Showing posts with label Claudia Neubacher. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Claudia Neubacher. Show all posts

Friday, 5 July 2024

2024 Topic 5: Ink Pads {by Claudia Neubacher} on the PaperArtsy Blog


Servus, dear creative friends!

It's Claudia here with you today to share an easy to do birthday card with a hidden surprise!

I love PaperArtsy's actual "hidden" theme and combined with the new "Ink Pads" topic, it made me think of two birthday cards to make for my wonderful son and for my evenly wonderful niece. I had two amazing nature themed PaperArtsy Hot Picks stamp sets in mind that have stamps on them that can easily be transformed into "moving images" that reveal another - hidden - image...a kind of birthday (card) surprise, if you want.

My idea was to use these alongside with some heavy water colouring - so the choice when it comes to stamping ink that shows every tiny detail of the stamped image AND withstands loads of water being added by a brush was an easy one - a Tsukineko VersaFine Clair (Nocturne) ink pad!

To create soft water colour-y effects with the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints I needed to go with tones that either read "translucent" or "semi-opaque" on their labels. I went for three basic colours (red, blue and yellow) and one particular orange tone that I knew I could not mix with the basic colour tones.

But first things first - the finished project (and the PaperArtsy products I used):


The two birthday cards look as simple as they are in the making - I promise! And all I needed were the two stamp sets, four PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints and one PaperArtsy stencil.

But this picture does not reveal the hidden surprise...a hint: its making involves a tiny bit of paper mechanics (of course I will show you how to do it a bit later in this post).



Here - once again - the supplies I needed to create my cards. The stencil I used to create the quote is not shown as that was a spontaneous idea. You'll find info on it later in the post. 
The card stock shown in the picture is PaperArtsy Smoothy Heavyweight A4 White Stamping Card (SCA4H), but you can as well use heavyweight smooth printer paper if you are not sure about your stamping skills.


The Tsukineko VersaFine Clair ink pads are my go-to ink pads when it comes to very fine detail stamps or techniques like heat embossing or colouring in stamped images with water colours. They are quick drying, light fast and fade resistant and absolutely waterproof (as they are oil based pigment inks). And they are also perfect for the technique I want to show you in a sec! ;)



You can see how the image details are still crisp though I have really given this stamped image a heavy dose of water colouring. No smearing at all (though I always heat dry the stamped images to make sure they have really dried...the Tsukineko - VersaFine - Clair inks really do dry quick, but I like to play it absolutely safe).


And this squid buddy's background image withstood the same treatment with heavily diluted PaperArtsy Fresco Finish - Glass Blue (FF102) just as safely. This paint is translucent - so it is perfect for letting the details of the stamped images show through.

But what is wrong with this image? Why does it show mirrored and how could that happen"?


Of course this was no accident! I needed this particular image to be mirrored, because I wanted my "hidden surprise" to swim to the left and needed the space to its right to hide it (the top banner picture already showed the little trio of fish that can be pulled out of the nautilus). Mirroring stamps is quite easy to do, but it takes a bit of practice (so if you do not want to mess up on the heavyweight PaperArtsy card you should try it several times on cheap smooth heavyweight printer paper).


What you need for this "trick" is a brayer - most preferably an orange or light grey one where you can see the inked image you are taking from the stamp. The Tsukineko - VersaFine - Clair ink pads provide a really deep and strong pigment (you can see that by how "wet with pigment" the inked stamps are) - so they also help you as you do not need to hurry during the process.

You thoroughly ink the stamp (just like you always do) - I have "fixed" mine to my non-stick craft sheet for that purpose - and then you carefully roll the brayer across the inked stamp without changing the direction. Pay attention to not smudge any detail. Rather work with no pressure than too much - that helps avoiding sliding off with the brayer. The most tricky parts are the start and the end of this rolling process as these are the moments when you slip and smudge most easily.


Then roll the reverse image from the brayer onto the substrate where you want the image to appear on your project. I prefer to use a silicone mat for this as it helps with not losing any detail while rolling the brayer across the paper or card.  
For the "hidden surprise" repeat this process on a scrap of left over smooth card so you have a second reverse image of the nautilus.

This technique definitely needs a bit of practice. Not smudging the image when taking it onto your brayer is the hardest part, but you will quickly get the hang of it! Of course this technique only works with "narrow" designs, as the brayer's circumference defines the size limit of the image's width.

It's a technique that comes in especially handy when you need symmetrical designs (like for example two hands pointing towards some focal image in the centre of your project from the left and the right). In my case I just needed the nautilus to look to the other side (and I can live with the reverse text as it still adds lovely texture to the background).
 

Time to get into the "paper mechanics" zone!

That sounds more tricky than it actually is. What's important is that you use images that work together - one with a possible "opening" for the other to appear in it.

The lovely images I've used come from the two marvellous PaperArtsy Hot Picks stamp sets 


The fish from the HP1111 stamp set is just the perfect size for the opening of the nautilus from stamp set HP2302! And its giant squid and the metering rule were a perfect match too. On the rule you can circle the age of the birthday child (I did so using a red marker).


I stamped the fish three times, creating a straight line from left to right onto a strip of heavyweight smooth printer paper. I needed a sturdier paper so the paper strip would not bend when pushing the pulled out strip back into its "hiding corner".


Just look at how fine the Tsukineko - VersaFine - Clair pigment shows all the pretty detail of the stamped image!


Then I took a pencil and a ruler and drew the outlines of my paper strip plus a wider tab at the right end and cut that out. The tab is going to get folded over in the middle so it gets twice as thick (to make sure it will keep the paper strip from getting pulled out completely). Maybe you can see the dotted line in the center that I drew to mark the fold line...

Most important is that this tab at the end of your strip is at least four to five millimetres wider each at top and bottom than the incision the strip is going to be pulled through. You can eyeball that. In case you forgot to make the tab you can still glue one to the strip's end afterwards.


I used a detail knife and cutting mat to cut the opening slot of the nautilus. Then it was time to test if the strip and the opening went together well...


Just perfect! Yay! Now would be the time to adjust to opening's width, if you haven't cut it wide enough the first time.


This picture of the backside of the card shows the opening and the tab at the end of the strip that has been folded over and glued to twice its thickness this way.


As the back of the card was going to be covered by another piece of card the exact same size, I shortened the upper end of the tab that was in the way of the double sided sticky tape I was going to use later. One wider tab end is enough in this case as the strip runs close alongside the card's edge. This way it cannot be pulled out accidentally as there is no room for the strip to move sideways towards the card's edge. In any other case two tab ends would be crucial!

Now that I was sure all my paper mechanic parts were working, I could move on to paint the stamped images and finish off the cards by adding sentiments and such.


I did the background first by adding a wash of heavily diluted translucent PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Arcylic paint - Glass Blue (FF102).



To paint the nautilus I used PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints London Bus (FF37), Yellow Submarine (FF73) and Coral (FF122). All of these are either translucent or semi-opaque, which is important for a soft watercolour-y effect. White highlights were added using my white Sharpie pen.



Don't forget to also paint the opening of the nautilus image on the card! The other painted image will be fussy cut and glued on top of the stamped image using sticky foam pads.


Next were my "fish gang" - I only used a thin layer of Fresco Finish - Glass Blue (FF102) as a base layer, let that dry and then added a watery layer of Yellow Submarine (FF73) on top to create the green tone on their bodies.


The strip's background was painted using up the Glass Blue left over paint on my palette. As you can see I thinned that even more to create a lighter blue than with the fish heads and tails.


I found my card looked a bit empty in the top right corner, so I decided to add a quote using the cool PaperArtsy Stencil - PS297 (designed by Sara Naumann).


I painted that using Fresco Finish - Yellow Submarine (FF73) again.


Before I fixed the painted nautilus image to the card I inked the edges using a blending tool and Ranger Industries - Archival ink (Jet Black). Its pigments are less oily (and also my ink pad is  quite dry already), so there is no risk of smearing on black ink when blending.


Voilá - the nautilus and a little fish peeking! The dimensional sticky foam tape adds lovely depth which also helps direct the focus towards the image with the hidden surprise.


I used my Faber-Castell PITT artist pen to add the "Alles Gute zum Geburtstag" (= German for happy birthday) quote to the fish strip. Once everything was done and in place, I used thin double sided sticky tape around the edges to glue another piece of card to the card's back to hide the mechanics (and some smudged on fingerprints as well).


As you can see I also did another birthday card using the giant squid and ruler images to create a hidden surprise that can be pulled out - using the same paper mechanics technique. 


For this variation I needed to only stamp parts of the images, which can be easily done by only inking the areas you want to stamp and also wiping off any excess ink (using a baby wipe).



I painted the squid's images using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints - London Bus (FF37) and Glass Blue (FF102), mixing all the tones I needed using these.


I tested the cards on hubby (without telling him that there was a hidden surprise) - to see if one gets tempted by the card's designs to pull out the fish and the squid from their shells....and it worked! :) 




It was such great fun making these and I cannot wait to give them to the birthday children this June and in August!!!!
Have fun creating your own "hidden-surprise-birthday-(or other)-cards"!!!!

Hugs and happy crafting!
Claudia xxx

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Monday, 4 March 2024

2024 Topic 1: Miniature {by Claudia Neubacher} on the PaperArtsy Blog



Servus, everyone!

It's Claudia from VonPappe II here with you today.

The current topic and theme - "Miniature" and "Glazed" - here on PaperArtsy both make me a very happy crafting girlie, as I loooove to do (very) small formats and to play with embossing enamels and glazes of all kinds!  And when it all comes together in a nature inspired project I am in crafty heaven! 


This little diorama (it's actually smaller than my flat hand!) in a flipped over miniature canvas makes my heart sing! And working with the awesomely beautiful stamp designs from the Scrapcosy stamp sets (in this case ESC05 and ESC24) just guarantees you'll love the result! So let me take you through the really easy steps so you can create your own tiny nature (or other) wonderland dioramas! Let's jump right in! 



Besides the two gorgeous stamp sets I picked a bunch of colours from my PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints that I thought would work best to paint the stamped moon, acorn, mushrooms, the cute snail and leaves. My plan was to use the paints in a highly diluted water-colour-y way so I could layer them until I was content with the result. As my snail is making its way through the forest in the middle of the night, I picked two PaperArtsy Infusions tones to create a small background with. And for the soft satin gloss of the mushrooms and the snail's skin I decided to use Fresco Finish Pearl Glaze - just perfect for a lightly moist appearance! And for the real bulky gloss UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) is always my first go-to medium! 


I had several small canvases of slightly different sizes to chose from - most of them gathered in one or the other dollar shop - because I wanted the mushrooms to fit perfectly and look kind of "gigantic" in the diorama. This way the look gets drawn right in and makes you feel as if you took a very close magical peek right into a world that only looks tiny to us but is full of wonder and "giants" when seen with the eyes of a small snail. 


As you can see the two canvases only differ very little in size, but actually the little difference was quite a crucial one I found. While the mushrooms fit into the larger flipped over canvas just as a whole, I had to cut off their hats' tips to fit them into the smaller one - and that made them look so much bigger! So I went for the smaller canvas - also because its frame wasn't covered by wrinkled canvas, which would make it so much easier to cover with paint! At that time I wasn't sure if I was going to use all the paints I had gathered, but sometimes mixing in little tones of a contrasting colour makes a huge difference. If you want to go for a more plain look, two greens, a grey, two browns and maybe a blue will do the job just fine. 


My focal colours I picked were Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics Hyde Park (FF50), Magic Moss (FF130), Blueberry (FF106) for a contrast, Chocolate Pudding (FF42) and Taupe (FF60). 







Putting a bit of time and effort into building your diorama scene will pay off later! So take your time and try different versions until your arrangement really wows you! 

I had stamped the moon and ornate border from the Scrapcosy stamp set ESC24 and the acorns, the maple leaf, the snail and mushrooms from stamp set ESC05 in black archival stamping ink before I loosely fussy cut these to position them inside the flipped over canvas.



My first idea was to use the maple leaves as embellishments on the four corners of the slightly larger canvas, but I found these were way too big and thus would draw the focus from the scene. 


I also didn't like that the mushroom looked a bit lost in its spot and not at all "big". So I stamped the larger mushroom as well and went for a really "crammed" scenery in the smaller canvas. 


And that definitely made a huge difference! I loved how the two funghi looked as if they were way too huge for the small format! And I decided to use only one of the maple leaves on top as a kind of "shrine roof top". 


But I still didn't like how "lost" the snail at the bottom looked. I needed something that would make for a "forest ground". So I only used a part of the acorn twig design from the Scrapcosy stamp set as that had the perfect size and look (and also another acorn on it to add to the scene). 




Oh, yes! Much better this way! The more layers to create with my little diorama, the better! 

Time to create the background to put into the canvas! I stamped the stars from the Scrapcosy ESC24 stamp set onto a piece of heavy printer paper using clear embossing ink. Then I heat embossed these with Emerald Creek Baked Texture Vintage Beeswax to create a resist layer. Once the embossed stars had cooled down, I sprinkled PaperArtsy Infusions The Sage (CS02) and A Bit Jaded (CS03) across the paper and spritzed everything with water to activate the colour crystals. 



I dabbed off any excess using kitchen roll and put the background aside to let it dry naturally. 
In the meantime I painted another printer paper with a thin layer of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paint Sage (FF66) and heat dried that thoroughly. 


Then I stamped the moon stamp from the Scrapcosy ESC24 stamp set with embossing ink onto the painted paper, added UTEE over the still wet ink and melted it with my heat tool. 
 

I had also stamped the lovely ornate border from that stamp set in Ranger black archival stamping ink four times onto a paper that I had previously painted with Fresco Finish Magic Moss (FF130). 


Once all had dried I fussy cut the moon and the border elements and also cut out the dry background so it fit into the canvas opening and put everything in place to see how my diorama looked so far. I didn't glue anything in place yet (just in case I needed to make a little change of plans). But I was really content so far to be honest. 


Time to get out my stamping platform to stamp and paint all the elements for the little forest scene! The cool thing with the Ranger Stamping Platform is that you leave the stamps and stamped images in position so you can stamp, paint and then stamp over the paint one more time to make the detail you have painted over visible again. The magnets fix the paper in place, so nothing gets out of place during the process. I mixed and watered down the paints on the non-stick sheet of my Ranger Glass Media Mat. Additional tones I've used were: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics Mud Splat (FF61), Stone (FF59) and Mahogany (FF124). 





You can see in the image above how the line work from the images got lost under the paint layers. And the image below shows the difference - after having stamped over the dried paint again. 


I could finally get to the glazing part of my project! First I covered the acorn with four layers of UTEE. This is very easy to do: you cover the part of the image you want to add the UTEE to with embossing ink (I smudged some onto my palette using an embossing dabber and used a detail brush to apply the ink to the image) and then add the UTEE and heat it up. As soon as the first UTEE layer has completely melted and is still hot, you sprinkle more UTEE on top and re-heat. You can repeat this step as many times as you want, depending on how bulky you want the UTEE layer to become.


I did the same on the snail's house. 


The mushrooms and the snail's body received a thin coat of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Pearl Glaze (FF53). I simply applied that with a soft brush. I hope the light shows the soft pearl gloss! 



The canvas frame got a coat of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Blueberry (FF106) for a bit of a colour pop in all the green, brown and grey. 


The finished heat embossed snail and acorn got fussy cut as well as all the other parts that were to go in my canvas. Time to assemble my diorama and get it finished! 


I encountered a little problem at that point - I had cut one of the mushrooms too short so there was a nasty gap at the bottom between mushroom and frame. I decided to embrace this little accident and cover the gap with a piece of dyed mummy cloth (you can use any kind of gauze). 


I used PaperArtsy Infusions The Sage (CS03) and A Bit Jaded (CS02) again to dye my small piece of fabric. I just sprinkled some of it onto the dry gauze and then added water from a spray bottle. Then I worked the inks into the fabric by smushing it in the wet ink puddle. Afterwards I used my heat tool for drying and glued it in the corner using DecoArt matte Decou-Page. 

 


I used sticky foam pads and stacked these to achieve different levels of depth while fixing everything in place.


The tiny star embellishment found its way onto my diorama when I found that the maple leaf "roof" on top of my diorama-shrine should protect a little something in this spot. And I also decided at this point to move the moon a bit to the side instead of going for a symmetrical design. This way a bit of movement gets indicated and one can imagine the moon going down which makes the scene become even more lively. 



I love the various glossy textures and how they define the objects in their very nature! 


The PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Blueberry (FF106) that contrasts and highlights the moon and the ornate border was the perfect choice! It also contrasts the dashes of orange-brown tones from the Fresco Finish Mahogany (FF124) in the scenery and makes them look even warmer.  


I am also really happy with the depth that I achieved by layering the elements each on a different level! 

Using flipped over canvases to create dioramas in is such great fun! And as there are a lot of different sizes you will always find the perfect frame for all the lovely stamp designs from the wide PaperArtsy range! You could also do a diorama in an emptied middle size matchbox, a chocolate box or tin can. Pick your favourite theme and colours and off you go!

Claudia xxx 

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