2020 A Year in Review {Topics 16-20}

PaperArtsy Blog 2020 Year in Review - Part 4/4

The view from the New PaperArtsy HQ in France

 

It's our final post from PaperArtsy HQ for 2020 and what a year it was, 

 

Time for some thank-you-s from us !

To our designers, who battled through to find ways to continue to bring new classes all year long instead of teaching in stores, they partnered with our stockists, and also offered independent content, both free and paid-for classes, to inspire, distract, encourage and share their ideas with all their newest products worldwide. Initially they were all very worried this would be a tricky path to navigate, but in the end, their willingness to shift to teaching online really fast was the right move and well received! Families at home, people struggling with day to day life, or those who had hours to fill all have joined with our designers as and when they could, and learned a lot along the way. We thank YOU!

 

January 2020 - Build up of the PaperArtsy Booth at CreativeWorld, Frankfurt.

To our bloggers who kept inspiration flowing when we moved from the UK to France. Without their flexibility to create, often at short notice in the void of an unexpected no-freight situation while we established new contracts here, and who came up with  non stop amazing content week after week. We thank YOU!

To all the independent retailers out there who carry our brand, thank you for your advance planning as we closed in the UK, and for your understanding when it took us a month longer than we anticipated to re-open in France. Your warm emails of support, your encouraging comments on our Instagram and for your unfailing loyalty to our designers and the wonderful ideas you and your teachers share with your customers. Your loyalty to the brand and our values is amazing. We thank YOU!

 

Squiggly Ink Christmas Post by Keren Baker

To Keren who has carried almost all the blog admin before, during and since our move, who is always cheerful, happy, funny and passionate about doing the best job she can. She has that innate ability to always do what is right or necessary at the right time! 

 

And to Mr PaperArtsy, you are a forward thinker and awesome researcher. Were it not for all the information gathering you did and continue to do, we would not be here today starting this new phase. I love that we get to do this together. Thank YOU! To our 4 now-adult kids. I know I have been a stressed, menopausal moody cow at times over the last few years, but you guys have all played your very important part to keep the show on the road. We did not expect to move to France with all of you in tow, but Covid had other plans. Your lives, studies and plans have been willingly put on hold, until travel is possible, but the way you have all stepped in to keep the PaperArtsy show on the road over the past 2 difficult years has been amazing. You have trusted in us and fully supported and helped, and there is nothing more fulfilling then having you be a huge part of this journey, making our new house your home too while at the same time also learning a new language and culture. This is not how we expected it to be, but I am so glad that you have all been a big part of this new journey.

 

Our final Christmas in the UK, Dec 2019 (minus Courtney!)

 

To all our followers, customers, friends, family far and wide. Thank-you for your support, words of encouragement and positive thinking when things looked like the dream was not going to come together in the necessary time frame. We hope you get to come and visit in the years to come!

 

So for our final post of the year, we look back on the more recent highlights from Topics 16-20: Hinged, Day and Night, Geometric, Words of Wisdom and Icy Christmas. Read on to see just a sampling of the fantastic ideas from our superb blogging team!

 

Happy New Year and much love to you all! Here's to your good health and we wish you every good thing for 2021 and beyond!

 

Cheers!

Leandra 

Topic 16: Hinged

I guess we were all feeling a bit un-hinged by this point in the year, but the bloggers held it together, and came up with some fun projects for this topic! 

 

My first pick is this amazing beauty by Ellie. She bound watercolour paper into a fantastic journal/ book and decorated the cover. What a beautiful idea. See more here from Ellie Knol (link)

Do we call this a hinged head? Perhaps unhinged? We love this new stamp from France Papillon, and Keren does such imaginative things with stamps, every time! Keren Baker (link)

Got to love a rustic hinge! and Nikki nailed it with her well executed rusty treatment of shiny metal to make it look perfectly aged! Nikki Acton (link)

I did not know washi tapes hinges were possible, but with Jennie all things are possible! A beautiful book, books really are great fun to create, and she has several delicately decorated pages within to enjoy Jennie Atkinson (link)

Topic 17: Day and Night

My first pick is this sliding beauty by Jo Firth-Young (link). Interactive projects are really satisfying to create, and Jo has plenty of these ideas within her classes or on her blog with her gorgeous stamps!

And I hope you didn't miss Claire Snowdon (link) and her contrasting Night-Day journal spread, what a great colour contrast with Tracy's stamps in B&W.

I adored how Helen Chilton (link)'s flower wheel really caught the day to night vibes, this would work so well for a seasonal wheel too!

Jenny Marples (link) has some many great projects using Sizzix (Eileen Hull) dies, and the way she pulled together Zinski houses with Kay Carley trees for the cover of this booklet was fabulous!

Topic 18 : Geometric

 

We have seen a lot of Geometric influences within interior decor trends in the past year of 2, and for this topic, I knew our designers would pull some gems out of their hats! I really loved this simple background Miriam Grazier (link) used to set off the Ellen Vargo flower.

I hope you didn't miss the amazing paper piecing Etsuko (link) did for this little booklet!

I was wowwed by Keren Baker (link)'s layer of geometry over this vellum, you can still see the Lynne Perrella stamp beneath, and the shapes linked to points on the stamps below!

Topic 19 : Words of Wisdom

 

We were all desperate for some wise words as the year came to a close! Jenny Atkinson (link) used lots of ephemera from the Ink and the Dog collection for her project.

 

Ellie Knol (link) filled tins with words of encouragement for her post! What a lovely and truly uplifting idea!

Miriam Grazier (link) is our biggest fan of Sara Naumann stamps, and she pulled out a beautiful sentiment for her contribution.

I really love how Amanda Pink pulls a project together. Lots of scripts, numbers are softly in the background, but her sentiment is perfect! Amanda Pink (link)

 

Topic 20 : An Icy Christmas

 

Christmas and cooler weather seemed a long time coming this yeaar, so perhaps it was not so Icy as we anticipated, but the blog was dripping with icicles and glitter!

Nikki Acton used painterly textures to great effect in this post with Seth Apter stamps and a handy palette knife to make some scratchy effects!

And I hope you didn't miss this stunning wreath by Helen Chilton with Tracy Scott stamps and Flower Foam!! (link) The technique to bring these to life is stunning so do check it out!

Kate Yetter made the cutest decorations with Gwen Lafleur stamps! I love how the composition was just idea for both gift tags and christmas tree ornaments!

And Jennie created this very Icy looking Christmas decoration, would be perfect on a mantlepiece, in soft shades of blue.

v

Once again, we wish you all the best for 2021, take good care

Leandra and all of us here at team PaperArtsy

2020 Topic #17 Simmer Dim with ESN (by Jennie Atkinson)

                                                  2020 Topic 17: Day & Night

I won't spoil the surprise and reveal what Simmer Dim is, but it was awesome to learn about it and how Jennie recreated it with her gel plate. Her palette isn't one that you might automatically pull, but it perfectly matches her muse. She's created a workbook we'd all love to use.

~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) here with you today with a rather colourful (for me!) interpretation of Shetland skies. 

In mid summer here in the north, the sun sets late and rises almost immediately - day becomes night and night becomes day. In Shetland dialect it is known as the Simmer Dim (Summer Twilight). I wanted to try and create the colours of this amazing twilight using my Gelli Plate and Fresco's and actually surprised myself with the result! I used the papers to make an A5 workbook. 

I used Sara Naumann's fabulous Dreamer stamps released back in the summer.

ESN44

I started with the Gelli Plate and a number of Fresco Acrylics. I had this photograph in mind and tried to match the colours as best I could. The photograph was taken from the house here at midnight around midsummer.

I have used Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in: Inky Pool, Venice Blue, Autumn Fire, Peach Nectar, Pumpkin Soup and Cheesecake.

And these were the resulting sheets. I used the colour in strips and very carefully brayered them sometimes allowing the colours to mix. The little white spots were the result of a couple of pieces of dried paint on my brayer! Unfortunately I picked them off so the lovely "stars" effect unfortunately didn't transfer to the second sheet!

I cut the sheets down to fit my cardstock (an A4 black sheet folded in half to make an A5 book) and stamped with Black Archival Ink.

I had some pieces left over from cutting the main sheets so used them to make small pockets for the inside of the notebook and a couple of tiny books for the inside.

I really love how well the colours blend into each other but still retain their brightness. I think this was due to using translucent colours along with the opaque. For example the Inky Pool sits on top of the Venice Blue rather than blend into it. I don't think I could have achieved this array of colours without using the Gelli Plate - one of my most favourite tools! I am no artist but I love that I can use a photograph and a collection of Fresco's to create something really quite artistic! 

As always, thank you for joining me and I hope like me you have enjoyed this fabulous theme and all the wonderful projects created by the PaperArtsy Designers.

Jennie x

Blog: Live the Dream

2020 Topic #17 The Circle of Life with EKC (by Helen Chilton)

                                                2020 Topic 17: Day And Night

Artistic processes rarely run entirely to plan, and Helen's Circle Of Life project incorporates experimentation, patience and a whole lot of doodling. She's ended up with a beautiful representation of both this topic and indeed of life itself. 
~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today, and I'd like to share with you project which I've called the Circle of Life - for obvious reasons! I wanted to create a clear demarcation between Day and Night but still give the idea that it goes round and round. I've deliberately used the same colours against both the yellow and the dark blue to see how the background colour affects the colour on top, just as the light of day and darkness of night would. The stamping is roughly symmetrical.

The MDF circle was originally, I think, part of a clock blank - hence the hole in the middle. I used washi tape to divide it off and then painted each half with Frescos: Snowflake, Zesty Zing, Banana, Midnight and Deep Sea.

   

Then I added a bit of stencilling in Slimed; it's interesting how the green looks so different on the dark background.

I've stamped in black trying to keep the flowers in roughly the same place on each side.

As so many of the flowers were dotty I decided to used Ranger Enamel Accents to add a bit of gloss.

Then I filled in the open flowers with Frescos.

I used Posca pens to add extra colour and doodling. You could also do this with Frescos and a fine brush but I always end up wobbling at the wrong moment!

I was a bit worried that the background stencilling was too strong so I added shading with a soft pencil and white highlights. I also drew the stamped lines back in with a fine black pen.

For the centre ATCoin I've made a sun and a moon using a Prima mould and layered them onto a scrap of inked, patterned paper. You can hide a brad under the sun so the ATCoin turns.

I like how this project turned out - eventually! This was my third attempt. 

I knew what I wanted to do but couldn't get it quite right. I started off by blending the night and day colours at the sides to create dawn and dusk, but that took up too much space. Then I tried it without the stencilling, but that looked too flat - I felt like Goldilocks! Then I spent ages trying to work out what to put in the middle to hide all the mess where the stalks overlapped. An ATCoin was just the right size. As they say, third time lucky! I think by then I just decided to go for it. 

Day and Night is a great topic with so many different interpretations. It'll be great to see what you come up with. 

Helen

Blog: A Splash of Colour