2015 Round Up: Miniature Art, Deconstruction, Altered Grunge Paste {curated by Julie Ann Lee}

Good Evening from PaperArtsy HQ, Leandra here to introduce you part 2 of our 2015 summary.

2015 has been one of those tricky years where the world is grappling with numerous tricky idealogical issues that could affect us and future generations in ways we couldn't have predicted even 10 years ago. We seem to have experienced an increase in negative global events that have adversely affected people of all nations. Who knows what lies ahead for us and future generations. Sadly it is an unsettling and unpredictable time.

Art is often called a 'healer', but to say such things seems somewhat trivial when people have lost dearest loved ones, homes, or even fled their own homeland.

For you and me, art is certainly what we have in common. It unites us all, we meet each other at events, make new friends across international borders, share in each others joys, sadness, happy news and artistic growth. We are certainly fortunate to share a strong bond with each other through our desire to create, learn, share and grow. How very fortunate we are to enjoy this friendship across borders and language.

Tonight, Julie Ann Lee is your curator. She will share her picks from the next 3 topics of 2015: Miniature Art, Grunge Paste and Deconstruction - all areas of which she has considerable expertise herself which you will see as she pulls together a project to combine all 3.

Enjoy the night ahead, Leandra

Hello Bloggers, Julie Ann Lee here. 

This has been an exciting year of learning and sharing for me! I always loved doodling faces and often odd little characters decorated my 'to do' lists! Then I took a couple of online classes with Mary Jane Chadbourne and she inspired me to experiment with adding those doodled faces to projects! 

In 2015 I dared to use my own hand-drawn faces along with Sara Nauman's wonderful stamps on peg dolls for the PaperArtsy Miniatures Topic. Since then I've created miniature houses with faces; wall hangings with faces; brooches with faces - well, just about anything that stands still long enough gets a face these days!

Topic 4: Miniature Art

Miniature Art is a topic close to my heart. I love all things intricate and minuscule! This Lynne Perrella image is just perfect for showcasing as a tiny piece of wearable art! And Keren Baker made it functional too - an exquisite mini notebook pendant! You can find out how to make it for yourself here.

Later in the week Penny Nuttall of 'Cuttingmycoat' showed us how Miniature could also mean quirky and a little bit extra-terrestrial when she used Darcy's weird and wonderful plant-life on microscope slides! If you want to enter her microscopic world the directions are here!

And what about the talented Linda Cain of 'Friends in Art' who created her very own tiny town using Emma Godfrey's stamps? I love miniature houses; but maybe you know that! If you would like to create your very own tiny village - Linda style click here!

The diverse challenge entries for this broad topic were so inspiring. I hope you caught this post by Lucy Edmondson of True Colours , she created this exquisite and delicate card with miniature Lin Brown blooms using Shrink Plastic - the perfect material for crafting in miniature!

I loved this post by Jo Myhill aka Shabby Dandelion . She had so much fun creating a Master-board and then fashioning this intriguing fabulously distressed tiny book of 'Hidden Words'. That texture has to be touched!

Topic 5: Deconstruction

De-constructing and transforming anything from a battered cardboard box to a brand new canvas really captured my imagination. Darcy of 'Art and Sole' has to be the Queen of Deconstruction with her wonderful De-constructed Art Dolly, Lupica: it takes guts and incredible flair to do that to a Barbie! I loved how she used her stamps on this one too! Try this out for yourself here - if you dare!

The enchanting Lynne Moncrieff aka Adorn, showed us that Deconstruction could evoke past times with a hint of magic, mystery and rust! I think rusting just has to be one of my favourite things of 2015 and Lynne works wonders with rust, fabric, stencils and Lynne Perrella stamps.

And the incredible Alison Bomber (Butterfly) who regularly inspires us with words and pictures, really got into the spirit of Deconstruction with her stunning altered book spread. The title of 'A Bouquet of Barbed Wire' was just perfect for this wonderfully rusty and crackled de-construction, showcasing stamping in rust! If you would like to have a go at this, Alison gives full instructions here.

The entries for this challenge were so much fun, I hope you didn't miss this beautifully distressed and textured tag folder by Etsuko at My Favourite Things.

Helen Lindfield of 'Stamping by H' fame, created a wonderfully grungy journal page that truly nailed the topic! I loved all the texture, and the sentiment was a perfect choice. This was a real de-construction beauty!

Topic 6: Altered Grunge Paste

No deconstruction project would be complete without Grunge Paste! When I first discovered this adaptable material my mixed media work really started to have a new dimension and - like crackle - it's a staple that I go to again and again because there are quite simply no end of effects you can achieve with Grunge Paste.

Lou Collins of Lou Collins Designs showed how, by adding Fresco colour, you can create the effect of wood grain and really make a memo board special! I love how she used Jofy stamps on this project. For that great wood grain effect check out her tutorial here.

What an impressive use of Grunge Paste Liesbeth Fidder of Liesbethart showed us with her exquisite mosaic using Lynne Perrella stamps! It was absolutely breath-taking! If you would like to use Grunge Paste as a mosaic do take a look at Liesbeth's post.

And then Wanda Hentges of 'Art by Wanda' created this vibrant and dimensional wall-hanging using these lovely Sara Newman stamps and Lin Brown's stencils, showing us that we could stamp into Grunge Paste too. Why not transport yourself back into those glorious days of summer by checking out how to create this hanging here?

These inspiring designers really encouraged imaginations to take flight! I loved how Lin at Art from Herts, created this wonderful little textured town for the Grunge Paste Challenge!

And Claire Snowdon cleverly adapted Seth Apter's suggestion of embossing Grunge Paste. She didn't want to go for the abstract bubbling effect so she simply applied the Embossing Powder when the paste was wet, allowed it to dry and created this lovely tag using Lin Brown stencils.

And Finally from me....

Now all fired up by these amazing projects, it's my turn for a last challenge inspired by 2015: to link these the topics of Miniature, Deconstruction and Grunge Paste. I decided to reverse a 5" x 5" canvas shadow box and to create the little town of Moonlight.

You can see how I used Grunge Paste coloured with Teresa Green and Limelight Frescos combined with moss, tiny twigs and wood shavings and with some Treasure Gold to add texture to the miniature card door. 

I used a stamp from LPC033 on painted tissue for the background and part of another on Fresco painted card for the roof/hat. The rolling waves de-constructing the edges are created with the addition of some rigid plaster wrap and the 'Moonlight' title is from Sara Nauman ESN13. I just had to add crackle paste and rust through some lace as part of the Deconstruction process. The Gothic text is from PaperArtsy Mini 26.

I'm sure you'll agree that it has been a very exciting year at PaperArtsy. The variety of techniques, the range of ideas and crafting styles, not to mention the outstanding projects created by the Stamp Designers, Contributing bloggers and by all of you, the Challenge Entrants, on these three topics alone have made this review a real pleasure for me. 

I do hope you have enjoyed sharing these memories with me and that - like me - you are looking forward to another great year of challenges at PaperArtsy!

Julie Ann Lee

Magpieheaven (blog)
@woletz1(Twitter)
Julie Lee (Facebook)

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2015 #5 De-constructed Configuration Box {by Lin Brown PA signature Designer}

2015 Theme 5: Deconstruction

Hi, Lin here this evening to share a project with my take on deconstruction. What a fabulous topic this is. There is nothing I like more that de-laminating corrugated card, ripping pages out of an old dictionary to use in my work or altering a book. These are things that I have done many times before so for this project, I decided to re-purpose a Configurations Box, designed by Tim Holtz. The project still remains a box, but now it has a hinged lid in stead of a lift off lid and will probably be used to store jewellery.

If you are not familiar with Configuration boxes, this is how a new one looks. It has a lift off lid and contains lots of small boxes which you can lift out and rearrange in different configurations if you so wish. For this project, I will not be using the small boxes but will keep them as I have been known to reassemble them in other ways for other projects.

Step one: I used a sharp craft knife to cut away the two shorter panels from the sides of the lid.

Step two: I covered both the lid and base of the box with a selection of washi tape. Washi tape is not the stickiest of tapes, so I used a layer of Matt Medium over the top of the tapes to prevent them lifting.

Step three: Using Snowflake Fresco Finish paint, I stencilled some images over the box. I used PS001, PS002 and PS014 

Step four: I watered down some Caribbean Sea to paint a watery wash of colour over the whole box and dry brushed some Bougainvillea around the edges. Both of these colours are from my latest set of Limited Edition Fresco Finish Paints.

Step five: The box comes with a sturdy sheet of acetate which creates a nice window in the box. I used it to create my colourful panel in the lid of the box. It is important to use the correct ink when stamping on acetate, I used StazOn which in my opinion, is the best ink for stamping on shiny surfaces. 

Step six: After stamping the first image from ELB16 on the acetate, I stamped a couple of these on paper and used them as masks until I had stamped a complete row of the large flower.

Step seven: I repeated this technique with the small flower from the same plate of stamps until I had completely filled the acetate with flowers.

Step eight: Working on the back of the acetate, I used a small detail paintbrush to add some highlights to the images. At this stage, it always looks really messy but you just have to bear in mind that this is the back and it will not be seen.

Step nine: Start filling in the flowers with colour. Hey Pesto is my "go to" green.

Step ten: Bougainvillea next. This colour is a semi-opaque paint and required two coats to achieve good solid coverage.

Step eleven: Banana and Tangerine Twist finished the rest of the flowers off beautifully. Both of these colours are translucent and needed more than one coat to achieve the solid colour that I wanted.

Step twelve: I filled in the gaps with Caribbean Sea which is an opaque paint so only one coat required.

Look how amazing it looks from the front. It's really tricky photographing acetate but I hope you can see how the gold highlights bring it to life.

Step thirteen: I used some red line double sided adhesive tape around the edge of the window and carefully lowered my acetate panel into place. This is the view from the back of the panel.

Step fourteen: I added a decorative knob to make it easy to open the box. This one needed a hole punched through the box and a screw inserted in the back to hold it in place. I prefer this type, it's much stronger that gluing a handle in place.

Step fifteen: I lined the box with black felt.

Step sixteen: The final step was to adhere the lid to the box. I thought long and hard about which type of adhesive to use for this. Should I use red line tape which is pretty strong or use a wet glue which allows some manoeuvrability? I decided on the wet glue option and used Pinflair's bookbinding glue.....this is pretty strong stuff and worked a dream.

So there we have it, a bright new storage box with a hinged lid. I hope it inspires you to join in with the de-constructed challenge. Looking forward to seeing your entries.

Lin. 

Blog - Yours Artfully

Thanks Lin, this is a fabulous repurposed box. The stamping on the acetate is just genius and oh wow how does it pop. 

We would love you to join in with challenge #5: Deconstruction If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Deconstruction link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 22nd, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

2015 Topic 5: Deconstruction {Challenge}

Topic 5: Deconstruction

Hi everyone, It's Leandra back again to share the next Topic of 2015 with you. Now I will admit, this one had our designers stumped initially...they were like WHAT??? But if you put a bit of thought into it you will come up with some amazing ideas I am sure... and having had a sneaky look at the posts to come in the next 2 weeks, they certainly HAVE done that!

For deconstruction, you might use a product for something it totally was not designed for....for example...do you remember when Julie-Ann made this for a Christmas gift ???

...do you remember it started out like this....made from Amazon book packaging??

Exactly THAT kind of deconstruction is one option you could explore....but it can be as simple as tearing card or ripping corrugated card.... shredding paper to use as hair...but it might be as complicated as re-purposing tubes, cartons or containers into something totally different. In other words take an object or items and change it somehow by deconstructing and reconstructing...get it???

At heart I think we are all into altering objects in lots of ways, so I really think that you will get into this topic the more you think about it. On the face of it is seems a tad tricky...but when you open your fridge, you are going to start looking at your throw-away containers in a whole different way!

But first, here is Darcy to announce the challenge winner for Topic 4: Miniature Art. 

Hi everyone, Darcy here. 

Wow! The Mini Art challenge seemed to get your thinking hats on! Again, we love to see all that you have been making, from hanging items, jewellery, shrink plastic was popular, and lots of amazing mini books. Altering playing cards was an idea that popped up... of course, that would fit into the coming deconstruction topic too! Also ribbon reels, stampbord and dominoes, so many little treasures to play with. 

Sooooo, the winning name from Topic 4: Miniature Art...goes to... 

Hazel from Mellifluous Meanderings

 To claim your £50 voucher, please email me, Darcy with your details to darcydotneedles@hotmail.com and I'll explain how you claim your prize. 

Thanks Darcy for drawing the prize winner, and well done to our latest winner Hazel!!! 

so....it's Leandra back for the rest of this post to chat some more about possible 'deconstruction' ideas with you. Here's a video to kick things off...




Many of us might have started into this crafting lark by making cards, or scrapbooking our memories, but how long did it take you to start altering other unusual objects with paint and ink???

The essence of this topic is to change or alter something into something else, or adapt part of it into another project...

How many objects and containers have you got sitting around just waiting for you to change them somehow? ...

Like there are a million things you can do with Vintage Teacups...candles are a very popular option for instance.

Or a succulent mini garden...

There is a whole article here on easy to do re-purposing...I was so taken by these simple yet very effective light-bulb vases...

Speaking of glass, there are lots of bottle ideas on pinterest too... such as...
making tumbler glasses from beer bottles...

how about painting your vases from the inside...

or making light fittings from coloured glass bottles...

or even crystal carafes can look so elegant...

And here's another great tutorial on how to decorate in a more nautical theme with twine...

This one has been painted and sanded back to reveal the darker paint or perhaps dark glass underneath

How about some dip-dyed tin cans..more ideas with tins here...

OK so here's a weird one...doll parts...thinking Darcy will like this one...

check out the artist and many more examples here...

Recycling materials...especially corrugated card is stuff we are all addicted to!!!

Here is a really cool mannequin made from corrugated card

I really love this idea, and its not difficult to achieve either, layers of paint onto corrugated car, chop up, tear, re-arrange...lots of fun!

Or how about these cork charms?

I could go on forever showing you all sorts of great ideas, but why not take a look at my Pinterest page for the Topic 5: deconstruction here. I'll be adding to it lots over the next 2 weeks..

Have a great fortnight, and I really hope you find cool deliberately destructive ideas!! Go on...be a rebel!

~ Leandra 

We would love you to join in with challenge #5: Deconstruction. Feel free to join in and share your destructive-creative ideas over the next 2 weeks and link up your creativity to this page.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher (including postage) to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. This link is open from Sunday March 8th and will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 22nd, 2015. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

1. The challenge is a chance for you to show how you have been inspired by a particular technique of the fortnight. Your entry should contain:

- a mention of which post inspired you and why, and 

- a link in your blog post to that original post on the PA blog.

The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, don't feel obliged to copy an idea exactly, but if you prefer to replicate, of course that is fine too. We love to see how you are inspired!

2. The link you put on our linky page must lead directly to the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. Don't link to the home page of your blog, or we will be unable to find the post to leave you comments.

3. Spam links will be deleted.

4. We prefer your challenge post is created exclusive to our challenge. Multiple challenge links in one blog post often creates a conflict of interest between the different challenge hosts.

5. You are most welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it's lovely when you do!

6. You can enter as many times as you like in the fortnight. We don't want to restrict your creativity or participation! Link closes at 17:00 Sunday March 22nd.

7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website, the credit includes VAT and postage. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total should not exceed £50

8. Each Sunday fortnight the winner will be announced at 19:00, also, in the same post, the link for the next fortnight will be posted. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy: email her darcydotneedles@hotmail.com

Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!