Nut Shell Books with I&D {by Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos}

Hi everyone, Liesbeth here. These beautiful PaperArtsy I&D 'Vintage Nude' stamps were once among the very first I ever owned about 20 years ago, and today I'd love to show you how I used them to create two (nut)shell booklets.

I no longer have the original packaging, but here you can see the wonderful stamps featured in this blogpost: PaperArtsy Ink & The Dog Collection: Vintage Nudes plate 1, Vintage Nudes plate 2, Vintage Nudes plate 3 and Vintage Nudes plate 4.

I also used real shells and nutshells, and PaperArtsy Stencils PS234, PS002, PS239, PS173 and PS105.

For the pages I used PaperArtsy Smoothy white stamping card,regular. The perfect cardstock!

Paints I used: PaperArtsy Fresco Paints: Smurf, Banana, Snowflake, Gold and Gloss Glaze.

I started with the shell book, two shells will be the cover. Using one of the shells as a template I cut the double pages out of the folded cardstock.

Time for some layers, first I used the stencils with the Fresco Finish paints Banana and Smurf to paint some marks at the edges of the pages here and there. Later on the paints will work as a resist. I sponged the pages with Distress Inks: Wild Honey, Salvaged Patina, Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire, overlapping areas.

I sprayed some waterdrops to create nice spots, after drying I made a next layer with Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire and the stencils as shown.

Time for the beautiful Vintage Nudes stamps, I stamped them with Tsukineko StazOn - Jet Black. I used every single stamp from the four stamp sets and tried to create nice compositions. I also stamped the small flower (Plate 3) here and there with blue and yellow Distress ink. After that I bleached (watered down bleach and a synthetic brush) and coloured the women and some other details, and finished with a bit of glitter glue.

A hard decision.. shall I paint the shells or not? I did, using the Fresco Paint Snowflake :-) Onto very thin, one layer napkin paper I stamped the small flower (Plate 3) with three different blue colours waterproof ink (I used Versafine Clair), tore them out and glued them one by one onto the shells with Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze. 

I glued the double pages back to back to create a book.

Something was still missing, so i decided to take the amazing Fresco Finish Paint Gold and painted the edges of the shells a bit ragged. It's so shiny..to me the perfect finishing touch!

To 'bind' the book, I added some washi tape on the spine of the booklet, glued some pieces of fibre in the shells and glued the booklet in the shells.

Here you see how the first page is glued into the front shell. I glued the edge and secured the page with clamps till it was dry.

I couldn`t resist making another tiny walnut book, the stamps are so perfect for this! Made in much the same way. This one, however, is an accordion book, 6 pages long.

The closed books. I decided not to paint the nutshell, but of course it's up to you.

This picture shows the beauty of the stamps! And also the layering, glitters, colour pencil make-up and other details. 

Finished! A small shell book and a tiny nutshell book full of lovely Vintage Nudes:-)

Look at that cute nude ladies in their gothic arches, love it!

Another detail of the nutshell pages.

This is the final page of the shell book. The bleached woman pops out, the golden Fresco paint and glitter glue make it shine!

It was a pleasure to create this two books with the wonderful ,oldies' PaperArtsy Ink & The Dog ,Vintage Nudes`.

Hope I inspired you, have fun!

Liesbeth XX

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2024 Topic 6 : Scrapcosy - Mash Up Tags {by Autumn Clark}

Hi everyone!  It's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint with you today and I am ever so excited to have the chance to play with stamps for the Scrapcosy topic, as you all know how much I adore Raquel and her incredible designs!  I chose to do a Mash Up post to show how beautifully Scrapcosy stamps pair with Gwen Lafleur stamps.  Both designers have a beautiful illustrative style, Raquel with a more true vintage aesthetic and Gwen leaning toward a more bohemian vibe.  Nevertheless, the styles of illustration pair beautifully.  My task was made simple, minus the decision on which two stamp sets to marry...

My favorite part of this process was creating my own ephemera from each stamp.  I just love how these images can be personalized in any color palette, but ultimately I chose to work in an autumnal scheme, because  fall is almost upon us and is most beautiful in the foothills of South Carolina.

I was away from home, so I thought what better time to do a post featuring very few products.  I picked a trio of Distress Ink Pads, one bottle of PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic (Heavy Cream) and just two stamp sets, Scrapcosy stamp set 26 (ESC26) and Gwen Lafleur stamp set 19 (EGL19).

I started by getting inky!  I dipped a pair of Bristol panels into Distress Inks in Fired Brick, Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo, repeating the process until I was happy with the color.  

I don't know about you, but sometimes just diving in with color seems the best way to kickstart my mojo.  Next, I stamped my focal imagery then played around with composition using the actual red rubber stamps as puzzle pieces to determine my layout.  

Then I started coloring my focal images to coordinate with my inky backgrounds and began stamping the backgrounds in various colors.

 

At this point, I was still contemplating our quarterly theme of "Hidden" and decided it would be a lot of fun to let some of these very rich colors and image outlines become hidden or subdued in the background.  

I grabbed a bottle of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Heavy Cream and brayered lightly over the center of each panel.  I just love how the Distress Inks rose to the surface, as shown in the mushroom definition on the left, and the black permanent ink stamping receded, as shown with the birds.  This instantly gave the tags a more vintage vibe.

I decided this patch of "free space" would be a great spot to add some journaling.  So to carry on with the Hidden Theme, I attached my focal images to smaller inky tags and adhered them with masking tape hinges to the larger tags.  It was a great space to incorporate additional stamping.

I used the Scrapcosy text stamps to highlight each mini tag.  The collage elements remind me of gathering nature's treasures on a stroll through the forest.

I made one tag flip to the left and the other flip to the right.  Do check out the PaperArtsy Instagram page for a reel of these tags in action...

I decided the shadowy birds needed a little oomph, so I fussy cut another colored bird and layered it over to complete the collage I was going for, with the smaller bird facing the "mama bird". 

I am looking forward to adding personal writing on these spaces in the future.

I hope you've enjoyed this Mash Up of Scrapcosy and Gwen Lafleur stamps!  Perhaps you're thinking of the sets you own and how they can be combined.  I would love to see what you come up with!  xx, Autumn

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2024 Topic 5: Ink Pads {by Autumn Clark} on the PaperArtsy Blog

Hi everyone!  It's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint here with you today.  Summer days are passing by quickly for me, as I'm sure you can relate.  The current topic, Ink Pads, had me thinking of quick and easy ways to stay creative during the busy summer months.

Creating simple stamped projects with ink pads has always been a favorite way for me to play.  Getting inky just suits my need to make a mess and be expressive with color.  I created a series of cards to give for birthdays and hope they inspire you to get inky too!

I really enjoyed working on these fun backgrounds and love how beautifully these stamps work together for such fun patterns.  The bold flowers and punch of black really makes the finished cards pop, something that is especially fun for birthdays.

It took me a while to decide on a set of stamps, as Tracy Scott has so many wonderful background sets that would work perfectly with this project.  For my backgrounds I went with the gorgeous PaperArtsy stamp set 25 by Tracy Scott (TS025).  I would highly recommend trying stamp sets TS041 and TS085 for similar backgrounds if you have a chance! EM58 has been re-coded now that Tracy is on her own index sheets as TSM02, and EM64 as TSM08

Next, I poured over my Distress Ink Pads to choose three analogous colors in four colorways.  I was hoping to both inspire you in your favorite colors AND to give you several options if you have a limited selection of ink pads.  I hope you like the palettes I picked:  Saltwater Taffy, Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves.  Squeezed Lemonade, Twisted Citron and Cracked Pistachio.  Cracked Pistachio, Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch.  And finally, Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet and Seedless Preserves.

You'll notice I tried to overlap color choices where possible.  When using water based inks in this way, it's usually best to pick colors near to each other on the color wheel to avoid making muds when the colors mix.  I cut my four card panels from an 8.5x11" piece of Bristol cardstock so I would end up with four finished creations.

The process for each card follows the same process.  First I tapped the lightest color twice and parts of the two darker colors once, all right next to each other onto my kraft mat.  I spritzed them with water a few mists, then dipped the panel into the colors.

While the panel was wet, I grabbed Tracy's mini stamp 08 (TM08 - formerly EM64) and inked it with two colors at a time repeatedly stamping all over the panel so the wet on wet ink would smear.  If it dried too fast, I spritzed it with more water to encourage the ink to bleed.

It would have been really simple to do an entire sheet of card with one color as a masterboard, and then cut into four panels after.  If that is easier for you, then go for it!

I loved this look right away, but added some additional stamping.  I stamped the crosses and scribble circles over in solid inks without the bleeding technique.

 

Once my inky backgrounds were dry, I overstamped the leaves and added some dots from Tracy's mini stamp 02 (TSM02 - formerly EM58).  

Next, I stamped our the smaller flowers and used my Distress Inks to color them.  I cut them with a small white border to give them a small frame and pop of white.

I used Seedless Preserves for the pink card, Cracked Pistachio for the yellow, Blueprint Sketch for the blue and Wilted Violet for the purple.

This stash building project was loads of fun and I hope the various colorways inspire you.  

The fun part will be picking a color to give specific friends throughout the coming months on their special day.  As we wrap up the Ink Pad Topic, I hope you're encourages with the plethora of ideas for your next stamping project.  Happy inking, Autumn 

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