2021 Topic 1 Stamp Mashing - FP ECF I&D ESA: Concertina Mash {by Autumn Clark}

 

A delightful concertina booklet from Autumn here, allowing her to showcase lots of stamps from all 4 of our mash-up designer challenge! I adore this colour palette, and the elements and their surfaces are all so touchy-feely looking! Once you have a bundle of elements, the fun starts putting them together. Autumn has a knack of doing this beautifully. 

~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Autumn Clark with you today, and I'd like to share my new little accordion book filled to the brim with gorgeous imagery from our "mash up" of designers.

I knew right away I wanted to create a book with this variety of images to make each one a focus on the many pages.  I hope you'll read along to see the tricks I discovered in the process...

I tried so hard to use a new palette (because blues always call to me) and though I didn't use a single blue paint, somehow my book ended up with a blue tint.  Ha ha!  I actually chose browns and greens to work with: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in: Caramel, Hint of Mint, Gold Rush, Toffee, Winter Green, Cloud 9 and French Roast.  Oh how I love this combination!

I used the Sizzix Notebook die and white mat board, cutting the covers down to 3.75 x 2.75".  I then cut two long pieces of PaperArtsy Smoothy Card to 3.5 x 11.75"  I then did some random painting with my brayer onto my gel plate.  After the pieces were dried, I scored the long strips at 2.5", cutting off the excess and adhering the two panels together to form one long accordion, which I adhered inside of my book after stamping/collage.

 

I wanted to add dimension to the pages, but couldn't bulk up the accordion too much or it wouldn't close properly, so I made a batch of tea dye paper on plain copy paper.  This allowed me to distress and wrinkle up my edges, but was thin enough to fold up flat.  I stamped my images in Ground Espresso Distress Oxide.  (Tea stained paper, French Roast paint, Espresso ink... Do you see a theme here?)  I used my water brush to wet around each image and carefully tore them apart. 

E5

 

AH5

WGS2

EM39

 

I am always so excited when I get a chance to share Ink & the Dog Collection stamps!  I  knew right away I could use the funky old bird from I&D Eclectic Plate 5 with its counterpart from I&D Wings Plate 2 and a host of other wing stamps.  And since I was making a book I added the "do not look inside" stamp from the I&D At Home Plate 2, which worked perfectly with Eclectica Mini Stamp 39 by Seth Apter. 

 

ECF05

Since Courtney's stamps were in the mash up, I wanted to turn the leaves from PaperArtsy Eclectica (Courtney Franich) Collection {ECF05} into wings.  I cut them out and scrunched up the stems, then cut out a second shirt for the dear old gal and tucked her new "wings" beneath it, stitching around the shirt to finish it off.

FP007

I found a new favorite (and super easy) way to paint with my stamps.  I brayered paint onto my gel plate then used it as an "ink pad".  I stamped the funky flower shadows from PaperArtsy France Papillon Collection {FP007} onto my panels then stamped the outline over them with black ink.  I added some journaling to one of the flowers for contrast.  My gel plate had a very cool impression from doing this, so I made a quick print (below) to use in a future project.  I can't wait to experiment more with this!

ESA18

 

I decided to use more Seth Apter stamps, PaperArtsy Eclectica (Seth Apter) Collection {ESA018}, by doing some light stamping on my backgrounds, mixing with other backgrounds from the sets and adding a little stitching.  I added a few old postage stamps from my stash to blend in with the postage stamp from Courtney.

 

I dyed some seam binding with Distress Inks to make a closure for my little book.

It is small, but mighty in its message and filled with all of the quirky things I love!  I hope you love it too! 

 

It is so satisfying to sit and create something from nothing; a few sheets of paper, paints, inks and stamps can easily become a mini treasure.  Have you allowed yourself time to play?  I highly suggest creating a little book in which to do so.  I truly love taking the mundane or discarded things and turning them into art!  After all, what's to lose?

It's been a pleasure being with you on the PaperArtsy blog today and I will be seeing you again soon!  Hugs, Autumn

Blog: SewPaperPaint
Facebook: Autumn Clark

YouTube: SewPaperPaint

Instagram: @sewpaperpaint
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2021 Topic 1 Stamp Mashing - FP ECF I&D ESA: Healing Music {by Keren Baker}

 2021 Topic 1: Stamp Mashing with ...

France Papillon * Courtney Franich * Ink & the Dog * Seth Apter

This isn't the first time Keren has up-cycled a violin. I wonder how many other instruments she has stashed in the Baker household graveyard of instruments! I think we should give her some bagpipes! Anyhow, what a lovely project this id. Would love a whole wall of them actually! I now have visions of people scouring second hand stores for instruments! I'm sure you need no encouragement to read on!
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Keren Baker with you today, and I'd like to share with you a little upcycled art. I did a half sized violin a few years ago and I had others lying around (including this full sized one) waiting for their moment. Using 4 different designer's stamps called for something a little more special plus I felt that I needed a little more space than my average sized card or notebook

As a musician it pains me a little to take an instrument out of circulation, but if they're broken or very inexpensive, I don't feel as guilty. 

I made (on reflection afterwards) exactly the same mistake as last time I painted one of these; I didn't sand it! Ordinarily Fresco Finish Acrylic paints will go on pretty much anything- and they did- but because the piece is highly polished, the paint will scrape away more easily without a key, so do sand yours if you fancy trying to do similar.

It was a lovely blank white canvas. Normally a ton of white would thrill me, but on this occasion I felt a bit overawed as to how to combine stamp designs that are pretty different in style. I decided to choose the stamps first and maybe the combo would become clear. I wanted to use one of Seth's minis EM33 as it was the perfect size for the neck.

Stamping on tissue paper first and using Mod Podge is much easier. I loved the pattern created by rotating the stamp each time. Reminded me a little of a guitar fret board. I need to buy some matt Mod Podge as ended up with a lustre which I didn't love.

I decided on a simple colour scheme using Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics: Chalk, Cerise, Cerulean, Slate plus Crackle Glaze.

You can see below one of my 'u-turns', known more exactly as creative mistakes! I was going to do all the violin in Chalk, a very thin layer of crackle glaze and Cerulean but I thought a graduated colour scheme might be more interesting. I didn't like it, so started painting more white over it. Painting over crackle doesn't give you the smoothest surface to stamp over but I  knew I'd be using tissue paper again, so it didn't matter as much.

For my 'Ink & The Dog' stamps I used Buttons 1 B1. Once I'd applied it (and really disliked the sheen of the Mod Podge) I knew it needed knocking back a little which I planned to do with stencilling using PS021 and more stamping.

 

 

 

You can see how well the Grunge Paste works over the stamped areas. I added a little paint over some of the numbers to add some contrast. You can also see one of the France Papillon sets I used - FP005.

I now needed to make decisions about how to combine the other designer Courtney Franich's stamps in what I'd done so far. I had an idea about making flowers using some of her leaf stamps and also foliage from her sets ECF05 & ECF06

I just needed to add in a few more images. I was musing about the effect of music upon us and how it supports and improves both mental health and mood. Frances Papillon's set contained two sentiments 'PS:there is hope' and 'Serotonine' which I thought would give something for people to ponder whilst looking at the altered piece.

The super versatile dots on the neck of the violin come from another of France's sets FP002. You can also see the stencilled numbers which helps tie the design together.

I really loved adding the clouds, gel pen dashes and painting the tailpiece. The fact that there's a string missing seemed to resonate with the slight brokenness that many of us feel and also gave me an extra bit of space to stamp the sentiment on the neck. I had to google how to restring a violin (as hadn't a clue!!) so that was a new 'skill' !

This was a complete labour of love and I was amazed just how well the stamped images 'sung' together. I used paint more than I've ever done and even did layers (which I found slightly out of my comfort zone). If it hadn't been for the PaperArtsy topic challenge, I'd never have pushed myself with layering and combining. This has been a great topic for me.

It's well worth adding some paint and layers to things lying around the house. Musical instruments seem to have a mood of their own and are certainly very inspiring. Don't forget to prepare your surfaces better than I did and I now am on the lookout for a cello (perhaps not), but I'm tempted to try a viola or ukelele!

Hope to see you again soon,

Keren x

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2021 Topic 1 INTRO: PaperArtsy Stamp Mashing with FP, ECF, ESA and I&D

2021 Topic 1: PaperArtsy Stamp Mash-Up with...

France Papillon * Courtney Franich * Seth Apter * Ink & the Dog

Hi everyone, Keren here.

We have a new feature for 2021 - Stamp Mashing ! We decided it might be quite a bit of fun to take 4 different stamp collections, and blend them to see what creative twists and turns our bloggers come up with. It's a great way to get you thinking outside of the box, to stretch your imagination, and see where your muse might take you!

So the intro post today is going to share with you a bit about each of the stamp collections/ designers, their background, creative interests and so on. Then over the next 2 weeks we will see what our bloggers can do to mash them together! 

France Papillon is the newest designer at PaperArtsy but she's definitely no beginner designer. She joined PaperArtsy in April 2020 with a new collection and also some of her previous designs. 

As I was looking into each designer, I visited their blogs or website and this is how France's style and background is documented.

"The mix of soft grunge, colour and rusty accents are the main ingredients of her tags, hand binded books and art journaling.

PaperArtsy Blog

To tell her story, she likes to play with inky techniques, just like a writer juggling with words. In her classes and tutorials, these techniques based on product knowledge, allow her to offer a comfort zone to the participants, while guiding them to reveal mindfulness into their art journaling, with a sense of creative self-confidence. 

PaperArtsy Blog

She uses her experience as a middle school teacher to share what lies close to her heart: the spark of creative enthusiasm!

PaperArtsy Blog

France's art and weekly video prompts are worth checking out too. Her artwork is well worth a closer inspection where you notice lots of interesting and unique elements.

PaperArtsy Blog

The next two projects using France's stamps, have been chosen because they feature the same image but in two dramatically different ways. It's always really fascinating to see how an artist's image can take on a completely different look in the hands of different creatives.

Nikki Acton

Jennie Atkinson

Up next is Courtney Franich. She has designed stamps for PaperArtsy since 2018. Most of the images are based on content sourced from her photographic exploits. She likes abstract, collage style imagery, and the elements she creates can be used both individually or collectively to build a collage, or perhaps make a background. 

PaperArtsy Blog

She loves using textures in her stamps, whether that's crochet, bricks on a wall or script. She says that using stamps on book pages was one of the first ways that she stamped so you'll often find little bits of book text in her art work.

PaperArtsy Blog

Playing around with layers is another skill of hers. Notice the layering and painted acetate mounted at different heights. All effortlessly drawing your eye around the page.

PaperArtsy Blog

The next project shows how beautiful simple text can be layered over colours and painterly texture.

PaperArtsy Blog

The next two pieces of art are from two different creatives showing Courtney Franich's images so beautifully.

Nikki Acton

Aren't these next colours so beautiful? Showing a more modern vibe is equally achievable using Courtney's super versatile images.

Anneke De Clerke

Seth Apter joined the PaperArtsy family in 2016 and is a much loved member. He has created Fresco Finish Chalk acrylic paint colours along with some Wood Chips and a whole collection of stamps. He's well known for both his love and use of texture and many of his stamp designs reflect that.

Seth Apter

You can see some of Seth's artistic skill here; cleverly combining colour, adding layer upon layer to create depth. He also uses embossing powder in unique ways.

PaperArtsy Blog

Seth is well known for creating assemblage and mini books. Another phrase that many of us associate with Seth is 'mark making' and if you look closely at much of his art, you'll see different marks and ways of making them. 

PaperArtsy Blog

The next project shows another of Seth's pieces, this time with a patina effect. If you look on his website or Instagram feed you'll see more beautiful examples.

PaperArtsy

There is lots of inspiring Seth Apter stamps artwork floating around the internet. I picked two contrasting pieces; one with colour and another using a monochrome scheme.

Christine Dark

Ruth Mescall

Moving onto the last 'designer'- Ink And The Dog, which came directly from PaperArtsy themselves. They're described on the website as,

"Our flagship collection circa 2004. These collage style stamps offer a distinct and very quirky vintage twist. This collection contains nearly 130 quarter plates arranged by theme."

They are such a diverse collection of images- something for everyone and often have a cool vintage vibe that so many of us love.

Julie Ann Lee

"These quirky, eclectic, and often slightly odd collage style stamps were predominantly designed by Nea Nygard, a Finnish artist, in collaboration with Leandra, who suggested the themes, arranged the collection into various families and filled gaps where required. Leandra met Nea through a small 24 member online art-swapping group, and when they both realised they wanted to design stamps, they decided to work together on the idea."

Jo Capper-Sandon

"In recent years, Mark (Mr. PaperArtsy) added to the collection with further designs like the clocks series (above), and now there are 130 of the A6 stamp sets across 28 families. That's a lot of stamps for a collection, and a lot of individual images, we would estimate at least 1000 stamps."

Darcy Wilkinson

Catherine Johnson

Etsuko Noguchi

Kirsten Sheridan

Now that we've had a look through each designer and their style, it gives an inkling of what's to come. Can you imagine projects with these designers creatively mashed up together? It's going to be an amazing 2 weeks. Do keep your eyes peeled for another mash up event later on this year.

We can't wait to see what our amazing bloggers have created.

If you want to create along with us while we explore this topic, please share your makes on our social feeds so we can follow along. Instagram @paperartsy or why not join us and post in the PaperArtsy People Group on Facebook. Make sure you tag us in your contributions, we love to see what you get up to in your creative world!