2022 Topic 04: Interactive {by Etsuko Noguchi} with Gwen Lafleur stamps

Hi everyone, it's (Etsuko My favorite things) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a very fun interactive project. Thank you so much Dounia for suggesting this, I got very carried away while making it.

I still remember when I was little girl and for Christmas I was given a three-dimensional picture book of 'Hansel and Gretel' and 'The little Mermaid'. I decided to create this Carousel Book based on happy memories of turning the pages of the book over and over again to enter a fantasy world. Today's Carousel book is only four pages long, so it's perfect for creating short stories with little children. Also the images I used here today are from my favorite PaperArtsy artist Gwen Lafleur who has always inspired me with her ethnic and Boho imagery.

The tribal images I chose before making the book are elements that inspire me and help me draw ideas smoothly, so I developed the images based on yellow and blue as my favorite combination, then I adopted those here.

First of all I will let you know the size of the three sheets of paper that will be used as the bace, I made them 30% off the actual size used on the YouTube video for the size of the stamps. You can see the Youtube video HERE(The Carousel Book). There you will find detailed step-by-step instructions on how to make it in the video. Step1, I made two sheets of paper each sizes A, B and C as shown below.

Fold each piece of paper like an accordion in the mountains and valleys so that there are four sections, excluding the tabs. Then cut the shaded areas as shown in the diagram and glue them together as described. The original size in the video was quite large, so he designed it in half the size and then glued it together, but my size is less obtrusive.

*Please watch the video on Youtube to see how the final product is made, including folding and gluing.

 

Now that I had a base for my book, I was looking forward to designing and decorating it. This is the shortest piece of A-paper in the front window and I made to go with happy colour. I thought I would use a sponge rather than jelly plate to apply with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic- Tangerine Twist (FF92), Banana (FF91) and Persimmon (FF209) in a random order. After the paints has dried I stamped Gwen Lafleur Set 23, 06 (EGL23, EGL06) by Ranger Archival Ink Sepia and Watering Can.

                                   

                          

The second and third papers (B, C) were sponged with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic- Bluw Oyster (FF99), A Bit Fishy (FF208) and Cerulean (FF200). Afterwards when It was dry, I stamped the Gwen Lafleur Set 04, 11, 23 (EGL04, EGL11, EGL23) for the scene on each page with Ranger Distress Oxide (salty ocean, peacock feathers). The B paper in the middle was decided to be the same blue as C paper after each scene and character.

The middle part of the book is closed with a nylon thread to prevent it from falling apart. The visible paper-clipped ends were later covered with small magnets. When the three pieces of paper are connected and viewed from above, they from a cross like this.

The tribal stamps image on each window and other decorative stamps image in the center and in the background were coloured with coloured pencils which I love and use a lot on small material these days.

All the parts are now attached.

Let's take a look at each page-- for the harmony of all the animals, plants, fishes, oceans, mountains and people of the earth--I named Nature Land for the book.

I thought it would be better to have a case for this book. The case dimensions image can be found at the top of this blog, please take a look.

  

I was going to use a gel print image for the background, but I wanted it to be bit thicker, so I thought it would be better to stamp it with a few stamps using paint. Here I used Gwen Lafleur Set 02, 03, 12 (EGL02, EGL03, EGL12) pattern stamps with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic- Jade (FF97), Gumboots (FF183), Deep Sea (FF198), Cerulean (FF200) and Southern Skies (FF95).

I have splattered some water and used Seth Apter's baked texture Dirty Sand on the case.

Next I made the back side, I stamped EGL02 with Ranger Distress Oxide antique linen on the black card stock then I made splatters using turquoise embossing powder. The two sheets of paper were then laminated together.

Also I made the border, using ELG03 with Ranger embossing powder liquid platinum on the vellum. The vellum is a  bit thicker and the surface of the case is uneven so it was a bit difficult to apply, I used Ranger Glossy Accents for the adhesive.

Finally, a focal point butterfly was created by EGL23, used coloured pencils, fussy cut and attached to the front using 3D foam with the words Nature Land. The last tab of the case is fitted with a magnet to close the case.

With this project I have learned how to make another fun book. I'm going to try to make more of these as they can be adapted to different sizes and with different pages. If you're interested in making one, please go ahead and make one! Thank you so much for visiting here today. I hope you enjoyed this.

Etsuko xxx

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2021 Topic 14: Mash Up LPC EGL EAB {by Jennie Atkinson}

   2021 Topic 14: Mash Up LPC EGL EEV EAB

Byzantine colours and altering the stamped images themselves (watch out for the tilt!) meld together with a subtle background to produce a journal page featuring a thoughtful muse. Jennie has pushed herself to abandon her favourite 'go-to's' and embraced the new rather beautifully.
~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) with you today sharing my type of project which is a mash up of three different designers - Lynne Perella, Gwen Lafleur and Alison Bomber.

There are always certain stamps which you go to over and over but just lately I have put my "go to's" away in the hope that new ones would appear. And yes they have...as I knew they would! In order to combine the larger number of stamps for this project I find it easier to create a background using a Gel Plate as I can then combine stamps both within the background paints and when over-stamping. 

As soon as I saw this new Lynne Perella face I immediately thought of Alison's wonderful quote: "She is in a world of private dreams and not with us". So it was a joy to create a journal page around this quote and adding in some lovely stamps from Gwen Lafleur and a mix of traditional Byzantine colours in the process (they are not always just purple! - check out medieval mosaics and architecture).

The first step was to create a background paper using my Gel Plate. I am a great fan of the Fresco Blues and had initially thought to make my lovely heroine an Ice Queen. But as usual things take a different turn once one starts creating! Unfortunately I had not realised that Ice Blue has been discontinued a while back, but Wolf Eye would make a nice substitute.

Pine Grove                Baltic Blue

Snowflake                Wolf Eye

These wonderful mosaic stamps by Gwen are some of my favourite stamps and I don't think I will ever tire of using them. They stamp beautifully into the paint on the plate but it does help to stamp onto a piece of scrap paper between each print if you want a full impression. I go for a mixture of both.

EGL03

I created three pieces on the plate using ordinary printer paper and decided on using just one piece, over-stamping with the mosaic element again but adding in other smaller stamps including a couple of quotes from the Dreams and Dreaming plate.

EAB07

You can also see a few of my new "go to's" here. I just love tiny little stamps which fill small spaces and provide a link between text and the larger mosaic stamps. Gwen has added quite a few into her latest stamp sets and I really love them.

EGL17

EGL21

Once the paper is cut to size and brown ink blended around the edges the two background layers really do blend together well.

LPC052

I wanted to use the same Fresco colours for the lovely image (I decided to call her Theodosia !) but for contrast added in a few brighter ones.

Blood Orange                  Pumpkin Soup

I have used the paints neat adding in a smidgen of water to just loosen them up a bit. I tilted her head for the photograph so you could see the extra layer, but decided she looked quite cute so went for a lesser tilt for the final layering.

I haven't added much else as I didn't want to lose the lovely background. I isolated a small circle from the mosaic stamp and gave it a little definition with some musllin.

And a small piece of muslin also "anchored" my main image.

Combining different types of stamps for a journal page or card is a great way of experimenting to find a new style or to create something a little differently. The little circle stamps from EGL17 are wonderful for pulling different areas together and do think about using quote stamps as background text particularly when they expand on the main quote. Quite often my background stamps are from quite different themes but as they are not the main focus it really doesn't matter.

Once again it is lovely to create with such beautiful stamps by PaperArtsy designers - thank you Gwen, Lynne and Alison!

Jennie x

Blog:  Live the Dream
Instagram: atkinsonjennie