn a few simple gel prints into a birthday gift that keeps on giving.  Grab a cuppa and let's get printing!





I was spending the weekend with my mom, who loves Kate Crane's fun stamps and asked me to work on this project with her.  She graciously allowed me to pick from her selection of PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints for our gel printing session.  Because she loves purples and blues, I tried to pick a palette that would gear towards her tastes.  I included Electric Violet, Bougainvillea, Orchid, Snowflake, Bermuda, Sargasso, Aquamarine and Slimed Frescos.  Later in the process we added some stamping and used VersaFine Clair ink pads, in perfectly coordinating hues: Warm Breeze, Charming Pink and Verdant.  We decided upon one focal stamp set, PaperArtsy Kate Crane stamp set 11 (KC011).  




My hope is you will be inspired to make a few new prints inspired by these colors or use some of your stash for a similar project.  Our goal was to create a few quick prints, but it's sooooo hard to stop with just a few.  I ended up making 8 pages using various combinations of the abovementioned colors.


We had a lot of fun using some of Kate's Mini Stencils, including PM033, PM036 and PM035.  We used one larger stencil PS426, mainly to add pattern in Snowflake over the darker colors.  






Our prints were on plain white cardstock and book pages.  I cut some of my favorite pieces into mini slimline card panels (3x6") and layered strips across each panel as shown.  Love the book page showing through!  I then stamped each flower from KC011 directly onto the layered panels.  I was able to see where each focal image would be and then picked out some of Kate's Mini Stamps to add collage stamped layers surrounding the images.  For this, I used my trusty three favorite backgrounds from Kate's Minis: KCM016, KCM03 and KCM001.  


 

I could see these cards coming together and decided to kick this project up a notch by creating a box pattern to use for gifting the card set.  Now, I based these measurements on the Mini Slimline Envelopes from The Paper Cut, which measure 3 5/8 x 6 1/2".


I just love how easily it is to turn a simple gel print into a beautiful gift!  I created the pattern as follows, I first cut the gel print to 8 3/4 x 5 7/8” then scored 1” from each side.  I snipped the cross score lines to form box and glued those tabs to the inside.  I cut 1” from inner score lines for a window, using red line tape to secure a sheet of acetate.  Then I cut a separate base from white heavy card to 9 3/16 x 6 5/16”, again scoring 1” from each side and cutting the cross score lines to form box, gluing those tabs inward.  I've shared other patterns for boxed greeting cards on my blog, including THIS popular post for standard A2 cards, which could just as easily be adapted for this project if you are unable to get the mini slimline envelopes.  





Next I had some fun restamping my focal flowers onto Bristol and watercoloring them using my markers and aquabrush.  


I added a couple of the smaller flowers from the stamp set onto my box cover, curling the petals with my bone folder for dimension.  I love how they work with the focal flower from the cards inside!



I let my stamped gel prints dry overnight, even after heat setting the VersaFine Clair ink, because it can be smudged easily until fully dry.  I put the papers under a stack of books to help flatten them during that time. 


I hunted through my stash for a birthday sentiment.  I thought, what a fun birthday gift idea to give someone a stash of handmade birthday cards to gift throughout the coming year!  I loved this handwritten font from PaperArtsy Jo Firth Young stamp set 14 (JOFY14) and stamped and fussy cut those.


I really love how the background stamping settled into the gel prints and created a subtle pattern pop!


The focal colors change from one card to the next, based on the gel printing and stamping colors.




Here are the finished cards one by one...


From pinks and purples to blues and greens...


From coneflowers to seed pods to daisies...


Even if you don't decide to gift the cards, creating the box is a fun way to store them throughout the year as you wait to send them in the post.




If you're anything like my mom and me, you have a large stash of gel prints.  Even when you try to be intentional about creating only what you use, the piles grow and grow!  I really hope this post gives you some ideas of how to put those prints to good use through simple layering and coloring techniques.  What's one thing you can give the person who has everything?  Definitely artsy birthday cards!  That's something we all need and never have enough!  :)  Thanks for joining me (and mom) today!  xx, Autumn



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