Hearts & Flowers with Tracy Scott stamps {by Mags Woodcock}

Hello everyone

Mags  here with you today and I'll be showing you how I created an art journal page using a Tracy Scott Lace Booklet, stamps and a stencil.

For quite a while now I've been intrigued by the Tracy Scott Lace books (TSLB04) and wanted to use one. I also love the floral stamp set (TS009). My idea was to combine the two, along with a stencil (PS386). Choosing a quartet of Tracy's Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics would hopefully also allow for some nice contrasts and combinations of colour.

My idea was to create an art journal page, combining all the supplies. As Tracy has quite a distinct style, clean cut and vibrant, with lots of pattern building and symmetry, I wanted to create something with a different style and feel. Bold but asymmetrical, and with a painterly feel.

So lets take a look at how I started

My initial idea was to use the second layer of the Lace Book as a stencil to lay down colour onto a gel plate, but also to add colour to that second layer. The gel plate was great at grabbing the laser cut card of the book, and I used several sponges to apply the Fresco Finish chalk acrylics, Bermuda (FF224), Butternut (FF02), Deep Sea (FF198) and Lily The Pink (FF218). I allowed the texture of the sponge to show in several areas, but also blending the paint in other places.

When I was happy with the coverage on the lace book page, I removed it from the gel plate and set it aside to dry. To pick up the paint from the gel plate I applied a thin layer of Snowflake (FF15) Fresco finish Chalk Acrylic. Whilst this was still wet I pulled a print using a sheet of Smoothy Card (SCA4).

Here you can see the resulting print from the gel plate.

It was now time to work on the top layer of the Lace Book. I wanted a bold contrast to the colours I was using, so Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic , Little Black dress (FF19) came into play.

I placed the top layer of the Lace book onto a sheet of Smoothy card and completely coated it in the black paint, including the gaps. This gave me another stencilled page to use later.

It was now time to create some lovely focal flowers for my page. As I said previously, I wanted a painterly look so I had an idea on how to create that in a very simple way.

I chose a sheet of Smoothy card to work on and using a large brush, applied small amounts of Frescos in a circular pattern. Combining a couple of colours on each circle gave me lots of variety. I soon discovered that a drier brush, with hardly any paint gave better results.

As with a lot of mixed media techniques, the first layers often look very messy, this was very true here. But as I stamped the flowers onto the the painted circles with Versafine Clair Nocturn ink, and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder, my idea began to take shape.

I wanted to add some more details to the flowers and also more contrast, so my trusty Signo Uniball white pen was ideal. It transformed the look of the flowers. The final stage was to fussy cut the hearts, swirls and flowers, leaving a small border around each image.

If I strayed over the black lines with my white pen, A cotton bud soon removed the excess.

Now it was time to bring everything together, but first I needed to add some details to the Lace book layers. I bit of penwork on the black painted layer.

Now I bet you think I had forgotten about the stencil I chose ? Well it was time for it to add some random details to break up the symmetry a little. Again using my white gel pen.

As you can see, I had previously used the stencil to try out another idea, and there was leftover paint still on it.

The final lot of penwork on the layered up lace pages with a  base layer of black cardstock.

Now to the exciting bit ! Adding the flowers and hearts using 3D foam pads and PVA glue.

At this point I decided the page needed a word or sentiment. Stamping Bloom from one of Tracy's other  stamp sets  (TS029) was exactly what was needed and completed the page perfectly.

So let's have a look at the finished page.

Here you can see the completed page

The grouping of the flowers to the left of the page adds asymmetry, and also notice that the page is in landscape format , not portrait , nice and unusual.

The hearts drift across the page to encourage your eye to follow.

The painted, stamped circular swirls are layered over the centre of each flower, adding dimension and a colour contrast to the surrounding petals.

The distressed, painterly look of the hearts adds visual texture and interest.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post and it has given you some ideas to inspire you.

I still have the two bonus pages from the project to play with, the gel print and the black stencilled page. Watch out in the PaperArtsy People Facebook page over the coming weeks, and I'll share what I create using those.

Thank you for popping over to the PaperArtsy blog, if you would like to see more of my work or videos using PaperArtsy products please follow me using the links below

Facebook:Mags Woodcock

Instagram:Mags Woodcock

YouTube:Mags Woodcock

Happy crafting

Mags x

2023 Topic 8 : Master Colour Wheel - Triadic Colours {by Autumn Clark} with Sara Naumann stamps

Hi everyone it's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint with you today and I'm totally delighted to share a really fun upcycling project with you.  When thinking of how to highlight the Tetrads topic and incorporate Transparent elements, my immediate thought was to create a painty junk journal with fun window elements.  I really enjoyed this creative time and exploration into the topics and hope you will follow along and get inspired to create a flip flop folio of your own, using the humble file folder as a substrate.

I truly adore Sara Naumann's gorgeous newest stamps and how they softly stepped out of the busy, yet mild backgrounds of this album.

When I sat down to create I realized I did not order PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic in Aqua Duck Egg, which was the basis for the entire topic of this color theory post.  I had no choice but to swap in a new paint color and chose Lake Wanaka to compliment the other two colors, Butter and Candy Floss.  I kind of freaked my freak, so to say, but had to breathe and just let it go.  I'm so happy I pressed forward because I truly loved the palette created and was so pleased with the truer blue of Lake Wanaka versus the greener variation in Aqua Duck Egg...

I chose a beautiful pair of PaperArtsy stamps by Sara Naumann, {ESN66 and ESN64} and a few background stamps by Tracy Scott {TSM08 (formerly EM64), TSM05 (formerly EM61) and TSM02 (formerly EM58)}.

Because I went with a bluer primary color, using Lake Wanaka, I ended up with a more blue green version of of color 10 and a less pinky purple of color 8.  It's not a very dramatic change, but it just goes to show how easily you can make variations in color using whatever Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics you have on hand.  I painted out my color wheel using the free template you can find HERE in the PaperArtsy People Facebook Group.

Here you can see my actual mixed paints.  I was just so pleased and welcomed by the beautiful pastels.

I decided to go for a Triad scheme with three spaces apart, the most equidistance achievable.  Here were my four choices for that route and the one I chose is highlighted.  I picked the three colors because they are out of my normal "go to" scheme and I thought it would be a fun experiment.

Now it was time to get my file folder folio base cut and folded.  I cut away the portion nearest to the file label to square the folder, then folded it into 8 equal sections, using the center fold as a guide.  I cut away portions of the file folder, indicated by the slashed lines and used those to assemble the flaps and pockets, as demonstrated in the video tutorial at the bottom of the post.  Next, I printed the front and back of all the file folder pieces, starting with gesso and continuing with my mixed colors.

   

I lifted my chosen tetrads with a palette knife onto my 12x14" Gel Press printing plate and then brayered them loosely with a small brayer, taking care not to over mix the colors and let them touch but not blend.

Here you can see one of my layers of the printing process.  I repeated with printing until I was pleased.

As I show in the video, I incorporated PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Cloud 9 by brayering some paint onto the side of my gel plate and using it as an "ink pad" for stamping using a beautiful combination of dotty stamps from PaperArtsy Eclectica Mini Stamps by Tracy Scott {TSM08 (formerly EM64), TSM05 (formerly EM61) and TSM02 (formerly EM58)}.

I used more Cloud 9 to lift the layers of paint remaining on my gel plate onto Tracy Scott Lace Booklet 4 (TSLB04).  I tore pieces of my printed Lace Booklet and layered over my printed file folder for a subtle texture and contrast.

 

Once I had my folder painted completely, it was time to dive into the stamping!  I had a blast incorporating PaperArtsy stamp set by Sara Naumann (ESN66) as the focus of my folio.  Here is the left notebook flap.  I adhered the two-panel cut off section of my file folder to the left after stapling a bundle of tea-dyed notebook paper inside to make a little book.

The panel opens to stamping from PaperArtsy stamp set by Sara Naumann (ESN64).  I used a white Uniball pen to add highlighting and journaling.

Our theme this quarter on the PaperArtsy blog is Transparency, so I thought it would be a great accent to the overall book to had a flap/window and cut out a circle and glued in a larger vellum circle for my transparent contribution.  I was really drawn in by the subtle nature of these colors and thought the vellum gave an angelic halo to the stamped bird.  I adhered the focal circle from my Lace Booklet over this tag to further frame the bird image.

 

Here is the front of the notebook that folds out on the right side of the folio.  I just love the contrast and texture created from adding in small bits of music sheet and the printed Lace Booklet.

 

 

Last of all, I worked on a tag for the pocket for the front cover of my folio.  I decided to use Distress Oxide in Dusty Concord with Distress Ink in Tea Dye and Evergreen Bough to color the tag.  These colors are very close to my mixed palette, but were a little more vibrant and I thought it was nice for the pull out to have a punch.

I layered with my final remnant of the printed Lace Booklet for the two-sided tag.

 

Here is the back cover of my book.  You can see I used my paint cloth, which I wiped my palette knife upon repeatedly throughout the process and then stamped with more Dusty Concord Oxide using TSM02 (formerly EM58) to create a closure for the book.

 

And here is the whole folio folded out.  It's just so much fun to flip through!  And it will be a great journaling space for me.

I always love getting paints smooshed on my gel plate and had a blast working in these muted tones.  Creating books from file folders has become somewhat of a fetish for me in recent years and this one is one of my favorites yet!  There is just something about using non-precious things to create art that is both liberating and joyful.  And it always makes me super happy to dip my stamps into paint.  Is that something common in your art practice?  I'd love to know!  I truly hope this little flip flop folio has inspired you to get creative today!

xx, Autumn

To find out how to create the folio, please visit my video HERE.  I do go into detail on the printing process and finish with a flip through of the folio.  I hope you'll enjoy it!

Blog: SewPaperPaint

YouTube: SewPaperPaint

Facebook: Autumn Clark

Instagram: @sewpaperpaint

Pinterest: SewPaperPaint