PA 2017: Blog Year in Review: Topics 9-12

Hello again from PaperArtsy HQ,

we are mid-way through our look back at some highlights on this blog over the past year. And boy have we had a year of fantastic inspiration for you all to enjoy. Throughout the year I get emails, from people telling us how fantastic our bloggers are, and how inspirational their posts are. I love that we have such a large team who represent lots of different approaches to being creative!

Tonight I'm sharing my picks from Topics 9-12. Read on to see what happened.

Leandra 

Topic 9: Aqua

I think Aqua has to be one of the most popular colours EVER! Blue matches every other colour; its bright, pretty, and soft versions are cool and soothing. It's perfection!

My first pick is this amazing beauty by Dounia Large. She always has a wonderful way of reinventing, well, anything!The ways he trapped her fairy under the sea was pure magic!

And I hope you didn't miss this excellent pocket book from Carol Fox!

I really liked how Miriam made this  into a masculine themed card, the contrast of browns with blues is always a great mix!

Alison used teabags as the basis for this canvas! Yes, really! She has been so out-of-the-box creative this year on the blog, she's brilliant! I love this canvas!

Topic 10: Dark to Light/ Contrasts

I think when you moved into the world of mixed media, the biggest lesson to learn, and the only lesson that really helps you come to grips with all the other elements of being creative, is contrast. If you can get 'contrast' right, then everything else falls into place so much more easily. When you have no clear contrast, that is when whatever you make can look like a muddled mess. So eve though it sounds like an odd topic, I think this is a great concept to understand, and the principles apply to interior decor, gardening, even how you present food!

My first pick is this amazing beauty; a beautifully decorated wooden box by Carol Fox. The colour contrasts are clever, and the tones fun and fabulous.

And I hope you saw this Seth Apter inspired panel  by Nikki Acton

I adored how Alison faded her colours from one into the next, very different by blending her contrast, and her stamps as the quote accent fitted the brief perfectly too.

Additionally we saw all sorts of contrasts with Chris's gelli printed flowers! She goes on to turn these into a stunning journal page, the whole piece is totally wonderful!

 

Topic 11 : Books

Summer is upon us at this point in the year looking back, and the topic was all about books. Never have so many ideas been so different, binding, page sizes...you name it they all had a blast with this topic!

Wendy Malls has a thing for books, and she executes them exquisitely! This Japanese stab binding was superb, and I loved the colour palette and the stamps she chose too.

My heart skipped a beat with Chris's wonderful JoFY book! The bright colours are totally what I adore, but she aslo found hidden birds in Jo's doodled flower heads!!

I fell in love with Kate's Japanese fabric book - stunning layers! Gorgeous colours. Serene Perfection!

Anneke chose a super-soft palette whihc reminded me of ice-cream and she layered up Emma Godfrey's stamps in the most wonderful manner! I love the pop of black in the binding of washi tape between all the pages! Do take a look, its a fun idea with all the pages differing sizes!

Topic 12 : Hybrid Inks

I knew this topic was going to be a pleaser! With Ranger's new Distress Oxide Inks causing a stir, and there are other brands of hybrids too that hit the market in 2017, so we figured it all needed some clarification! At shows this year I was constantly asked about the Ranger inks, and so we demoed a load of ideas and techniques all year long, ending up with some super cool re-inker techniques. Let me share with you how the bloggers got on with them!

My first pick is Etsuko. She shared several ideas with them within her post, all fascinating! Take a look for yourself! Here is just one below.

If you follow Sarah Anderson on Instagram, you will know how much of the year she spent using Oxide inks for her fabulous, minimal mini journal spreads. This card is a reflection of that, many more ink pad tests on her post too.

Helen tried the re-inkers onto all kinds of fabrics, with amazing results!! I adored how the colours looked so vibrant, and when you colour with them, it really is like using paint - except non permanent of course!

Additionally Wanda amazed with this embossing over the inks to create a vibrant pop! 

It is fun to look back on what our genius bloggers have shared with us over the course of a year. This year seems to have zapped by in a blink, but at least the blog remains as the perfect reference tool Don't forget to save the posts that float your boat on pinterest. No excuse now, you'll hit the New Year with a dozen ideas to crack on with!

Leandra 

2017 #10 Dark to Light: Colour Blooms {by Chris Cresswell}

2017 Topic 10: Dark to Light: Contrasts & Layers

If you are at a loose end tomorrow, then maybe having a play with painterly layers tomorrow, just like Chris shares with us in this post,is,  I am sure you will find, a very enjoyable way to while away a few hours on a Sunday afternoon!! Stunning contrasts with Kim Dellow's beautiful images and stencils!

Hi everyone, it's Chris Cresswell from loopsandlines.blogspot.co.uk with you today, and I'd like to share with you my art journal spread on the current theme of 'Dark to Light'.

This is an appropriate theme for my preferred style of art journaling, especially with wet media, as most of my art involves 'contrast'. I love working with bright, complementary colours, but this theme spoke to me differently. I felt it was more about exploring the different hues and tones of analogous colours; at least that is how I have interpreted it. I chose to use different variants of blues and greens, and colours alongside these on the spectrum, that would play around with this idea of moving between dark and light colours. I hope you feel I achieved it .  

As soon as I had the idea of wanting to create a large journal spread, I knew that I wanted to use Kim Dellow's gorgeous stamp set: EKD06.

I love this set and I love the fact it has a complementary stencil PS048 that works so well alongside.

I used all the stamps and stencils in these sets on this spread. They are such fun, contemporary designs, great to colour in and not too difficult to cut out! However, I did not intend to colour these as I wanted to use my gelli plate to produce the dark and light contrasts: much easier to achieve on a gelli plate. 

If you haven't used a gelli plate before, I urge you to have a go. I'm very influenced by Birgit Koopsen who is the Gelli plate queen. Have a look at her You Tube videos and you will soon be an addict! Fresco chalk acrylics work really well on the gelli plate. I never feel I need to use an extender despite them being pretty fast drying. There are so many colours which worked well for this project. I selected a combination of yellow-greens, teals and turquoises. I always use a lot of colours, too many to list here but I have listed them on my blog! I used a variety of papers for these monoprints, including deli paper and PaperArtsy Tissue stock, as well as a variety of stencils from my stash.

Once I had a variety of monoprints I chose the ones that I felt would best reflect the theme and add contrast to the much darker background I intended to place them on. I had used some pearlescent papers which gave a lovely shine to some of the resulting images. Now it was just a matter of stamping and cutting. Plenty of coffee needed at this stage! 

An easy way to blend colours across a journal spread, and a technique I like using because it builds up the first layer very quickly, is to use a baby wipe dipped into the various paint colours and smoothed across different areas of the page. I also tend to overlap and blend with my fingers to avoid a patchwork result. Here you can see how the much lighter Captain Peacock contrasts against the much darker Blueberry and Eggplant Fresco Chalks. I used various stencils on top of the blended colours, including Emma Godfrey's little flower stencils: PM002 and PM008.

After several more layers of stenciling, overlaying more colour to accentuate dark and light areas, stamping and mark making, I was pretty much ready to add the stamped monoprint images. I wanted to create a cascade of colour diagonally across both pages that would contrast with this darker background. I tried to create both dark and light areas on both the background and within the stamped images themselves. You have probably spotted another favourite PA stamp set on the background: ELB29. I love that spotty circle!

                                                           

One of my final steps on this background was to introduce just a glimpse here and there of one of the colours predominantly used in the stamped images. I did this by turning the leaf stencil from PS048 into a stamp using the Distress Oxide: Cracked Pistachio; smearing the colour from the pad onto a heat resistant mat then spraying with water, dipping the leaf stencil into this and 'stamping' randomly across the page. I was pleased with the result.    

Although I used paint pens to add some final touches to the flowers and stamped images, together with a white gel pen, I realised that I needed to raise some of the images in order to create some depth. I like the addition of washi tape around the edges of the page and the text is taken from Emma Godfrey's stamp set: EEG17. I hope that if you haven't yet had a go yourself with this theme, you have been inspired and tempted to do so during the past fortnight. There have certainly been some rich, exciting and varied ideas posted. 

Blog: loopsandlines.blogspot.co.uk
Facebook: Chris Cresswell
Twitter: artmadnana
Instagram: artmadnana
Pinterest: Chris Cresswell

If you teach: add venue, dates, booking info with links here for the next 2 months 

I love how you explain how you bring all the layers to life so seamlessly Chris! The colours are divine and that touch of oxide inks using the stencil as a stamp is fantastic too!! A beautiful weekend treat for us all ! ~ Leandra

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 10 (Dark to Light) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 6th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.

2017 #10 Dark to Light: The Glint of Light {by Alison Bomber}

2017 Topic 10: Dark to Light: Contrasts & Layers

Alison always seems to start her projects from an unusual perspective. On this occasion she starts with overlapping torn card stock, which she then builds layer upon layer so instinctively. Of course she ties it all together perfectly with one of her fabulous quotes! Enjoy!

Hello all, Alison from Words and Pictures here, and I'm delighted to be back on the PaperArtsy blog with a layered project full of contrasts.  As soon as I heard the theme, my mind went - unsurprisingly! - to my new EAB02 Darkness and Light stamp set.  The whole collection of quotes on this plate is built around the contrast between light and dark, so I could have used almost any of the quotes, but I decided to go with a moonlit canvas and this poetic thought from Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov.

I've used techniques picked up from a number of inspiring workshops I've been to over the years - the torn embossed card background from Andy Skinner, the ombré dry-brushing from Finnabair - and combined them on an 8x8 canvas full of texture and romance, including the glint of light on broken glass, of course.

Since this topic is all about the layers, I'm going to take you through some of them.  They start with the overlapping cardstock, embossed with blossoms, and some Grunge Paste to texturise the edges and soften some of the sharper card edges.

From moonlight glinting on glass, it's a short step for me to the Capulet orchard and Romeo describing the shimmer of moonlight - "that tips with silver all these fruit tree tops" - so the tree blossoms were a semi-conscious choice.

By the next layers - first Grunge Paste and then a topping of Watercolour Ground applied through Kay Carley's gorgeous new tree stencil, PS061 - I had caught up with the inner workings of my mind, and knew that we were in a moonlit orchard - of sorts.

The Watercolour Ground is very grainy, so it gives a lovely extra texture over the sturdy base of the Grunge Paste.

Next, the heart-in-mouth moment - a layer (or two) of black gesso covering the whole thing up.  And then I spent some time fiddling around with embellishments - some chipboards, some die-cuts and some metalwork.

Then all of that gets the black gesso treatment too.

Here's where the orchard becomes a little more metaphorical - though the the Romeo and Juliet idea is still feeding in with all the clocks (they're under time pressure)...

... and as the tendrils of their young love start to unfurl, the cogs and gears of fate are already turning in the background towards the inevitable ending.

Next it's on to the layers of dry-brushing.  From the top left corner comes the gleam of moonlight (otherwise known as Snowflake Fresco Chalk Paint).

And coming up from the bottom right, in the role of the moon-dark shadows, we have Blueberry Fresco Chalk Paint layers.  It's bluer in some lights than others.

I had to wait until I was happy with all those dry-brushed shadows and highlights before adding my broken glass.  There would be no glinting if it were all covered up with paint!  (The chipped glass comes from a certain Swedish furniture store - I think they mean you to use it in flower vases to hold dried stems still in a decorative way.)

If I were a video-type, I'd be able to show you how magically the glass really does glint as you move the canvas around.  I'm afraid you'll just have to manage with your imaginations.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, the words which started the whole thing off - the quote from EAB02 Darkness and Light.

I applied Cobalt Blue Archival Ink to the stamp, and then used Jet Black to darken the edges in a shadowy way.

And, thanks to some clear embossing powder, even the words themselves have a glint in the light.

I hope you're inspired to play with some contrasts and some layers.  I had a wonderful time with my light and shadow.  I love that even in the darkest places, there's a glimmer of light (which is the theme of some of the other quotes on the stamp plate).

Between Chekhov and Shakespeare; the textures, paint and embellishments; and the glimmers of light in the darkness, I ended up feeling thoroughly uplifted.  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon.

Alison Bomber  

Blog: Words and Pictures
Pinterest: butterfly crafter

So tonight Alison, you've made me realise I never use the Blueberry paint! And wow does it look amazing over the black, it is a translucent, so you have a magical depth to the darkness! Ohhh and Ahhhh!  ~ Leandra

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 10 (Dark to Light) will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 5th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.