2022: PaperArtsy - A Year in Review {Topics 5 to 8}

Hello from PaperArtsy HQ,

We're here looking back on the blog topics of 2022, and tonight it's time to pay tribute to our fantastic designers. How lucky are we to work with such an inspirational group of creatives! They never cease to amaze me with the ideas they come up with, and it is the most exciting part of our jobs to see new products come to life!

They have been chomping at the bit to get out teaching this year. Many have dipped toes into the face to face classroom experience, if you have been able to take a class in the flesh then yahoo!! I happen to know there are lots more planned for 2023, and some international trips on the horizon too! How totally fabulous!

Today Dounia has her selection for you from Topic 5: Mash-up with Zinski Art, Kay Carley and Hot Picks, Topic 6: Mainly Stencils, Topic 7: Specimen Jar, and Topic 8: Split Complementary colours.

 

Are you ready??!

Leandra 

Mash ups were introduced last year and proved quite popular so they came back for a season 2! This time we are mixing three distinct universes, better presented in Keren's intro post. 

Elena Zinski Art's world is full of expressive critters, weird plants and witty quotes. Kay Carley is the queen of meadows, fulls of realistic or imaginary flowers, buzzing insects and whimsical fairy houses. Hot Picks is both the newest PaperArtsy in House collection, and the oldest of the three mashed here. Numerous themes have been explored over the years, with masculine and feminine imagery, background and focal stamps, pictures and words... but always with a vintage collage feel. It was a delight seen how our bloggers went about incorporating these different styles, with quite a few surprises!

My first pick is this gorgeous journal page by Renata Peley, full of soft colours and bold images. Renata was quick to notice that flowers are a staple here at PaperArtsy, and a great way to unify the 3 mashed collections. The Zinski pretty face certainly is the focus of this project! As you can see in her original blog post, Renata initially gave her lady a flowery hair but chose simplicity in the end. I love the use of white space and how it your eye to the face.

For her lovely accordion booklet, Liesbeth Fidder de Vos had fun experimenting with Infusions for an intricate background. Sprintzing, stamping, painting... the techniques are detailed in her original blog post. The focal stamps are singled out with her signature bleaching  and brought to life with only a few touches of colour. I love how she blended the collections. The Hot Picks Shrek lady really looks at home in the middle of Zinski's flower girls!

Now for something completely different: Nikki Acton took a look at those flowers and fishes and saw... A geometric pattern play piece! I love how the layering completely redirect your attention, making you forget the initial stamps. You can make it a game to spot the original images or head to her original blog post for a closer look at all the gorgeous and ingenious layers! (Have you noticed it is another example of complementary colours?)

They are the unsung heroes of crafting, often discreetly doing heavy lifting in the background... not this time! This topic is all about bringing stencils to the foreground and letting them shine!

Nowadays, all themes and styles have stencil representatives, from bold geometric figures to intricate filigrees, from abstract texture to realistic features, from organic patterns to architectural inspiration, you can find one (or two, or ten) that suits your creativity. This topic was an invitation to take a look at these humble members of your stash and realise all the ways you could use them, then invent new ones! The list of techniques involving stencils is probably endless: colour, texture, paper, doodling... pretty much everything can go through! Do not hesitate to look at Keren's into post and our bloggers projects for ideas...

Asia Marquet demonstrated how useful stencils are at building layers, from the subtle to the stark, and creating interest to bring a background to life. The easy part according to her! She also made the butterfly with a stencil, embossing and foiling at the same time. Check her blog post for details of this great technique. I'm impressed by her daring use of bold black contrasting with a calmer center, managing to make the page eye-catching while leaving it breath.

Jenny Marples' blog post truly is a mini master class using the latest PaperArtsy mini stencils. In total, you can admire 6 different pages, each with its own atmosphere and focus. A true feast for the eyes. And so many techniques! Classic stenciling, texturing, embossing, parchment craft, embroidery... She also shares lots of little tricks to cleverly use leftovers, to make you work appear more dimensional, or to integrate your designs easily into the page.

With these beautifully layered tags, Riikka Kovasin really makes stencils the focal images with Tracy Scott's bold leaves! But every step of her creative journey also includes some stencil use so check her original blog post to follow along! I had forgotten about rubbing but here it provides a subtle texture to the background. I love how Riikka truly mixes media and substrates but still achieves a harmonious cohesive look through her limited use of colour.

In her blog post, Laurie Case  did a two for one with a bright summer bag and a funky pouch. She reminds us that sometimes, simple is best! A canvas bag, a delicious colour palette, some colour blocs and straightforward stenciling and you have a unique and distinctive accessory. The pouch took a bit longer, as she embroidered each cross by hand. A true labor of love, accessible even for novice stitchers and with garanted impact! 

Art is already a display, of emotion, of beauty, of opinion but for this topic we are going literal and exploring what we consider worth preserving and the ways to exhibit it.

The title is just a indication, think further! From vintage curiosity cabinets, to natural museum displays or modern trinket shelves: would you shadow boxes be full of butterflies pinned on silk pillows or aligned rusted keys?, what is under your cloche, rare plants or collector toys?, are your vials full of mysterious critters suspended in strange liquids or a rainbow of glitter and gems? As shown in Keren's intro post, this type of project does not have to be 3D, we also have lots of stamps and stencils perfect for you to build your own flat displays, evoking beautiful containers with beloved contents and quirky or cryptic labels.

Claire Snowdon chose to stick very close to the topic title with this beach themed jar. However her specimens are on the outside of the jar rather than inside! I love how she played with transparency and opacity, pairing Frosting Glaze with translucent Fresco acrylic paints. The delicate design and colours are beautifully emphasized by the addition of fairy lights. Go to her original blog post to see the jar in different lightnings! 

Etsuko Noguchi went the flat(ish) road for this wall hanging with a circus freak show feel. The cat doll hybrid is articulated and swings around went you shake the piece, so much fun! I love how she blended several collections, originally with different styles, and subverted some stamps, for example making hearts and decorations out of bones! Be sure to check her original blog post as she also made an actual, 3D cloche housing the little cousin of the cat ballerina. (choose image)

Claudia Neubacher was inspired by vintage museum displays, and in particular the one in Salzburg's "House of Nature" and presented 3 bioluminescent fishes from the abysses. She played around with mini led lights and the fishes actually glow! Her original blog post has a lot more pictures, in different lights to get the full effect. I love hw she played with layers and transparency to recreate that underwater look.

Victoria Wilding chose flora over fauna with this delicate and feminine flower hoop. I love the use of 'white' space that give the composition movement and character. Victoria is the queen of fussy cutting and precise details. Have you noticed the dainty leaves or the cheeky bluebells peaking from behind the bigger flowers? Go to get original blog post for a better look and appreciate  all the little steps that really pull this project together.

In round 2 of our colour wheel play, the focus is on split complimentary colour combinations or using one colour from any position on the wheel buddied up with the two colours either side of its direct opposite, liked as a Y or a thin rectangle. But an picture is worth a thousand words so...

Compared to just using complementary colours, obviously we are adding a third colour, allowing more variations and nuances to build complexity. While not as high-contrast, this colour scheme still packs great impact, check the example in Keren's intro post. It's a slightly subtler version and an easy way to get colours that will match without looking like you've tried too hard. It is also interesting because the colours generally work together even when varying the ratios: you can use all three of them in equal amounts or make the tail of the Y the main colour with two tonally closed accents, or use the split colours as one main colour block, with accents of the third. And you get 12 different combinations on one wheel! Considering we have also been pushing you to experiment with unusual colour wheels, the possibilities are endless!

Let's start with the classics! Using the three bright Magenta/Yellow/Blue primary colours for her wheel, Martha Ponsanesi made a series of ATCs that truly demonstrate the possibilities of a split-complementary scheme. While all of them pop, changing the colour repartition directs the eye differently and gives each of these cat a unique personality! Check her original blog post to see all the layers of these deceptively simple look project.

Now, while she kept classic Red/Yellow/Blue primary colours as the base of her wheel, Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos went for a darker, more rustic atmosphere. Look at how the orange pops against the rich blues and purples. Her original blog post particularly details the creation of her background, playing colour contrast but also with opacity and transparency as well as the push and pull between light and dark layers.

Floss Nicholls chose to add a twist to her colour wheel: the blue primary has disappeared and been replaced by a neutral, completely altering the range of colours. The resulting split-complementaries are much tonally closer than usual, making for subtler contrast in her tags. Floss built most of her background on her gel plate, pulling all the layers in one print, including black stamping, so be sure to check her original blog post for her technique.

Well, wasn't that a fabulous array of wonderful!? We are so spoiled by our blogging team and the lengths they go to in their projects. I hope you can appreciate the time they put into each piece, but more importantly, how much they enjoy what they do while creating for our enjoyment.

Dounia 

2022 Topic 06: Mainly Stencils {by Renata Peley} with Kim Dellow Stamps

Hi everyone, it's Renata Peley with you today, and I'm here to share with you an art journal page made using some fun stencil techniques.

I think the majority of us have another hobby besides crafting and that is gathering art supplies. And while that really is a great hobby, sometimes it can get overwhelming and make us forget some exciting stuff that we can do with the goodies that we already have. So, my plan was to remind you of a few interesting techniques that you can do with your stencils.

Kim Dellow has really fun stencils. Some of them are standalone, while others have matching stamp sets, and in this project, I am going to show you how you can use both of these stencil types. 

I more often tend to paint and color with watercolors, and for a long time I was lacking the confidence in working with acrylics. One of the first techniques that made me like acrylics was gel-printing, so I decided to start my project with a dash of acrylic confidence. 

The feeling of spring is really starting to overtake me, so I thought to make my art journal page reflect my springy mood to you as well. For that reason, I chose the following PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics: Blue Oyster, China, Limelight and Granny Smith.

For me, blending the colors on the gel-plate is super easy and fun. I must admit though, somehow I always manage to get somewhat unexpected results. Like that bright fluffy line on my page. Anyway, I decided to look at it as a line of clouds and embraced it as it was. 

Also, at this stage I already knew that I would use the stencil PS048 to make some flowers for my project, so while my gel-plate was out and messy, I prepared the first layer of paint. I tried to mix at least two different shades of a single color for each page. I wanted a green page for the leaves and pink and purple pages for my flowers.

Now comes the time for the first stencil technique I wanted to share with you, and that is stamping with the stencils. First, you have to be aware that you won’t get a crisp image this way but if that is ok with you, you can get some really fun results. 

I started off by diluting some of the colors I already used for my background by adding a bit of water. For better results, you should aim for a somewhat uniform watercolor look. As a next step I dipped the PS040 stencil into diluted acrylics and carefully pressed it onto my background. I like to press it with paper towel, to pick up accidental seeping and so I don’t get my fingers too messy. 

When this layer was dry, I wanted to add just a bit more interest to my background. I am kind of a fan of some text on my background, so I really couldn’t resist stamping a beautiful script from the BG2 stamp set. I wanted this to have only a subtle appearance, so I chose to stamp with Archival Ink in the colors similar to those used on my background.

 

At this point, I put my background aside and I started working on my images. As I mentioned, I prepared a first layer of color on my gel-plate, so now I started working on adding some more color, shades and details. For my flowers and leaves I used the PS048 stencil from Kim Dellow.

For each element, I was adding some ink in a similar, (but a bit darker) shade of the acrylics I used for the first layer. And when I was happy with the color, I added a doodle frame for my elements with a black ink pen. On the photos below, you can see, step by step, how I colored the leaves and the flowers.

I repeated this process for all of the elements and you can see my finished flowers and leaves after fussy cutting, on the next photo.

I believe that sometimes some small details can make a difference between a just alright art journal page and a really beautiful one. One of those details is, in my opinion, coloring all your elements in the same manner. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a rule, and sometimes various coloring methods pulled in one project can give a great result, but that might not always be the case. So, in full honesty, this was not my first batch of flowers. The first ones I colored with Distress Oxides. And while I really liked how they turned out, they just didn’t match the rest of my project. For a moment there, I was looking at my project and felt something was off, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. The realization hit me the moment I took those gel-plate printed backgrounds to color my birds from the EKD02 stamp set by Kim Dellow.

Now I had my background, my birds and my leaves and flowers colored with the same mediums on the same type of paper. And somehow, that pulled it all together and all the elements started to look like they belonged together.

At the moment, I was happy with those, so I decided to play some more and show you my third stencil technique for this project. And for that, I was going to use the PS036 stencil and Snowflake and Little Black Dress acrylic paints.

What I wanted was to give my project an interesting frame. First, through the stencil I layered white color, let that dry and then slide my stencil a bit down and to the side and put black color over it. This technique can be really fun and have some stunning effects. In truth I went rather simple, but I highly encourage you to try it with some other stencils as well, and be brave to try all sorts of crazy color combinations. For more inspiration on this technique, you can also check a wonderful tutorial by Leandra made all the way back in 2012. Anyway, to accentuate my results, I also used a white gel-pen and put some little details on my stenciled lines, just for fun.

As I had already planned out the location of my flowers, before gluing them to the background, I did some stamping with the Jet Black Archival Ink. I used the EKD02 stamp set by Kim Dellow, and stamped the birds and the branches.

Also, since I had the corresponding stencil (PS035), I decided to make my life easier and use it to give those little birdies a shadow. I like to give shadows to the elements which lay flat on my pages because that gives them the illusion of dimension and makes them stand out more. For that, I used an ink which is a few shades darker than the background on which the birds are laying.

One of my favorite parts of the art journaling process is the assembling, when all the parts come together to form a story. While I glued the birds flat on the paper, for the flowers and the leaves I applied just a drop of glue so they would lift a tiny bit on the edges and get some natural shadow and dimension.

I didn’t know why but I still felt as if my page was missing something. And just with a glance at the stencil PS035, I knew just what it was. I needed some happy clouds. I took my white gel-pen and drew the clouds directly on my project. Then I filled them in with some Cut-n-Dry foam and Snowflake Fresco Finish Acrylic paint. When I was coloring my clouds, I paid attention to put more white paint to the bottom of the clouds, while leaving the upper part more transparent. I think that helped to give some dimension and fluffiness to my clouds.

To be honest, at this point, I felt like my project had too much weight in the corner where the flowers are, so I needed something to give it a bit of a balance. For that purpose, I employed two tactics. First, I gave my project a well-positioned sentiment which I heat-embossed on a piece of black cardstock, and second, I gave it a nice wide black frame.

Now I was finally satisfied with my art journal page and felt that it was complete.

At the start of my “artsy career”, I was doing mainly decoupage. At that point working with stencils was my worst nightmare. Somehow, I never managed to get the results I was going for. And for a while I steered clear from stencils. I don’t know exactly at what point, but after quite some time I decided to give stencils another chance. And boy, was I happy that I did that. Suddenly I realized it is not as hard as it seemed in the beginning and even more, there were just so many more ways to use stencils than I originally thought. In this post I managed to show you only a few of those ways, but you can be sure this is only a small part of all the fun possibilities. Just be brave and play around.

Renata 💓

Facebook: Renata Peley

Instagram: @renata_artjournaling