2020#12 Typography: Typo Tess with EEG (by Helen Chilton)

2020 Topic 12: Typography

Helen's project had me ooh'ing and ahh'ing at such a clever idea. The skirt and legs are particularly brilliant and there's hardly anywhere untouched by type-faced charm. 

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today looking at Typography.

As you can probably see I've gone a bit off piste with this one - blame it on being in lockdown for several weeks! I'm using Emma's stamps which have loads of text, all different fonts and sizes and I was going to use the little pages to make a book. However as I was looking through my stash, I came on this calico art doll that I bought ages ago for something and never used. It got me thinking and Typo-Tess was born.

Here she is. This doll has got wire inside so you can bend her arms and legs.

I've used a piece of silk and sprayed it with Dylusion sprays. You could use any sprays or something like Ecoline inks, or Infusions are also a useful fabric dye with muted tones. I love how the colours bleed into one another.

Then I stuck it down on a piece of paper and ripped it into shreds leaving a border at the top. (This is all done on the floor by the way, but I'm not showing you that as you'll be shocked by the mess!)

While still stuck to the paper, I've stamped words and phrases on every strip. Archival works best for this, I tried Versafine Clair but it bled into the silk.

Use as many fonts as you want. You can split up the larger quotes and just stamp one line.

For the arms and legs I just stamped patterns.

When you're painting the calico, water your paint down a little and it goes on beautifully.

Wanting to get some text into every space, I then stamped in between the stripes.

Everything else is made of scraps and wool. Her skirt flows around her in a rainbow of colours.

Add text to the sash and then the beads spell out her name. 

Typo Tess really cheered me up and got my mojo going! I made her rainbow coloured as children over here have been painting rainbows and putting them in their windows to support our wonderful NHS workers at this time, and also all the other people who are working so hard to keep things going.

You could easily make your own doll to dress and decorate - it doesn't need to be anything fancy. Just imagine all the different stamps you could use - flowers, fish, faces from Darcy, Clare, Lynne Perrella, Zinski, Gwen's patterns and even some of Courtney's crochet to decorate the clothes! I think I'm off to cut out some more!

Helen

A Splash of Colour

2019 #9 Arty Wood Blocks: Project Jenga with EEG/ESA {by Amanda Pink}

2019 Topic 9: Arty Wood Blocks

Amanda's awesome upcycle takes a game from boring to 'bravo'! She has some great ideas for a block swap (that she should definitely organise!) and I love the idea of creating extra elements to make it into useable art.

Hi everyone, it's Amanda (ink-a-pink) here and I'd like to share with you my project for the current topic: Arty Wood Blocks.

Whilst thinking about a few ideas for this topic considering what I might create, I found myself quite randomly saying out loud one day 'Jenga'!!! I guess from that point on the seed was sown and my creative direction was decided! I would attempt to give a game of Jenga, all 54 wood blocks a grungy arty makeover and in addition I would create an arty wood platform on which the game could stand so it could be left out all set up ready to play and/or be displayed as a piece of mixed media art! 
So 'Project Jenga' as it became known began .....

I dug out my old Jenga game, removed it from its packaging...  

and primed each of the 54 blocks with gesso before giving them a couple of coats of Little Black Dress Fresco Finish Chalk Paint.

I set them to one side whilst I created some brayered masterboards which I would use to cover the Jenga blocks. I chose a colour palette of Mermaid, Seaglass, China, Space Cadet, Butter, Slimed, Tangerine Twist and Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Paints.

 

  

I worked initially on 3 A4 sheets of PaperArtsy Super Smoothy card but soon realised I needed a good few more -7 in total! Fortunately as I'd used a simple brayer technique repeating the process took no time at all.

Next came all the repetitive creativity - firstly measuring and cutting the required amount of pieces needed to cover all the surfaces of the 54 Jenga blocks; you do the math! 

Then lots of repeat stamping on the wider pieces that would cover the top and base of the blocks using the triple square stamp and all of the quote stamps from Eclectica EEG17 stamp set.

This was followed by some repeat stencilling on the thinner pieces that would cover the sides and ends of the blocks using the line of small squares on PaperArtsy Stencil PS016 with Little Black Dress Fresco Finish Chalk paint.

I also did some 'painting in' of some of the stamped shapes and add highlights and accents with a white pen to help 'lift' the stamp and stencil imagery 

before finally adhering each of the pieces to each of the blocks!

I know repetitive creativity isn't for everyone but don't let it put you off as its the type of project that you could do in stages, a little at a time. In fact that would be my suggestion, maybe work in batches suitable and manageable for you.

Once all the blocks were covered I began placing them in position to build the Jenga tower, 

ensuring they would push in and out of the tower with ease. I think in the coming days I will treat the blocks to a coat of soft touch varnish to seal and protect, give them a longer 'shelf life' so to speak.

The Jenga platform consists of two wood blocks, one 4x4 inch and one 6x6 inch. Both were primed and painted before being covered -the 4x4 block with a left over piece of the brayered masterboard that I stamped using the triple square stamp from Eclectica EEG17

and the 6x6 block with pieces cut from another masterboard I created working with the same colour palette as before.

I added some stamping detail using once again stamps from Eclectica EEG17.
I wanted to keep some continuity running through from the tower to the platform hence my use of the same stamps and colour palette as I felt this would lend itself better to the overall design and lessen the risk of potential 'clashing'!  

 I love the way PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints create such fabulous texture.
  

I personally find palette knife application allows for a much 'looser, freer' release of the paint;

enabling you to gradually build up lots of  layers and depth of colours.

Continuing the masterboard around the sides of the 6x6 platform mirrored the covered sides of the Jenga blocks nicely and again kept the design continuity flowing.

The black painted sides of the 4x4 block that I left exposed allowed me to adhere some broken PaperArtsy Wood Chips by Seth Apter (also painted black) seamlessly to each of the four sides.

I used another wood chip piece to create a removable decorative 'Tower Topper' that would also serve as a 'moving aid' when transferring the Jenga Tower and platform from one place to another. You simply hold the platform with one hand, the topper with the other and move without the Tower tumbling all around!

   
The final touches were some black inverted eyelets adhered to each of the corners of the 6x6 platform and 'Project Jenga' was complete.

Although it was indeed a big project, and I can't pretend it all ran smoothly. On more than one occasion I almost gave up as there were plenty of bumps along the creative road but I'm glad I stuck with it and saw it through to its completion as I had hours of creative fun along the way .  Would I do it again? You know I guess I would; I love a challenge and there are so many creative possibilities with a project like this. The creativity can be as simple or as complex as you choose and how cool would it be to make it into a project you create with friends or a group of fellow creatives. Give/send them all some Jenga blocks and let them work their own personal creative magic!   

Thanks for joining me today.
Keep on Creating 
Amanda

Blog: ink-a-pink 
Instagram: kynapi10
Pinterest: PinkArt

2018 #16 Reinkers: Coloring fabric with EEG {by Anneke de Clerck}

2018 Topic 16: Reinkers

 Wow, this looks like so much fun!! Fabric, paper, stitching and plenty of inky goings on! Anneke has created a truly wonderful project for you in this post! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Anneke here today. I'd like to share an art journal with you I made for the current "Reinkers" challenge.

I admire the work of Roben Marie Smith. She often works with fabric and ribbon and I see lots of stitches on her projects. Inspired by her I decided to make my own project using fabric, ribbon and stitches.

First I spent an afternoon coloring strips of fabric, ribbon and gauze with the regular Distress Ink reinkers. The next day I used the result of this coloring session to create an art journal. It was super fun and easy to put together. For the inside pages I've chosen a good quality watercolor paper. That's the benefit of making your own art journals, you can fill them with any type of paper you like working on.

For the base of the cover I used a piece of firm turquoise felt (17 x 30 cm). I stitched colored strips of fabric (+/- 2,5 cm wide) on top of the felt. 

To color the strips I applied 4 drops of the regular Distress Ink reinker on a craft sheet and sprayed water on top. I put torn strips of white fabric into that puddle. On some strips I worked with only one color, on others I used 2 matching colors.

Depending on the amount of water I added I ended up with softer or brighter colors.

I used the following Distress Ink reinkers: Shaded Lilac, Tattered Rose, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon, Cracked Pistachio, Squeezed Lemonade, and Weathered Wood. I noticed it took some time for the colored strips to dry. 

After drying I machine stitched the strips on the felt with a simple straight stitch using turquoise thread. I started on the right side of the felt panel, aligned the edge of the first strip to the edge of the felt panel. I put each strip partially on top of the previous one before stitching. After covering the whole felt panel with strips of fabric I folded the leftover fabric at the top and bottom to the backside and attached it to the felt with double sided tape.

I alternated blue/green strips with pink/orange/lila strips. Love the distressed look of the torn strips. 

At the backside I covered the felt with a sheet of canvas paper. After decorating the canvas I used double sided tape to attach it to the felt.

I painted the canvas using a flat brush and a mixture of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics Snowflake and Bubble Gum. 

I overstamped the inside covers with stamps from the EEG17 & EEG22 stamp sets.  While art journaling the inspiring quotes will help me over the fear of the blank page :)

Love the font style of the quote stamps as well, they are very versatile!

The felt base of the cover is very bendable/flexible. I didn't have to make crisp folds at the spine as I'm usually doing while making covers. 

I added 2 signatures to the colorful cover. I started by cutting 10 sheets of watercolor paper from a watercolor paper pad by Prima (size 17 x 26 cm). I folded 5 sheets in half and nested the pages into each other, repeated this step for the second signature.

I set 6 eyelets into the spine. Two in the middle of the spine and the others 2 cm from the head and tail.

With an awl I made 3 holes in each signature and I used a three hole pamphlet stitch to attach the signatures to the cover. I did the sewing with turquoise waxed thread.

I colored a bunch of white ribbon with the Distress Ink reinkers as well. 

As my fingers were blue and green already anyway, I also colored a few strips of gauze.

I used the ribbon to make a removable closure for the art journal. I wanted the closure to be an eye catcher so I stamped the big flower from the EEG22 set on watercolor paper using Archival Ink Jet Black. I water colored the flower using Distress Ink re-inkers Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Broken China. I cut it out, set an eyelet in the middle of the flower and attached 2 long strips of ribbon by making a knot.

To decorate the cover I made a collage using gesso-ed book text, colored gauze, a pink strip of fabric, green ribbon and a stamp from the EEG17 stamp set. I stitched the collage to the cover before adding the canvas backside.

Because Distress Ink reinkers have intense colors I ended up with brightly colored strips of fabric. That's just what I'm fond of! And I love the Distress Ink color palette, don't you?

I rarely use my sewing machine while making art. I love seeing stitches on other crafters cards, books or art journal pages but most of the time I'm too lazy to pick up my own sewing machine :) On this occasion I had the courage to thread my machine and I didn't regret it. I have to do this more often. 

I kept the decoration of the cover simple. I wanted the flower and the collage/quote to be the focal points. I'm very happy with how the closure turned out. That flower designed by Emma Godfrey is one of my favorite stamps.

I hope I could inspire you to colour some fabric or ribbon yourself and maybe make your own art journal filled with your favorite type of paper. Don't forget to link your project to the challenge page.
I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Thanks for stopping by!

Anneke

My blog

http://somefiddlingonthekitchentable.blogspot.be

Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com/anneke1/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/somefiddlingonthekitchentable/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/anneke.declerck

To join our challenge and win a £50 PaperArtsy gift voucher:

Simply make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page.

The current topic link Topic 16: Reinkers will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, September 30th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy £50 gift voucher. Please make sure we can contact you as a prize winner - it helps if you share your contact info from the platform you opt to use. 

Prize conditions: Please note if you are a successful prize winner our online shopping cart will give you £50 off the subtotal of products in your basket. This means you will need to pay the relevant postage on the order.  We cannot figure out how to create a prize with a  zero value, but I guess even paying the postage only is still a good deal right!

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