2023 Topic 5 : Tinged Blue {by Ellie Knol} with Gwen Lafleur stamps

Hi everyone,

Ellie Knol from PAPER-STAMPS-COLOR here with you today.

Of course I've been enjoying some creative time lately. This topic 'Tinged Blue' had me thinking about mixing PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic (Surf's Up, FF146) with a neutral color, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic (Mud Splat, FF61)
 

So first things first: as I wanted to share the mixing of the colors to be the initial step, I stamped with these mixed colors and also created some prints on the gelliplate to get me started. By exploring the colors and products normally gets me into a creative flow.
 
Beware: I did change my mind all through the project (not a problem for me as now I have a lot of stamped fodder left for future projects!)

Especially making the bottles a little see-through was sort of a challenge. 

This home-decor piece turned out quite different to what I'd envisioned, but I enjoyed every step of creating it. I hope you will read through the post and enjoy the techniques and use them as inspiration.

I went with the flow: you'll see! 

How did I get the white-washed effect on the tiny bottles? What substrate did I use to make them, and how did I get them rounded like a real bottle? Read on... 

I was not sure what type of project I was going to create, but I chose to play with the beautiful stamps from Gwen Lafleur; bottles and flowers - Gwen Lafleur stamp set 25 (EGL25) and stamp set 27 (EGL27). 
I was sure this combination would tickle me into a project I would enjoy making. I also chose to use Gwen Lafleur Mini Stamp 122 (MN122) for some texture.

Gwen Lafleur stamp set 25 (EGL25) 

Gwen Lafleur stamp set 27 (EGL27) 

Gwen Lafleur Mini Stamp 122 (MN122)

Why did I choose these stamp sets for this theme? I guessed the blue would be nice for the bottles, and the brown for depth. Their mixes open other windows. For texture the mini stamp will do!  

I ended up with 6 color mixes; eight colors to choose from now. I was tasked with using a 'neutral' color, so Mud Splat was the direction I went in.

I mixed PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic (Surf's Up, FF146) Up and PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic (Mud Splat, FF61) onto cardstock, and also painted it onto cardstock to be able to pick out the most suitable mix to stamp images with for the project at a later stage.

This is artsy happiness... (or PaperArtsy happiness).

I also created some prints on the gelliplate to get me started; maybe I will use them as a background?! Or for texture?! . 

Having all the collage materials and prints ready, I took the plunge to decide on the type of project: an altered embroidery hoop to create a window (and frame) for a home decor piece. 

I ended up using the 50/50 mixes to stamp with; not brown, not blue.. it almost looks like a browny green.

What will the backdrop be? Will I use a background from the prints, or a picture from a magazine or calendar? I had a look through my stash... making them visual and taking a picture of it makes the decision easier. 

Here we go.. the fun happens now: combining and assembling all the elements.

... stamping all the flower images with Memento Olive Grove ink... 

.. tearing strips from the gelatine prints because I need some texture! Decoupaging strips of the gelatine prints to the inner circle of the frame gives a quite unpredictable and textured feel to it.

Then painting the outer frame of the hoop: I painted it with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Mud Splat. and then went on to create a window window grid, the bottles would sit on part of this.

What else do I have to create? 

Oh, yes the bottles.... 

Remember: I stamped quite a lot of bottles on paper with the paint mixes, but bottles are transparent in real life.. how to achieve that?!

First step was to find some transparent sheet with a satin surface in my stash; that might be the solution. Stamping onto it was easy; the paint dried pretty quick! 

BUT : The substrate is not visible on the background.. what now? 

Follow the pictures and you''ll find out how what I've learned!

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic (Snowflake, FF15):

I've got myself some fancy vases now: 

I stamped the flower images onto a sturdy watercolor paper. The ones that I picked, were then colored and fussy cut. I colored these images with water diluted paints to get a watercolor effect. Arranging them into the 'vases' was a delight all on its own.

A few more pictures ... 

Reflections of the sun?! While making pictures the sun decided to appear on part of it through a window...

Can you tell I LOVE the outcome of this home decor piece? It was a happy process! 

Creating this project made me realize how even more paint colors can be derived by mixing them. The sky is the limit as to what is possible. 
 
The bottles make me happy!
I LOVE colored glass! I collect green glass bottles: I have quite a few in my collection; so the stamps are right up my street. I just wish I had such an outstanding view through my front window, lol. 
I'd love to hear what inspired you and of course I'd like to see what you create! Share with us in the PaperArtsy FB group! 

Artists need to have their hands dirty! Have a good artsy day... 

Ellie Knol

The light outside changes the colors to its full glory!!

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2022 Topic 07: Specimen Jar {by Asia Marquet} with Gwen Lafleur stamps

Hi everyone, it's Asia Marquet (Lemon Creation) with you today, and I'm here to share with you rather unusual project for the Specimen Jar topic- a set of interactive ATCs.

First of all I need to tell you that I am more of a paper crafter and making a real Specimen Jar would have been too big of a challenge for me. But trying to put this idea on paper- that's something which really speaks to me. Mixing up things is always good and the beautiful stamps by Gwen Lafleur, perfect for this type of project, were calling me from afar. So this is my very first Specimen Jar project and because it's interactive- it's fun!

I had an idea in mind when I thought about this project. To use more than one jar stamp I decided to make a set of  two ATCs, with flowers which can be put in and taken out from the jars. Everything was supposed to be in earthly/ rusty tones, kind of like a herbarium colour scheme. So naturally my choice was to use Infusions with their walnut tones (Green Man, Royal Blood, Lemoncello and Orange County). They are a perfect match to two of Gwen Lafleur's stamps (EGL13 and EGL25). My last minute decision was to use handmade paper- once again for a more vintage look.

I was not sure how Infusions would behave on the handmade paper, but I was pleasantly surprised. I love the texture of this type of paper- with the colour it added a really vintage look. I sprinkled Orange County and Lemoncello on the paper and then sprayed it with water and let it dry. 

For once I didn't want to keep any white space- after all it was supposed to be a vintage project.

 

 

I love this look- the choice of Infusions and handmade paper was a really good idea. What I forgot to mention was the fact that my handmade paper was A5 size, so to make two ATCs out of it, instead of cutting the paper I teared it to create an ATC size- a neat idea with great results. If you don't have handmade paper, you can do this  with  regular paper. Torn edges add rustic looking colours add so much charm.

Just because I found the colour on paper a little bit too bright to my liking- (after all this is vintage project so the colours are supposed to be a little dull), I added touches of white to the paper with Fresco Chalk Acrylic- Snowflake and the brayer. But in order to not add too much white, I diluted it with water to get it more liquid, harder to stay on the brayer and therefore not too pronounced on the paper. The last step was to darken the edges with Distress Oxide- Vintage Photo.

There is this stunning tissue paper which you can get now with your PaperArtsy purchases. There is a lot of old-looking  script on it, so I added some of it to the background together with some script stamp from Background Plate 2.

 

Let's start with the part which took the most work, but I didn't mind, I was happy to have my paper base ready and really wanted to see how the flowers and branches were going to fit with it. They were to be my interactive part- being able to put them into jars or take them out- it was to me such a fun idea. I am gonna talk more about jars a little bit later, but I wanted to attach them to the paper  with their top part open, so there will be no problem to slide inside them the branches. At this point I was not sure how am I gonna do that, but ideas come to me sometimes at the last moment. Baby steps.

First step- preparing the paper for stamping. I sprinkled on it Infusions: Royal Blood and Green Man, then sprayed the water. I let it dry, not worrying if the paints covered the whole surface of the paper.

When the paper was dry I placed it in the stamping platform and stamped on it the flowers and branches from Gwen's stamp collections: EGL25 and EGL13. 

The longest part was fussy-cutting the images. Here is the hint- do it while watching something, it goes much faster! My question at this point was how to make them more layered, more 3D. Going for a Crackle Accents was a good choice. Once again- crackled make you think vintage- isn't that right?  I am thinking however that the best option would have been to crinkle them a little, as crackle is quite shiny. On the other hand maybe the ATCs needed a little bit of shine?

Next stage was to prepare the specimen jars (stamp EGL25). To me the jars needed to be transparent, so I went for stamping and embossing them on heat resistant acetate. Not an easy task! Even though I used an anti-static tool, I got some particles from embossing powder (Lindy's Gang- Blazing Black) kind of all over the place. Here is a technique I am not mastering! But I am not aiming for perfection and the older I need the project to look, the more forgiving it is.

I stamped 3 jars in total, not sure which one I would use and which ones would fit better with the flowers. Finally I chose two smaller ones which were just the perfect size for ATCs.

The idea on how to attach the jars to the ATCs came to me during the stage of embossing on acetate. When I cut out the jars, I left a small border to be able to run them through my sewing machine. I love adding sewing to my projects, leaving loose threads hanging. So this was obviously an idea I was really happy with. I needed to sew slowly to be sure I followed the edges of the jar. To the top part of the jar I inserted a piece of paper- a reminder that this is the part which needs to stay open and I can't, under no circumstances, run it through my machine.

For the sentiment I opted for colourizing a piece of masking tape with Lemoncello and add some delicate stamping with the same Background Plate 2 stamp. I tore the tape into two pieces and later glued it to the ATCs. On top of that tape I glued tiny words from old book and added the black base cards to the backs of the ATC.

The nicest part of the whole project was to put the flowers and branches into the jars. I spent few good minutes arranging and rearranging them over and over again! 

It is my very first interactive project and I love this aspect of it- the possibility to play with it and find new ways of fitting all of those beautiful flowery elements together.

 

Working with stamps is such a pleasure for me and the two sets of Gwen's stamps I used here are just perfect for specimen/ herbarium type of project. The interactive part of the project surely was (and still is), the most enjoyable part for me.  There is still some part of improvement and  that part is definitely embossing on acetate. But the rest- colourizing handmade paper and masking tape with Infusions and sewing the stamped elements onto the background, was really enjoyable and gives such a great end results!

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Asia

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