2019 #11 Retro Colour Palettes: Art Journaling with ESA {by Kate Yetter}

2019 Topic 11: Retro Colour Palettes

Here's a beautiful journal spread from Kate, in what are subdued retro tones for her, but to me they still feel rich and the gold touches add opulence too!  ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Kate with you today, and I'd like to share with you an Art Journal Layout I made for the theme: Retro Colours. When deciding on what colors to use I automatically thought I had to use colours from the '60's or '70's since that is what I associate with Retro. But when looking up the definition of Retro it simply means to imitate a style, fashion or design from the past. 

Since my project is centered around Seth's new stamps, I wanted to go with a colour palette that would not only showcase the patterns, but would make me feel like I was holding an old treasure in my hands. And that is when it hit me: black, white and gold. Black and white are the color of old movies and gold screams ancient.

I don't often work in muted color palettes as I am all about bright colours and contrast. But I love looking at art that looks like it has been just been pulled out of an old forgotten trunk. This project made me feel as though I accomplished what I set out to do.

I used vintage newspaper for the background before adding a bit of black gesso and gold embossing. I am using Seth's new stamps.

Tearing up a map that I printed, I stamped around the edges and again gold embossed.

Using my Infusions (Terracotta, Lemoncello, Olive Tree), I sprayed a handmade envelope, stamped it and embossed it in gold.

Adding the map and some black thread not only added contrast but texture to my page. The envelope became the perfect focal embellishment to hide a small treasure. 

And of course I made something pretty for inside the envelope.

I used some of my favorite Seth Apter stamps along with Lemoncello infusions and black and white gesso.

That gold shine makes me happy and reminds me of buried treasure waiting to be found.

I really enjoyed working with this palette. It was out of my comfort zone but it definitely speaks Retro to me. I hope you challenge yourself to experiment with a retro colour palette that may not be the norm. Remember, Retro is anything that imitates a past design, style or fashion. So basally, the sky's the limit! 

Until Next Time,
Kate 

Blog: https://kateyetter.com/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katesscrapyard/
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2019 #11 Retro Colour Palettes: WOOF with Cat's Meow {by Nikki Acton}

2019 Topic 11: Retro Colour Palettes

It's always lovely to see samples with our older collections, and the Cat's Meow is often forgotten. In itself is has a very retro vibe, so a perfect match for retro colours too! ~Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Nikki with you today from Addicted to Art and I'd like to share with you my retro colour themed design with one of PaperArtsy's older stamp collections - The Cat's Meow.

I decided to create a painty, layered card with my tag as the focal point. 

I selected three main colours to keep the composition relatively simple as I was adding lots of layers - I love colour but I find it too easy to get it horribly wrong if I use lots!

First of all I played with some Retro colours and made some swatches of colours that (hopefully!) work well together.

I added colour to my Smoothy Card using a brayer before adding my second colour through a stencil using a sponge. The stencil is PS092. I used Fresco Acrylic paints in Peach Nectar, Blue Oyster, Caramel, Eggshell and a little Chocolate Pudding for layering.

I cut these backgrounds to fit onto my 6x6 inch card base layering onto white and then my Chocolate pudding base layer. The scraps were used to stamp the words on - using black Archival Ink.

I stamped the tag from the stamp set (Cat's Meow - Dog) on both a background of brayered Peach Nectar and also white card so I could layer it. The resting dog was also stamped and fussy cut to layer.

The finishing touches were all the words, the stars (fussy cutting again!) and some glossy accents on the dog's nose to add a little dimension and shine! 

If you haven't seen these stamps do check them out - there are 12 designs in the range with various themes. If, like me, colour can be a challenge - try creating little swatches to see what works - it certainly helps me!

Nikki x

Blog: Addicted to Art

Instagram: @Nikki_Act
Pinterest: nikacton

2019 #11 Retro Colour Palettes: Nostalgia with ECF {by Jennie Atkinson}

2019 Topic 11: Retro Colour Palettes

For Jennie this is quite a colourful post! Love how she builds such stunning layers. This painty background and the way the light catches it is a delight! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) with you today on a trip down memory lane! 

I started my paper crafting life scrapbooking memories and I still do, although in a more mixed media journal way rather than the classic layouts of the past. What I do love about scrapbooking is hunting out a photograph and letting it speak of the past. 

After pulling together some 70s colours I got stuck into an old album to find photographs of the period which brought back so many lovely memories. So my project contains many little evocative references to 1975 when this photograph was taken ..... yes its me! 

I have used Courtney's fabulous leaf stamps as I felt they had a real retro feel and added a little background stamping with a mini.

ECF06

Mini 23

These are the Fresco's I pulled together which to me evoke the 70s - it was a good mix of opaque, semi opaque and translucent which led me to get the gel-plate out.

Pumkin Soup, Autumn Fire, Bora Bora, Brown Shed and Toffee (although in the end I didn't use the Toffee).

This was quite a mix of colours so I started with a frame of Bora Bora ...... 

...... and took repeated pulls adding a little colour at a time, along with a little stamped interest. You can see how I brayer in all directions ... !

And this was the final result which I loved - it reminded me of some of the early Basic Grey papers!

I am never too confident stamping directly onto background papers I have taken a little time to make and which I know will never come out right again. So I always stamp on tissue so I can experiment with placement.

I used the mini numbers stamp to fill in some of the spaces around the tissue edges which merge so beautifully into the background.

In the photograph I am wearing a long cream linen dress which had a Belgian lace top ... the bees knees at the time (I still have it!). It was bought from a little French shop which had just opened in the town. So in keeping with these memories I used French script paper, a little lace backed by pieces of muslin which was also very fashionable for those peasant tops at the time. The little wooden button speaks of the period too.

I cleaned my brayer on some left over Smoothy Cardstock which gave me a lovely surface to stamp the leaves in Tsukineko Versamagic White Chalk Ink - the circles on the leaves and flowers a reminder of the orange and green retro circles on wallpaper and dress fabrics.

This really was a lovely project to pull together and brought back so many wonderful memories. I always start my scrapbook projects with the photograph and let it sit for a while on my desk as it is amazing how this triggers tiny little events, colours or emotions. I prefer my scrapbook memories to speak to me in colours and little bits and pieces of embellishments rather than long sections of text journaling. The finished size at 5" x 7" also sits nicely in a standard photograph frame allowing me to enjoy the finished project rather than having it stuck in an album.

I hope my explanation of my process and thinking for this project might prompt you to look back in time through a photograph in order to create a project which is personally creative and nostalgic.

As always thank you for joining me today.

Jennie x

Blog: Live The Dream

2019 #11 Retro Colour Palettes: Paper Dolls with Lynne Perrella Collection {by Helen Chilton}

2019 Topic 11: Retro Colour Palettes

These stamps by Lynne Perrella are great fun, and Helen has turned one into several with bespoke clothing! This could be a fun holiday activity for any budding school age crafter, or even older ones! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today, and I'd like to share with you my retro colours project. I decided on a retro toy to go with my 50's colour scheme. I remember Jo making one of these for a post a while ago but these new Lynne Perrella stamps lend themselves perfectly for this so I'm giving it another go. I've also added another type of doll to the collection.

The hardest part of all was choosing the colour palette! If you put 'retro colours' into Google you get so many results you don't know where to start. All I knew was that I didn't fancy the 70's brown colour scheme as the wallpaper in my first flat was a large brown, orange and purple floral design - gave me nightmares! So I've picked what I hope is a sort of 50's diner colour palette

I just stamped the doll onto mountboard using an ATCoin to draw the base and make the stand.

She'll stand like this:

The clothes are stamped onto glossy card - note the different necklines to add variety.  I coloured these with Distress markers which is very quick and easy. However when I tried to colour the doll herself the same way, the mountboard was just too porous to allow for any blending so I used pencils instead.

Here are all the outfits embellished in different ways. I've added a few dotty areas as I felt that gave it a '50's' look - might be quite wrong there, but I liked it! The bow is made from the butterfly wings:

Once I'd started I was on a roll so decided to make a jointed doll. You need two stamped images for each doll:

Then you just cut out the pieces ...

... and join them together. At this point you can go on and add a string pull to make the legs and arm move, but I've always thought they look a bit peculiar so I left it at this.

You can have great fun posing them - they're really quite athletic (unlike me!)

My original plan was to create a different coloured outfit for each decade but I got so confused with all the colour palettes that I gave up on that idea! 

When you do stamp the image for the outfits it's worth drawing on the tags before you start cutting out as it's very easy to just cut them off. I've had a lot of fun making these - as usual there's a lot of detail in the Lynne Perrella stamps which makes them easy to embellish. Just think, you could make a whole dancing troupe of the jointed dolls - add some net skirts and the can-can comes to mind!

Helen

Blog: A Splash of Colour