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

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Happy crafting

Mags x

3 Things - The Golden Girl {by Mags Woodcock}

Hi everyone, it's  Mags here with you today for a 'With 3 Things' challenge post. 

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 identical items are sent to 3 members of the PaperArtsy Blogging team. Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a colour product.

We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send, the whole idea of this challenge is to do something crafty in our personal style with these 3 items. 

We can incorporate other PA products into the mix if we feel it is necessary.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...

As you can see here, I received a gorgeous mini stamp (TSM19) and A5 stamp set (TS055) by Tracy Scott, along with a bottle of Ochre Translucent fresco Finish chalk Acrylic (FF195)

I must admit yellow isn't a colour I naturally gravitate towards, so I had to put my thinking cap on. A few ideas crossed my mind, including creating an art doll, but in the end I decided on a journal page with the sweet girl as the focal. I also decided to add my favourite Infusion, Just Walnut (CS25) into the mix

Lets take a closer look at what I made ....

I started with the background to my journal page, stamping the mandala randomly, overlapping the edge of the page sometimes. I used Versafine Clair ink to capture the tiny details in the stamp.

Whilst the ink was still wet I sprinkled on clear embossing powder, then tipped away the surplus powder and added heat to activate the powder.

I wanted a slightly grungy look to my page, so I spritzed the page with diluted Just Walnut Infusions

I liked the look of the infusions, but wanted more solid colour on the mandalas, so I used a brush to add more to the centre.

It was time for the Ochre Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic to come out to play. So I added some to the mandalas.

I was happy how the background was coming together, but it just needed a couple of finishing touches, so I used a gold and a white gel pen to add details to the mandalas.

The background was finished, it was now time to move onto the focal area of the page. I decided to create a frame for our girl to look out from. So I sprayed a sheet of copy paper with just Walnut infusions. Whilst that was drying I cut out a frame from recycled cardboard.

I covered the frame with the dyed copy paper, and also covered a panel with recycled tissue, this would sit behind the frame on my page.

The frame needed some details and interest, so I used more of the images from the large stamp set (TS055). 

To tie the frame into the rest of the page, I coloured the images with more Just Walnut Infusions and added gold pen details.

It was now time to see how I could use that lovely Ochre colour combined with the sweet girl stamp.

I began by stamping our girl in Archival ink onto Smoothy Card (SCA4). It was time to experiment with the just Walnut to create a nice skin toned Infusion. I diluted the Just Walnut and added a tiny touch of diluted Magenta Infusions (CS23), it was perfect. 

I always wanted the beads in our girls hair to be yellow, so I decided she also needed to have blond hair. Mixing some of the Ochre Fresco with a touch of diluted Just Walnut and plain water gave me the perfect blond hair colour.

The girls beads just needed some pure Ochre Fresco with a touch of shading and a white gel pen high light. I also added a touch of soft pencil shading in some areas of her hair. She was pretty as a picture.

All that was needed now was to add our girl to the frame , a few scraps of book pages, part of a stamped mandala, word sticker, and the dotty tissue background and she was ready for her close up.

I was excited to bring everything together to finish my page, so lets take a look.

I think you'll agree our girl looks very at home in the frame.

I think the frame adds a little more drama and focus to our pretty girl, I hope you agree.

Just a few more details to share with you.

The white pen work ties in with the lighter areas of the frame for a cohesive look to the page.

The gold tissue adds a touch of bling to the page, could our girl be a princess ? I'll let you decide !

I'm really please with how the shading and highlights on the beads and hair adds depth to the image.

Adding the book page scraps around the frame just lifts it a little and adds definition to the frame edges.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I used the mystery products sent by PaperArtsy HQ and how I overcame the challenge of using yellow Ochre. I will definitely be combining it with Just Walnut again in the future. I have lots of stamped images of our girl still to use, so I may well create an art doll or two with those.

Thank you for being here and I hope I have inspired you to try combing PaperArtsy products in unusual ways in the future. 

Take care and happy crafting

Mags x

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