NEW PA Products {Feb 2016} by Darcy Wilkinson

Hi Everyone, Leandra here with some fab new Additions to Darcy's stamp series.

As you can see, Darcy has continued with her popular flower series, and this time she has added some wings that can be butterflies or double up as wings for people too! There is also some clever border elements, and lots of beautiful sentiments too. These stamps are going to add to what you can do with her existing designs perfectly!

And for the first time, we have some handy stencils from Darcy too! Loving how she has created some interesting edge options. Stencils are perfect for layering in your backgrounds to add depth and interest. You just can't have too many stencils in your stash!

Here's a video introduction and all the gorgeous samples to oggle at from Darcy and her support team !!

I'll hand over now to Darcy who will introduce her team tonight, and has some of her own beautiful work with these new stamps to show you too. Enjoy ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, Darcy here to show you my newest stamps designed for PaperArtsy. I have had fun creating my weird looking flowers in the past, and fully expected these sets to follow suit. However they turned out in a much more minimalist style. I don't think if I had set out to achieve this that it would have worked, they just kind of developed that way. Almost as if they dictate the way that they want to be drawn... and who am I to argue! I have to say I adore how they ended up, I think they might be some of my favourite stamps so far. Although they veer off slightly from my usual direction I believe they will mix really well with my older stamps.

As I was doodling, the thought of wings popped into my mind. I couldn't shake it off and so had to include those too. Add these to dolls or hearts, keep them whole or cut them apart to make different shaped wings.

The new flowers, Frilly, Spikey and Poppy will be perfect for cutting out and layering up, 2,3,4 layers, the more the better.  I have a whole set of circles for you, to use as buttons, flower centres, wheels on art dolls .. even Christmas baubles! The support elements will be so useful too, from the spikey grasses, to the dotty circle border, my favourite though is the Cherry Blossom tree. This time my text stamps are bigger, I love playing around with words, and hope you like these quotes that I have put together for you. 

As for the stencils, I am totally in love with the edges, I feel like I have 'needed' these for years and I am so excited that I was able to add these extras to my stencil designs. I have a 'torn paper edge' one with 'grasses' and a 'random' edge. Each can be used from either side of the stencil. The 'torn paper' one is great for subtle edges but also makes great lines for landscapes. The 'grass one' , depending on the colour of paint used could also be flames or icicles hanging down.

So lets take a look at what my support team got up to!

Tonight we start with Laura Bomber.  
Laura is new to posting for PaperArtsy, but not new to creating. Her blog showcases the most scrumptious projects. Colours, text, layers.. all the things that I love. Going to Laura's blog is a visual adventure.

'Sunkissed' using EDY17 by Laura Bomber

Laura says: This set is so different from my usual style that I wasn't sure how to use it. Now I love it and it became my favourite one - because it can do so much. It is so versatile - the only limit is your imagination!

'Let Love Grow' using EDY19 by Laura Bomber

Laura says: The flowers and leaves in this set are beautiful and the set of textured circles are perfect for so many details - they created the clouds and the flowers and can do so much more - these are now added to my 'favourites' in my stamp collection!

'Fire and Ice'  using EDY18 by Laura Bomber

Laura says: I loved this stamp set straight away - the flowers are GORGEOUS! I love that they are delicate and feminine but with a slight grungy industrial look to them too...Perfect for so many different creations and styles.

Next up we have Gabrielle Price.
Gabby is chatty and bubbly and very funny, it is always such a pleasure to spend time with her. Gabrielle's style is often simple elegance. With a busy life, creating is her time to relax, this shows in her uncluttered but confident colour palettes.

'Discover Heaven' using EDY17 by Gabrielle Price

Gabby says: I loved the large single flower and wanted to make it the focal point of this project. I have LOTS of ideas for this stamp - it would make a fabulous sun, body for a person, wheel, even a yoyo! And that's just one stamp in this fabulous set!

'Paint My World' using EDY18 by Gabrielle Price

Gabby says: This is an amazing flower that really stands proud against the red background. I love seeing flowers stamped on book paper! The sentiment really spoke to me - think it is one for Valentine's Day!

'Grow My Heart' using EDY19 by Gabrielle Price

Gabby says: The lovely background stamp works wonderfully even upside down like here! The flower heads were so easy to colour and cut out that you could easily make a whole garden of flowers in a large journal!

Our third contributor tonight is Kirsten Sheridan.
Kirsten is a bit of a wonderwoman, one of the busiest people that I know. She packs so much into her time and creates an astounding amount of artwork, I was happy that she agreed to spend time with my designs. She has a really broad range of creative abilities, from journals to 3d creations. Her blog is full of exciting textures and inspiration.

'Painted Petals' using ED18 by Kirsten Sheridan

Kirsten says: These stamps are so inspiring, since working with them I've had so many more ideas. I want to use them with clay and shrink plastic and I think they'd look gorgeous on fabric. I was so glad I had the idea to cut some of the petals off the large flower I think that and the layering of the other petals gives movement to the entire piece & the glass bead gel, stamping and stencilling makes for great texture.  

'Fly Fre'e using EDY17/19 by Kirsten Sheridan

Kirsten says: This stamp from set EDY17 reminded me of a pair of hands, so I paired it with the butterfly from EDY19 & kept the background simple with layers of Tango & Cherry Red Frescos, stamping & stencilling.
  

'Cherry Pop' using EDY17/18 by Kirsten Sheridan

Kirsten says: I love working with florals, as the possibilities are endless for both vintage and contemporary styles. These designs are highly detailed and are fantastic additions to PaperArtsy's existing stamp sets. I have loved working with them. I couldn't make a PaperArtsy project without Crackle Glaze! I used thin layers of Cherry Red on the flowers, so that they stand out against the background.

Wow, what a great range of ideas from my support team! Thankyou ladies for sharing your fabulous ideas with these new stamps!

So now it's time to show you what I've mades. I've got a few step outs so you can see exactly how this all came together.

Project One: 'Poppy Wreath' using stamp set EDY18 by Darcy Wilkinson

First I've made an 8x8 square panel.

Step One: First I painted the board with Smurf, and dragged a little snowflake through the wet blue paint. Next I used China and Baltic Blue to add stencilling.

Step Two: Next I added more stencilling with Tango, then flicked on a little more China.

Step Three: The leaves are stamped onto card painted first with Baltic Blue and sprayed with Lindy's Stamp Gang in Tainted love Teal, these were then cut out.

Step Four: I painted 3 pieces of card, one with Cherry Red, one with Tango and the third with a mix of the two colours. The red one was sprayed with Lindys Stamp Gang. The Frilly flowers were stamped and cut out, then layered up with a sparkly brad.

To finish I arranged the leaves into a wreath, and added white pen to highlight, then attached the flower in the centre with dots of liquid pearls along the petal edges.

Project Two:  'Fabric Coaster' using stamp sets EDY18/19, by Darcy Wilkinson

Step One: First I painted a 4x4 square of white/greyboard with Smurf, China and Baltic Blue. These only need to be rough as they are a base layer.

Step Two: Next a random layer of embossing powder.

Step Three: I ironed various fabrics in red and orange onto a backing stabilizer of Vilene. Then I stamped all the circles onto each fabric.

Step Four: A little bit of fussy cutting and the circles could be glued on using gel medium. The text was stamped onto blue fabric and attached in the middle. To use as a real drinks coaster just leave off the title and add a piece of acrylic, this could be held in place with eyelets in the corners.

And finally for something silly. I challenged the gorgeous and completely bonkers Lauren Hatwell to come up with a 'character' using my stamps. Of course I had to have a go too.

Here is mine, Tilly Tomato Head. Can you spot which bits are from which stamps?

...and here is Lauren's character...Bird by day and Nerd by Night! This caped crusader is ready to grapple garden pests and ward off weeds....

How amazing are my wingmen this evening!! I am beyond thrilled that they all dived into my designs and had so much fun. This bright blue and orange colour palette has worked so well, it is really punchy and makes every image pop. I hope you will agree that these samples show how diverse these new sets are. Each stamp can be manipulated and used several ways.I would never have noticed that the wings look like hands, but now that Kirsten has spotted that I can see it too.   A huge, huge thankyou to my fabulous wingmen and to Leandra and Mark for continuing to have faith in my designs. ~Darcy

Oh my!! Well that is the final stamp release for now - we have a few more things tucked away for you that will come towards the end of the month!! But it's not over yet! We still have another big announcement for you tomorrow night!! 

I hope you have been getting your hands on these from our stockists who have all these products in stock ready to send to you immediately! Isn't that great that you can buy them NOW!! No waiting at all!

All tonight's wing-men have detailed step out's explaining how they made their samples on their own blogs tonight, so do drop by and take a look by following the links.

EDIT: Leandra demoed prior to this post on Periscope (a live streaming app) with Darcy's stamps and Fresco Paints (sample above).

You can catch the replay here

These new Eclectica³ Darcy stamps are available now from your favourite PaperArtsy stockist. As you know,  we do urge you to support independent retailers, online and in store by shopping with them regularly.

Below is a list of the retailers who have already got these new releases in stock ready for you to buy, so don't wait, visit them now!

~Leandra 

United Kingdom
Artist Trading Post, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Birds in the Barn, Marks Tey, Essex.
Blade Rubber Stamps, Bloomsbury, London.
Clacton Arts and Crafts, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.
Countryview Crafts, Potton, Bedfordshire.
Craftylicious, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk.
Imagine That..., Upminster, Essex.
Loobi Crafts, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
Papermaze, Ipswich, Suffolk.
Stampers Grove, Edinburgh.
Swanstitch, Deal, Kent.
That's Crafty, Romford, Essex.
The Artistic Stamper, Faversham, Kent.
The Craft Barn, Merstham, Surrey.
The Craft Box, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
The Craft Den, March, Cambridgshire.
The Forget Me Not Kraft Kabin, Hockley, Essex.

Continental Europe
Expression-Hobby, Marcinelle, Belgium.
PaperiSaDe, Turku, Finland.
Kerudoc Creation, St Yvi, France.
Stempelfee-Shop, Hilden, Germany.
Stempeloase Munich, Munich, Germany.
Bianca's Toko, Drenthe, Netherlands.
Hobbycompleet de Duif, Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
Leuke Stempels, Nijverdal, Netherlands.
Big Time Stempel, Gockhaisen, Switzerland.

USA/ Canada
Frantic Stamper Inc, Eagle Point, Oregon.
Simon Says Stamp, Columbus, Ohio.
Tupelo Designs LLC, Sugarland, Texas.
Vintage in KC, Johnson, Kansas.

Asia/ Pacific
Tiny Dots, Chiba, Japan.
Crafters Cupboard Pty Ltd, Berwick, Victoria, Australia.


If you would like to sell PaperArtsy stamps, stencils, or paints in your store, please contact Leandra or Mark: sales@paperartsy.co.uk or call us 0044 1277 212911

Butterfly Shrine { with Hot Picks and Lynne Perrella Stamps by Kirsten Sheridan}

Hello! My name is Kirsten ,it is a thrill and an honour to be this evening’s guest designer on the PaperArtsy blog. (After all the drama and angst of my #3UP project last month, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the PA team had wanted nothing more to do with me!)  As anyone who knows me will tell you, I change my mind a lot. My finished piece is completely different to my original intention.

My idea was to make something in honour of the Summer Solstice, happening on June 21 and when I chose my daily oracle card on the day I began this project, I got the word ‘transformation’, with images of butterflies. It all seemed to fit together.

The base is the leftover wooden frame from my #3UP project. I used Grunge Paste through a stencil on the sides then I glued pieces of the Tim Holtz Trellis Frameworks die cuts to the sides, gessoed and sanded the entire frame then painted on a thin layer of Snowflake Fresco paint.

That was followed by a few coats of Pansy, I scraped on a thin layer of Crackle Glaze in a few areas. When that had dried I painted on more Snowflake and once everything had crackled and was thoroughly dry, I then sanded back all the edges and added Silver Treasure Gold.

For the back of the frame I die cut more Trellis from kraft card, adding varying amounts of Grunge Paste, painted all the pieces with Concrete Fresco, glued them onto a piece of acetate with Glossy Accents, then added Aquamarine Treasure Gold, for a verdigris effect.

I die cut some arches from  Smoothycard and used them to make a shrine, painting the pieces with Lilac and Pansy Frescos, adding crackle stamping and gold embossing. Onto this I mounted my Lynne Perella images from LPC 028. 

LPC028

These were stamped on to acetate with black Stazon and painted on the reverse with Nougat and Smoked Paprika for the face and  Zesty Zing, Yellow Submarine and Smoked Paprika. ( As smoked paprika is now a discontinued colour you could use it's replacement Autumn Fire) I built up thin layers of paint, trying to get a graduated effect and then covered the entire piece with a coat of Snowflake.

For the flowers and  leaves I used Lin Brown stencils, (ELB002, ELB004). I used a stencil brush for the flowers; this gave a slight feathered effect to the edges, which I liked. I used a white Signo Uniball pen on pale green vellum for the maple leaves and a black PITT pen for the tall stems.

I painted some half spools with a layer of Snowflake Fresco first, then Tikka and Smoked Paprika and finished with two coats of Metallic Glaze. I glued the tall leaf stems to the inside and used hot glue to stick the two ‘flower pots’ to each side of the frame.

I painted some acetate and shrink plastic  butterflies, using the gorgeous stamp from HP 1301. You can see I didn’t flatten all the shrunken ones, I liked how they were curled when they’d finished shrinking.

HP1301

Finally, it was time to put everything together, I added a few tiny wooden ladybirds, in honour of the masses of ladybirds and  ladybird larvae in my garden at the moment.

I hope you like my garden shrine. Thank you very much to Leandra and Darcy for their support and  encouragement and to everyone at PA HQ for being so fabulous.If you would see more of my work, please do visit my blog 

Kirsten. 

A huge thank you to Kirsten for joining us this evening and providing a fabulous feast of inspiration. There is nothing more beautiful than a garden full of flowers,ladybirds and butterflies. For those without gardens this is the perfect way to bring nature indoors. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday 15th June 2014