PaperArtsy: KCM005

Showing posts with label KCM005. Show all posts

Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Mini Book with Kate Crane Products {by Victoria Wilding}

Hi everyone

Victoria here with you today.

This year on the blog, we are being given free rein to do a deep dive into one of the PaperArtsy product ranges, and for this post I have been exploring Kate Crane products.

Kate has such a good mix of designs in her range, there’s everything from background mark making, to quirky focal points that are just adorable. So I decided to explore some of her mini stamps, and test out combining them into a mini-book.

I’ve had a Sizzix mini album die for a couple of years, that I still hadn’t got round to using, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to use this for the book construction, although you could easily create the pages using a hole punch and paper trimmer.

This was such a fun project to put together and used a mix of different techniques and products. The kind of fiddly project that you can get lost in for a few hours, or do in parts and keep coming back to, either way would work. So continue reading for a break down of my process, it includes techniques with watercolours, Mattints and Infusions.

I selected a bunch of Kate Crane mini stamps and a couple of her stencils to use in the projects. I love her quirky animals so of course I had to choose some of these, and settled on KCM004, KCM005, and KCM007. I also wanted some stamps to create background interest, so I chose, KCM001, KCM002, KCM003, KCM013 and KCM014. The last stamp I chose was all about the sentiments and this was KCM006. Then I added a couple of stencils into the mix, selecting PS426 and PS441.

Next up it was all about the colour. I knew I wanted to use my watercolours to colour the quirky birds and fish, so out came my Deep Deep Light palette. For background colour to the pages I chose Mattints in Ash for the cover and Infusions in Sleight Blue (CS13), In the Navy (CS15) and, Royal Blood (CS10).

I started off by creating the front and back covers. To provide some subtle background colour I applied Mattints in Ash using a brayer and the gel plate.

Then I applied blue ink through stencil PS426 to the back cover.

And glued the front and back covers together using the scalloped joining strip.

I wanted the front cover to be quite plain, enticing the viewer to open the album to see the pages inside. I used a die cut piece of card and stamp embossed a sentiment from KCM006 in black and used stamp KCM003 to create some extra texture to the title piece and the edges of the page. I attached the title piece the the front cover using foam pads and moved on to creating the internal pages.

To create some background colour on the internal pages in sprinkles each page with a different colour of blue infusions (Sleight Blue (CS13), In the Navy (CS15) and, Royal Blood (CS10)) and spritzed with water.

Then I added some extra background texture to ground the focal points using, KCM001, KCM002 and, KCM014.

Next I moved on to creating the focal points for the pages using the quirky birds and fish stamps, KCM004, KCM005, and KCM007. I stamped them out on watercolour paper in black ink.

And used watercolours to create a soft coloured finish.

Then I stamped out and mounted the three remaining sentiments from KCM006.

I stuck the quirky birds and fish onto the pages using foam pads to create some extra dimension and glued the sentiments in place.

I thought a couple of the pages needed some extra details so used stamp KCM013 to create some sea planting to the fish scene and stencil PS441 on one of the bird cards. With the pages complete I assembled everything together and secured with some blue sari ribbon.

The finished book project is lovely to flip through. The cover suggests more arty pages inside and entices you to flip to the next page.

The combination of the ‘take flight’ sentiment and the butterfly bird is so fun, you can just imagine him furiously flapping his tiny wings to try and fly.

The three fishes page is filled with texture. The hint of leaves at the bottom of the page works really well to imitate sea plants and the splatter of the infusions makes the perfect seawater.

On the last page the infusions are watered down much more, which works so nicely against the colouring of the bird. I love how each page has slightly different elements, but they work so well together as a complete project.

I hope you feel inspired to try creating your own mini book. Until next time, wishing you a happy creative week.

Victoria x

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Monday, 5 August 2024

2024 Topic 6 : Scrapcosy {by Nikki Acton}

Hi everyone, Nikki (a2a.craft) here with you today.

I've spent a bit of time at the craft table recently, which is great, as life sometimes gets in the way. I've been enjoying playing with some recently released PaperArtsy products and am happy to share this project today - a mash up Scrapcosy and Kate Crane products.

When I saw the 'Hidden' theme we currently have, I decided it would be fun to create a journal page with a slider to reveal something. Then when I was allocated Scrapcosy 'Mash up' as my topic I decided to take it a little further - with a double hidden element - effectively 2 journal pages combined into one.

It is impossible to show the whole project in one image, so I have 2 below: the 'Closed and Hidden' and then the 'Open and Revealed' one.

My starting colours were the blue / greens for the Scrapcosy part of the project. I then selected contrasting colours for the Kate Crane revealed parts - I wasn't sure this would work but by using the blue/greens on Kate's images it seems to bring it together ok.

To start this project I needed to work out the layout. The main page has 3 circles cut out so that the slider can go underneath. (See below)

The second element is the flap that opens up. I needed to paint this on both sides - for when it is closed and open.

Here is the slider panel shown from underneath, with the cardboard runners to keep it in place.

I was keen to use this stencil - PaperArtsy stencil PS376 by Scrapcosy. If you know my style you will know I love a bit of geometry! I used PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics in Turquoise (FF85), Aqua Duck Egg (FF199) and Granny Smith (FF108) for my blue/green elements.

I used the same colours but a different stencil on the 'Closed' side of the flap. This is PaperArtsy stencil PS374 by Scrapcosy.

Next I worked on the Kate Crane backgrounds - a half circle on the 'main page' and the 'Open' / hidden side of the flap. The colours I used are PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics in Coral (FF122), Byzantium (FF152) and Lilac (FF11).

In addition to PS376 I also used PaperArtsy stencil PS428 by Kate Crane. There is a short video showing this background being made here.

With my backgrounds mostly complete I started on my focal images. I stamped in black archival ink on tissue paper to allow me control over placement of images and also to add a little colour!

I used PaperArtsy stamp set ESC23 - by Scrapcosy. I added the colour on the reverse of the images. There is short video on YouTube of me doing this.

Now it was all coming together I added finishing touches to the background - changing the colour of the area outside the circles to match the sliding element below.

To get these butterflies in the right place I placed the slider behind the circle apertures on the main page.

I just had to use PaperArtsy stamp set KC001 by Kate Crane, as I love it! I included a couple of her minis too - KCM004 and KCM005.

Ok, I did chop the ears off one of the geek images. Sorry Kate! - but he just didn't fit into the aperture on my page with his vertical ears.

I almost forget I needed to colour the actual journal page this was all being adhered to. Some PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylic in Aqua Duck Egg and the flower stamp off ESC23 worked a treat for this. Quick and easy.