Envelope Pocket Tags with Sara Naumann products {by Victoria Wilding}

 

Hi everyone, nice to be back with you again.

Victoria here with you today.

This year on the blog, we have free rein to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product range of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring Sara Naumann products, many of which provide a mix of text, vintage ephemera and nature themed images. Sara’s designs call to my creative being and my love of paper projects.

Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you a project, turning envelopes into pocket tags, which hold a range of ephemera. Playing with lots of different elements in a project is a lot of fun and makes use of so many of the stamps in a set.

There’s an endless range of options with this project, from how you decorate the envelope pockets, to what ephemera you include. I kept things fun and playful, with the gel plate and simple stamping.

I decided to use two of Sara’s stamp sets, ESN21 and ESN34. The insects and birds work nicely together and the mix of stamps and text gave me lots of options for creating the ephemera.

I love a soft and dreamy colour palette, so I selected four PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics in Chalk (FF83), Haze (FF217), Powder Pink (FF220), Stardust (FF222). And I picked out stencil PS449 for some subtle background detailing, as it has some big open space in the design.

To start, I decided to add some background colour and texture to the envelopes using the gel plate. I added a layer of Stardust Fresco Finish Acrylic to the gel plate and put the stencil on top. I then pulled a print on a piece of Smoothy White Card (SCA4).

Next I added a layer of Chalk Fresco Finish Acrylic and pulled the print on an envelope.

I repeated this with another two envelopes, using a different combination of coloured Fresco Finish Acrylic (Haze then Powder Pink) and Chalk Fresco Finish Acrylic.

To finish the enveloped and create the tag appearance, I opened out the top of each one and punched a small hole, before adding a reinforcer for extra strength.

The next step was creating the ephemera to go into the envelope pocket tags. Using the card prints from the gel plate, I die cut several tags and labels in different shapes and sizes. I chose sizes which would extend out of the pocket and add extra visual interest in the finished piece.

I then used the ephemera stamps for the sets to create some labels, simply stamping the images in Archival Ink.

Next I added some of the text stamps to the tags. The quotes added larger visual details, but I also wanted some smaller background text, so I picked out stamp Mini 61 (MN61) from my stash.

I then added the bird images from ESN34 to the rounded tags and the leaves from the same set to the rectangular tags.

This is the ephemera stash complete.

Now I wanted to add some final decorative details to the envelope pocket tags. I decided to add a main focal point to the bottom of each one, stamping the images first in Archival Ink. I then used Distress Watercolor Pencils to colour the images on the stamps and print again on white card. This technique creates stamping with a watercolour effect. Once dry I fussy cut these and glued them over the top of that part of the stamped image.

I then selected some blue and green fibres and threaded these into the holes at the top of each envelope tag, and added a selection of the ephemera to the pocket.

For one final little detail I added some silver foiling to the outside edges of the envelopes.

I love how all these tiny little details transform a simple envelope into something different.

The finished envelope pocket tags are a great showcase for Sara’s designs. They invite you to look more carefully to discover new details and whilst each one is similar, they are all unique. Here are some close ups of each envelope pocket tag.

I hope you are inspired to have a go at creating your own envelope pocket tags. I’d love to see what you make, so find and tag me on socials (links below).

Until next time, wishing you a happy, creative week.

Victoria

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Vintage Clipboard with NEW Seth Apter products {by Mags Woodcock}

Hi everyone, nice to be back with you again, Mags here with you today.

This year on the blog, we have free reign to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product ranges of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring some new products designed for PaperArtsy by Seth Apter.  Four new Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics and three new stamp sets.

Today I'm looking forward to sharing how I combined these new products with some of my favourite PaperArtsy products and book pages from my stash. I wanted to give my project a vintage vibe and you will see how I achieved this, along with a definite French feel.

I really enjoyed creating all the separate elements to this project, especially mixing the new paint colours to create some vintage inspired tones. I also included some Rusting Powder and Just Walnut Infusions in the mix for a touch of grunge.

For my project I was using three new stamp sets by Seth Apter, sets 46,47 and 48 (ESA46, ESA47, ESA48, available from a PaperArtsy Stockist) and four new Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics, Castleton (FF231), Pumice (FF232), Admiral (FF233) and Kiln (FF234) (available from a PaperArtsy Stockist).

You can probably see by this photo, that the stamps have a French theme. This had an impact on the inspiration and thoughts behind my project. Read on and I will explain.

When I received the paints and stamps my mind started whirling with ideas. Leandra had mentioned that the stamps had been designed by Seth, to be used at the Art Retreat being held at PaperArtsy HQ in France. As my signature style is vintage with a touch of grunge, it's not surprising that my thoughts took a turn in that direction. My idea for the project was to create a series of cards or sheets of paper with a vintage style photo of a guest at a retreat. A little like a check list, marking everyone as present. These would be held together on a vintage style clipboard. So lets start to create the backgrounds for those pages.

I love to create distressed backgrounds with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics and a brayer. I used Smoothy (SCA4) paper as my base and brayered on small amounts of the new paints, Castleton (FF231), Pumice (FF232), Admiral (FF233) and Kiln (FF234) mostly concentrating on the edges of the paper. I varied the sequence of paints on each sheet to give a slightly different look.

To give the backgrounds a vintage look, I brushed on a wash of Just Walnut Infusions (CS25). When this was completely dry I spritzed again with a mini spray bottle filled with the diluted Infusions mixture. I like the blobs of Just Walnut this created.

It was now time for the stamps to come out to play. I used some of the words on the backgrounds, stamping in black for impact. In this picture I used Eclectica Seth Apter ESA46. You can probably see that I added some stamping on the edges of the background, this gave some extra visual texture.  Finally I mounted each sheet onto vintage book pages to give a border.

I was very happy with how the backgrounds turned out, just the right amount of distressing and subtle grunge. It was now time to move on to creating the embellishments and ephemera using the rest of the stamps.

For my next steps I decided to experiment with the Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic  paints, mixing them to create more options. As you can see, the combinations were fabulous, with some unexpected results.

I was particularly drawn to the combinations of the darker colours, Kiln, Castleton, and Admiral, mixed with Pumice.

I used up the leftover paints brushed onto Smoothy paper. I didn't worry about creating a smooth coat of paint, in fact I wanted a distressed uneven look as you can see above.

I used the label stamp set (EAS48) from the stamp trio to create some ephemera, Ranger Archival ink was ideal for that.

To add a more aged look to the labels I spritzed the sheets of stamped labels with diluted Just Walnut Infusions, as I had with the backgrounds. I love the dried splodges that resulted. When they were dry it was time to cut them out.

I had finished cutting out the labels and had quite a lot of painted paper leftover. It was ideal for die cutting, I used the recently released Sizzix dies designed by Seth. I wasn't sure how I would use the die cuts, but I liked the way they looked.

Now that I had some lovely aged ephemera to add to my project, it was time to move on to building my pages.

I had some French vintage book pages in my stash and those mixed nicely with the stamped labels and die cuts. I backed each Vintage Tim Holtz photo with a piece of cotton rag paper which had the Frescos brayered on to it. I also included some vintage lace and cotton fabric.

It was now time to move on to the clipboard.

I had this mini clipboard in my stash for a while, just waiting for it's moment. As you can see it was a bit new looking for my project. That was easily remedied. A couple of coats of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic, Heavy Cream (FF203) and a section of Printed Tissue (PT07) adhered with Matte Glaze (FF52) and it looked a lot better.

I love rust, so the obvious thing to alter the shiny clip at the top of the board, was to add rust. This is a very easy process with PaperArtsy Rusting Powder (RP45). I coated the clip with Heavy Gel Medium, adding a couple of cocktail sticks to stop the clip from sticking down and together. A heavy dusting of Rusting Powder to coat the gel, left to dry and the excess brushed off. I added few spritzes of white vinegar to the powder and left to activate overnight in a well ventilated room.

The next step was a bit of an experiment, I wanted to seal the rust, so it didn't mark my pages. I decided to try a coat of Matte Glaze over the rust. It seemed to work well.

A few spritzes of diluted Just Walnut Infusions and the look was complete. You may notice a gap in the rust on the clip, there was a piece of washi tape covering that area, which I removed after rusting the clip. I will explain in a moment.

I wanted to use one of the labels at the top of the clipboard, so stamped and distressed it as before.  It was a perfect fit when it was cut out and adhering was easier to the unrusted part of the clip.

I loved how this all came together so easily and I know I will be using the leftover die cuts and labels in future projects.

Here are a few photos of the finished project, with some close ups.

So as you can see in this photo, I created 3 pages to work with my Vintage style clipboard. The two ladies already had some colour to the photos, the gent was just black and white. I used a small amount of Fern Mattint (MT03) to colour his shirt, I didn't want him to be left out , haha.

I tried wherever possible to coordinate the stamps so they told a story. My school girl French came in handy at last. I'll let you decide on the story behind each character, but I definitely think this très chic lady is Parisian. You can see here how the pages look on the clipboard.

I love the effect that spritzing the Just Walnut Infusions creates on top of the painted and stamped image. A real vintage vibe.

The painted papers were ideal for die cutting and added some extra texture and interest.

Using the word stamps to add interest to the edge of the pages, the wording doesn't need to be readable.

Last, but not least, a close up of the rusty clipboard.

I hope you have enjoyed reading how I created this project, and how I was inspired, not only by the paints and stamps, but also the Art retreat at PaperArtsy HQ. I know I will be exploring more of the colours I mixed, along with the stamped images in future projects, so watch out in the PaperArtsy People Facebook group.

Happy crafting............. Mags x

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