2016 #19 Gothic Arch {by Clare Lloyd}

 2016 Topic 19: Die Cuts

Hi everyone Clare Lloyd here.

I don't own that many dies but rummaged out a couple of my favourites to use for tonight's project. Of course, bright colours just had to be involved so decided on some juxtaposition and went for a monochrome look on the face. 

Step One: First I cut two Greyboard arches using a Tim Holtz die, one I cut into half for the doors on my gothic arch.  Then slapped on some Gesso. Once dry out came Cherry Red and Yellow Submarine Frescos I blended this in with a paintbrush working with horizontal brush strokes. While the paint was still wet I wiped back the colour using my stencil 023 and a baby wipe.

Step Two: Once my blended background was dry I added stamping using Black Archival Ink and a dotty image from my ECL09 stamp. Then some blue archival ink using Mini 18. I formed my gothic arch and punched holes ready to piece it all together with some Prima jump rings.

ECL09 

Step Three: Now for the girl ECL09. She was stamped onto Smoothy card using Black Archival ink. I used a 4B graphite stick but a very soft pencil would work the same I am sure! Softly shade lines around the edge of the face and details of the image. Then blend in a circular motion using a paper stump. The shading becomes lighter as you move into the centre of the face. She was simply cut out and glued onto my gothic arch.

As a finishing touch I die cut a PaperArtsy Tall Heart Die using some Metal Card, added some texture using an embossing folder and painted it with Little Black Dress Fresco paint. Once dry I sanded it back a little to reveal the metal on the dots. This was added to the doors of my gothic arch plus a little more stamping using Mini 72.

 Mini 72.

The grey shaded image looks really great on a bright background and is so easy to create...why not give it a try yourself? I love to see what you do with my stamps and so do share them with me, I like to show other peoples make on social media to spread the word!. 

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Those arches make a great frame for your stamped girl, and the tall heart is a brilliant finishing touch, hiding her away just waiting for the doors to open. Gorgeous colour blending and the colour removal technique with the stencil really pops. ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Die Cuts topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #19: Die Cuts, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Die Cuts link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 16th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.

2016 #19 Journal Page {by Kim Dellow}

 2016 Topic 19: Die Cuts

Hey Folks, it is Kim Dellow here playing along with the Die Cuts theme that is currently on the PaperArtsy blog.

I thought I would share with you an art journal page I've made using some of my own stamps, and, get this - I have some new stencils too, so one of those will be making an appearance on this page!

For my project I wanted to make the die-cut shapes that I am using an integral part of the page, so I am using them to form a focal point as well as to add a bit of texture and dimension. I'm also going to show how I used die cuts as a tool to help build the page. For a bit of fun I've done the whole tutorial as a video, but you will also find a little summary of the main steps as still photos under the film. 

Here is the video of the whole page from start to finish:

Summary of the main steps using the die-cut shapes:

Step One: The journal page starts by making a die-cut cardstock frame using a large Spellbinders Labels 8 die and cutting an aperture in it with a circle die. I've glued the frame to the page with gel medium and covered it with Buff Fresco Finish Acrylic paint. 

Step Two: Once the layer of Buff paint is dry I've added drips and splatters of the Baltic Blue and Coral paints to add both texture and colour. I've knocked back the centre of the die-cut frame with gesso then used the negative from a die-cut circle as a mask to stamp the flowers from my PaperArtsy Eclectica³ {Kim Dellow} EKD03 set in the middle of the aperture and coloured the flowers with paint.

 EKD03

Step Three: Now, using my new circles stencil (PS034), I've added some details with the White Fire paint. I want the frame to stand out a little more so I go back in with the negative die-cut from the Labels 8 and the positive die-cut from the Circle and use them as masks to protect the surrounding area of the frame whilst I add some Chocolate Pudding paint around the frame edges and in the corners. I added some final detailing with some pens to finish the page. 

Close-up of the finished page:

I hope you enjoyed that journal page, I am particularly enjoying things that drip and splatter at the moment! If you want a full list of everything I have used you will find it over on my YouTube channel.

You can also find me in all of the usual place under my name, Kim Dellow, so feel free to come and leave me a comment!

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Thanks Kim, some great uses of die cuts there, frames, masks and layers, all working perfectly together. the shapes in your stamps echo the die cut shapes too, creating great harmony with fab splashes of colour. ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Die Cuts topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #19: Die Cuts, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Die Cuts link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 16th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.

2016 #19 Oriental Beauty {by Lesley Ebdon}

2016 Topic 19: Die Cuts

Hi Everyone, it's Lesley here tonight and I'm delighted to share with you a canvas I created using one of my favourite Lynne Perrella stamp sets. There are many different die cutting machines available, manual, electronic, programmable, etc., but I just have my trusty Big Shot and a tonne of dies that rarely get used these days so it was nice to put them to use for a change. 

I adore Lynne's Oriental images and I decided this was also the perfect opportunity to use some beautiful papers/card I bought about 10 yrs ago when I first started crafting. In fact you could say these papers and some Oriental wood backed stamps were what started me on my crafting journey (obsession?). I hope you enjoy my project.

I started with a deep sided 8” x 8” canvas and a selection of papers and card....I also pulled out a selection of dies.

Using the square and rectangle dies I die cut sections of the papers I wanted to feature on my canvas. A fair bit of juggling about ensued before I was happy with the placement and stuck everything down with gel medium. I didn't bother with the middle as I knew I was going to cover it up.

I used a beautiful leafy die and a piece of sturdy card to create a stencil, mixed a coordinating green from the Frescos using Chartreuse and French Roast, applied it with a stencil brush and followed this with a thin patchy wash of Nougat Fresco Finish. I wanted to mute the colours of the background slightly so the main feature would not be overpowered by them. I then applied a Versamark Ink pen to all the edges of the diecut pieces and heat embossed using gold embossing powder.

Next I stamped the Koi image from LPC25 all round the deep sides of the canvas using White Fire Metallic Fresco Finish.

LPC25

Now to concentrate on the main feature image. I used the cabinet dies to cut a large background piece from the red card, edged it with the Versamark and gold embossing and the smaller cabinet die to cut from a lighter coloured designer card. I stamped the beautiful image onto Tim Holtz tissue and painted it on the reverse with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish.

Leandra has a fab video on how to paint on tissue with the Frescos .......pity I didn't refresh my memory by watching it again because I forgot the final stage of painting the image with white which makes the colours pop more! Never mind, it didn't turn out too badly, lol! I tore round the image, having first 'drawn' round it with a wet brush and then applied it to the smaller die cut with matte gel medium. I have to say the TH tissue is very tough and even well soaked with water it doesn't want to tear. I finished this piece off with the gold embossed edge and then adhered it to the other layer before fixing it to the canvas.

I then created a masterboard by roughly brayering the Fresco Finish colours I wanted and using some of the smaller stamps from the set. Next I die cut loads of the teeny blossoms, delicately sponged the edges of them all, shaped them a bit and layered them together.

After die cutting the branches I positioned everything where I wanted them on the canvas and stuck them all down. The final touch was the little bird which was given the Treasure Gold treatment before being stuck to the canvas with heavy gel medium.

Well there you have it! I thoroughly enjoyed making use of just a few of my dies, especially the blossom and the leafy spray and although I was sad to finally cut up those gorgeous papers it does feel good to have put them to use at last, lol! I hope you like the final result and I can't wait to see what everyone creates for this limitless topic.

Lesley

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Thanks for joining us Lesley, this is so pretty, calm and restful. Your selection of papers make a beautiful backdrop to the die cut shapes. Well done for cutting and edging all those tiny flowers, such patience! ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Die Cuts topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #19: Die Cuts, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas, particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Die Cuts link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 16th 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

2016 #19 Time Machine {by Darcy Wilkinson}

 2016 Topic 19: Die Cuts

Hi everyone. Darcy here with a teeny,tiny assemblage that somehow ended up reminding me of an odd looking navigation instrument, which led me to thinking of it as a time machine. 

I began by selecting lots of die cuts, I used several dies by Seth Apter. I made sure that I had 6 of each shape, once glued together this gives a weight similar to greyboard. 

Once glued I left them to set for a while and then coloured each side using my gelli plate. I used Seth Apters set of limited edition PaperArtsy paints. 

When printing I keep a piece of scrap paper next to me to clean off brushes, brayer and stencils. this paper is always useful, I decided to stamp onto it using the border from EDY12.

 EDY12.

I then used this paper to cover a large wooden cotton reel. Extra paints used here were Zucchini and Limelight. 

I then built more detail onto the gelli printed shapes. These two both have images added from EDY17

 EDY17

I love the tiny dot texture on the flower, this was simply achieved by dabbing the paint with kitchen towel.

On the other side of the square stack I added a butterfly from stencil PS029. 

Here I added dots and doodles to one of the pieces and stencilled a word on the final piece. 

I then used Stazon to stamp birds from EDY10 onto acetate, this was glied behind the rectangle stack. 

EDY10

When I first glued the die cuts together I had played around with arrangements, as they were to be set at odd angles I needed to make sure the composition was balanced. I tried a few different ways and took photos to remind me later. 

Then once all the pieces were decorated it was easy to glue them into place using both glossy accents and golden regular gel. 

This was fun, mainly because I really had no project in mind. I knew I wanted to explore how sturdy the die cuts could be when glued together, so that was my starting point. From there, though, it was pure play. 

Creating should not be hard work and stressful, it should be fun, remember that and just go with the flow. 

Darcy 

Blog: Art and Sole

We would love to see how you interpret this Die Cuts topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #19: Die Cuts, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Die Cuts link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 16th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.

2016 #19 Seedhead Triptych {by Jo Firth-Young}

 2016 Topic 19: Die Cuts

Hi everyone Jo Firth-Young (www.jofy.co.uk) here. Tonight I'd like to share with you a post about using die cuts as masks, stencils and embellishments.

I'm still enjoying using my Gelli plates and incorporating masks and stencils, and creating my own from die cuts is so simple.  I have used these to create a triptych of canvas boards Gelli printed with Fresco Paints, stamped and embellished with die cut motifs.

This was quite an organic project - created and modified as I went along.. and it was an exercise in 'keep going until you're happy' and 'walk away, come back and look at it with fresh eyes' type of project.

I started off with a rough sketch in my workbook (where I do all my thinking), and then got to work... (I find it really helpful to have a starting sketch - even if its on a piece of scrap paper because sometimes you can lose your way on a project and its good to go back and see what was originally imagined)

Step One: Planning 
My plan was to use foliage design dies and cut coordinating stencils and masks out of PaperArtsy Crunchy paper - this is a great product to use for this because it die cuts well and has a good resistance to moisture so is perfect for using with, and resisting paint. 

I chose dies that cut a solid (but still delicate) shape because the Gelli plate I wanted to use is from the Petite packs and is quite small - 2x3 inches.

Step Two: Preparation
I taped the three 5x7 canvas boards together on the reverse to keep them stable while working - this was important because I planned to print across the gap from one board to the next.  

I chose various Fresco colours from the pink side of the colour wheel - Sherbet is quite a cold pink but is warmed up by the addition of Coral and Tango - and who doesn't love a bit of the Bubble Gum pink!.

Step Three: Gelli Printing  
I began Gelli printing using the small rectangle from the Petite packs, and Vanilla Fresco Finish Paint. Each time I loaded the plate I made one print and then a second 'ghost' print - this creates different depths of colour. I would also print with different orientations of the print - sometimes landscape, sometimes portrait, and below you can see how several of the prints bridge the gap between the boards tying them together.  

I rotated the triptych 180 degrees between colours, and stamped rectangles so they covered parts of the layer beneath.

Layer 1: Vanilla 
Layer 2: Sherbet
Layer 3: Coral.... and a 'noooooooo!!!' moment.... I dropped the gelli plate - in the middle of the centre panel in a bright colour!!!!!  
You can see the lines of colour from where the Gelli plate made little prints as it BOUNCED before I could catch it... sigh.  I've included this photo so that I could show you that all was not lost and things can be 'repaired/rescued' - compare the photo below to the photo of the finished project at the top of this post and you can't see this 'oops' at all - you can barely see the Coral rectangle let alone those naughty little bounce marks.  Phew!
So, please don't panic if these things happens to you.... keep calm and carry on!

Layer 4: Bubble Gum - and this was the final layer of plain/solid rectangle prints.

Step Four: Gelli printing with the stencils & masks
The photo below shows the masks and stencils after I have printed with them - you can see where I've placed the Gelli plate to get the prints on the canvas.

On the canvas I tried to print with all the stencils/masks in most of the colours and placed the prints over the existing rectangles so the colour of previous layers showed through or randomly bridging gaps on the surface.

NB I printed with the Gelli plate mounted on to a slim acrylic block

Here is one die cut as an example of the prints that were created. I loaded the 3x5 petite plate with Bubble Gum paint, pressed a piece of bubble wrap onto the gelli to remove some of the paint and then placed the mask in position.  The mask sticks to the paint which means the whole piece can be turned over and pressed onto the project surface to create the print.

The stencil (on left) created by the same die cut and the resulting print (on right).  I would lay this in place on the canvas and press the paint loaded Gelli plate on top.

This is how the triptych looked at this point with the feature die cuts laid on top in optional colours.

I wasn't happy with it - it was missing something... the blocks were too small, they weren't 'tied' together and the colours weren't punchy enough.... what this needed was colour - and you don't get more colourful on this side of the colourwheel than BOUGAINVILLEA! 

Step Five: Brights  
I started using a 3x5 inch Gelli plate to print bigger panels of colour & I went a bit Bougainvillea mad!

The new colour was too much of a contrast and so now I needed to knock it back (are you now realising what I meant in my opening paragraph about what an organic project this was!)

I knocked the colour back by over printing with Vanilla - loading the Gelli plate with paint and lifting some paint off by laying on bubblewrap (breaking up the opacity of the paint and allowing layers underneath to show through).  I did this for all areas with Bougainvillea and the result was a lovely chalky effect.

This is the great thing about Gelli printing and Fresco paints - you can keep adding layers until you're happy, and using opaques and translucents to their advantage.
I was happy with the result.  The background was finished.

Step Four: The details
I chose black for the feature die cut stems because they were so dramatic (attached to the canvasses with 3D foam), and stamped seedheads from JOFY38...

...to soften the contrast between the die cuts and the background.  I painted these in with colours used on the back ground (Bougainvillea, Coral and Sherbert).  I dragged around the edges of boards with a black pencil and softly coloured around some of the rectangles on the background.

The canvasses are connected across the back with sturdy cardboard.

Here's a close up of the centre panel - I'm so happy with all the layers of detail that can be seen.

I chose to work with foliage die cuts but you could choose any designs - simple shapes or flourishes - choice is yours.  I would love to do this again but maybe next time work on a smooth surface - lovely as the canvas surface is because it gives such a nice texture it can also be a little tricky, particularly when stamping directly onto it.  My feature die cut is a large one - measures 9 x 20cm - but you could create a large arrangement by grouping die cuts together.

Have fun and play! (but don't drop your Gelli plate!!)

Jo

You can find me at www.jofy.co.uk
or follow me @jofyjo on Instagram & twitter 

I adore this Jo, and it is also one of my preferred gelli printing colour palettes too!! The chalky effect to tone-back was inspired, and I do love the addition of the brights like Bougainvillea and Tango too! Toally beautiful! ~Leandra

We would love to see how you interpret this Die Cuts topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #19: Die Cuts, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Die Cuts link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 16th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.