2020 #4 Mighty Mica: Fairy Play with ELB {by Etsuko Noguchi}

2020 Topic 4: Mighty Mica

Etsuko's glimmery and textured Wall Hanging is the perfect place for the fairies to play. The joint tape is a fabulous inexpensive addition which really adds to the finished result. Look closely, there are so many extra details and products! 

Hi everyone, it's Etsuko (My favorite thing) with you today, and I'd like to share with you a Wall Hanger using lovely Lin Brown's stamps and stencil.

Lin's collections are so popular with many craftspeople and I always looked forward to the release of her wonderful work. Today I used her beautiful flower stamp and the stencil of my favourite bubbles to create a scene for the fairies to play in.
   

This time I used a papier-mache base. It's one of my favourite materials which I bought a long time ago from PaperArtsy and still have many left. First I gessoed over it.

I pasted Joint Tape randomly and  applied Grunge Paste with the bubble stencil PS001.

 

I wanted a little texture so added white crackle paste. After each layer dried I sprinkled water and dusted the panel with three Infusions colours. (Green Man, Olive Tree and Golden Sands) I added water and Infusions until I got the effect I wanted. Then I painted Light blue, Lime and Gold mica with Satin Glaze, and dry brushed over with white. The mica's shine was not well reflected in the photo.

Next I made the flowers by applying Snowflake, Cheesecake, Mustard Pickle Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics and Gold Mica on Smoothy white card with a flat paint brush. After it had dried I stamped ELB23 with Jet Black Archival ink then I cut and made double petals.

  

At the top of panel, the resin fairies applied a little Treasure Gold-White Fire over the blue and lime mica and pasted them over the flowers and the Dreams word!

Pearl mica flakes and silver micro beads were added and cogs and gears were inserted to finish the background.

Finally each petal was glued on, the centre pollen made of gold glass glitter. The word Dreams from ELB28 was stamped onto some Smoothy white card with Green Man Infusions on, and embossed with black powder.

I've enjoyed playing with Lin's collection and I hope you enjoy my project too. There are plenty more of her wonderful stamps in PaperArtsy shop. I'm so looking forward to having a new release someday.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by.

Etsuko xxx

Blog: My favorite thing
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2019 #16 Stamp Carving: Tiptoe Through the Tulips with ELB {by Lucy Edmondson}

2019 Topic 16: Stamp Carving

Some more stamp carved loveliness from Lucy whose use of vibrant watercolour crayons really make Lin Brown's images burst from the book pages. She's got some great uses for gesso too.

Hi everyone, it's Lucy here from Lucy's True Colours, bringing you a card for the stamp carving theme using Lin Brown stamps and Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolour Crayons.

I am a huge Lin Brown fan, so when I heard the theme was carved stamps, I immediately thought of the earlier stamp sets Lin had brought out in this style. I thought it would be fun for a change to look at some of the different techniques you can do using Neocolor II crayons, which are the watercolour ones. I love how the colours become so vibrant and easily blendable when water is added! As you will see, it can also be subtracted with a stencil. My choice of stamps was easy: I love tulips, and I particularly love to see them in gardens as they flop so quickly in a vase. They have such an immense colour range. My Mum bought a random bag of bulbs from a magazine and the two of us were fascinated every year when some incredibly dark purple, almost black, tulips, as big as wine goblets popped up every Spring! This informed my colour palette today, although I took artistic licence and had to go quite a bit paler as the stormy black looked terrible!

What I found in making this project is that brushing a layer of gesso over your watercolour card will further aid the blending of your crayon background.

I picked out my crayon colour choices to give a graduated effect, starting with earth colours to ground the tulip, moving through the yellows, peaches, oranges, and reds, and scribbled them in overlapping lines across my gessoed watercoloured card.

A wash of water back and forth on my brush to bring out the vibrancy. Love this bit!

I stamped the tulip from Eclectica ELB03 onto book text and added three shades of purple crayon.

Then a touch of water on my brush to bring it to life. I used the same colours for my text.

I stamped the tulip stem from Eclectica ELB03 in Fresco Finish Hey Pesto and Hyde Park onto the crayon background. I used Lin's circle stencil 001 and a baby wipe to remove a little of the colour. I added the word Tulip from Eclectica ELB23 and the words Flowers Whisper What Words Cannot Say from Eclectica ELB05.

To finish off, I matted and layered the watercolour piece onto a black and white piece of cardstock and then onto a black A4 card. In this close up you can see the book text on the tulip.

It was so great working with Lin's stamps and the Neocolor crayons. You can also experiment with using the crayons directly onto the stamps, spritzing, and stamping, for a watercolour effect. I definitely want to use them more often!

Blog: Lucy's True Colours
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2018 #13 Mint, Sage, Claret & Gold with ELB {by Wanda Hentges}

2018 Topic 13: Mint, Sage, Claret & Gold (Colour Topic)

Wanda has created a bright and cheerful accordion book. Lots of texture going on and it's so nice to see Lin's stamps on a project like this - a perfect fit! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Wanda Hentges (Art By Wanda Blog) with you today, and I'd like to share with you an accordion book.

An accordion book popped into my mind, I hadn't made one in a looonngg time, so that is where I went with this project.  I had a wonderful time creating the book with this color combination and besides black (and Grunge Paste) I really did only use these 4 colors.  I love a challenge but these colors go so well together that it wasn't hard at all.

I've used all Lin Brown stamps and stencils today.  Lin is one of my favorite PaperArtsy designers!!! 

  

I've used stamps from ELB09, ELB23, and ELB28.  

The stencils used are PS002, PS003, PS043, and PS044.

I really love these colors together.  Even mixing them makes gorgeous colors. The pink flowers on the first panel - the color is a mix of Hint of Mint with a drop of Claret. Over on my blog I have step-by-step photos of building the background and all the elements.

Something I've been trying to work on when using paint (and Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are my favorite) is more layers and letting go, not being afraid, to cover some stuff up even if I love how it looks before covering.  It often makes for more interest and a look you just can't get when you want to let everything show.

It was very interesting when I added in the streaks of Hint of Mint how it made the leaves that were stenciled with Claret look darker.

A stamping platform works great if you want to stamp directly onto your background.  It allows precise, multiple stamping to get a darker image  when stamping over layers.

If your project is too long for the platform, all you have to do is flip it around and stamp from the other side.

On the inside of the book, Gold was mostly used as an accent and I love the way you don't notice it as much when looking straight on but it certainly catches your eye as it moves!!

From today's joys to tomorrow's dreams, I hope you've enjoyed this accordion book.  As I mentioned, there are complete step-by-step pictures on my blog.  If you are reading this post at a later date, just go to this same date on my blog to find the post.  

This is a fabulous color combination!!!  I hope you are inspired to create something with these colors!!!  You can link up to your project on the introductory post for this theme.  I hope you do and then I'll be stopping by for a visit.  

Hugs, Wanda

Blog:  https://artbywanda.blogspot.com/
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To join our challenge and win a PaperArtsy £50 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 13: Mint, Sage, Claret, Gold will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, August 12th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy 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.

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