2016 Winter Blog Hop Night One.

Winter Blog Hop Night One

Welcome along to a wonderful treat. We are absolutely thrilled to have been asked by Stencil Girl Products to collaborate with them to bring you 4 nights of gorgeousness! 

For the next 4 nights you will be treated to 4 designers, 2 from each company, who have combined paints, stamps and stencils perfectly for your inspiration and enjoyment!

Here on the PA blog, you can see a snippet of each designer's creation. Follow the links to go to each of their blogs for more details and step outs of each project.

Comment as you hop, and you'll go in the draw for a giveaway from both companies.

Tonight, Wednesday Dec 21 visit these four blogs...

Darcy Wilkinson
Kim Dellow
Mary C. Nasser
Gwen Lafleur

Hi, Darcy Wilkinson here. I am a mixed media artist and stamp designer for PaperArtsy. I am also a mature student, doing an illustration degree. I was thrilled to be able to take part in this blog hop and work with two of my favourite products, paint and stencils. When I first chose these stencils I did not have Christmas in mind, but as the holidays approach it is hard to ignore it, and the tall bird stencil just begged to be used as a robin. With a bit of twinkly embossing and a fluffy hat the stencilled girl becomes one of Santa's helpers.

Though it looks very involved it was actually a quick and easy project to make. The paints dry almost instantly and the stencils give crisp,clean lines which helps everything go smoothly. Layering up canvas boards of various sizes is a fantastic way to add dimension and interest, and I am really happy with how it turned out.

If you pop on over to my blog you can see the full step outs of how I made all the layers. 

Next up we have another of our Eclectica³ designers, Kim Dellow. 

Hi, it is Kim Dellow here, I am a freelance designer and blogger, as well as one of the product designers for PaperArtsy and my blog hop piece, that I wanted to share with you today, is called ‘Feather’. 

For this piece I have used some of my own stamps that I have designed for PaperArtsy, EKD03, with the wonderful Circles Circles Stencil L301, Loopy Ladders L434, Classic Feather Retake Stencil and Mask M068 and Imaginary Bird Feather Stencil and Mask M075 from StencilGirl Products.

The colour on this piece is from the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint range.

You can watch a short video showing my whole process from start to finish if you hop by my blog. See you there!

Next up we have our two guests from StencilGirl Products. 

Hello there, I am Mary C Nasser, It's an absolute delight to be part of this hop combining products from two of my favorite companies: StencilGirl Products and PaperArtsy! Though small companies, their products pack a lot of punch! I never wanted this art journal spread to end as I was having so much fun layering StencilGirl Stencils with PaperArtsy paints, Grunge Paste and rubber stamps! 

To see how Mary brought this project all together please visit her blog here. ,

Finally this evening we have Gwen Lafleur. 

For my project, I was inspired to make mixed media medallions based around stamp images by Lynne Perrella for PaperArtsy and various stencil designs from StencilGirl. I didn't really know what I was going to make when I started; I had a vague idea, but nothing more. As I began, I let the stamp images and the stencil designs speak to me - both in choosing patterns that went together, and throughout the progress of both of my pieces.

The Fresco Chalk Paints and PaperArtsy Infusions (walnut/ colour pigment dye powders) were the perfect complement to the stamp and stencil focal point - everything came together so beautifully, and almost effortlessly, which is definitely saying something! In the end, the results were nothing like I'd imagined, but I love how they turned out... as if it was all meant to be together - colors, patterns, focal images... total synergy!

See Gwen's whole project over on her blog.

What a wonderful start to our blog hop, so many intricate details to absorb on each designer's blog. We really hope you can find 5 minutes at this busy time of year to enjoy these stunning ideas. Don't forget if you leave a comment as you hop, you go in the draw for goodies!

You have until Friday, December 30th at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments.

Winner will be announced on StencilGirl's Facebook page and PaperArtsy's blog on Sunday, January 1.

Here's a reminder of the blog hop line up over the next 4 days:

Tonight, Wednesday Dec 21 visit these four blogs and leave a comment.

Darcy Wilkinson
Kim Dellow
Mary C. Nasser
Gwen Lafleur

Tomorrow, Thurs Dec 22, visit these blogs and leave a comment.

The links won't work until tomorrow at 7pm (London time)

Jo Firth Young
Lauren Hatwell
Kristie Taylor
Tina Walker

Friday, Dec 23rd visit these guys. 

The links won't work until Friday at 7pm (London time)

Clare Lloyd
Lin Brown
Anna Friesen
Janet Joehlin

Finally on Saturday Dec 24th its the final four. 

The links won't work until Saturday at 7pm (London time)

Kay Carley
Emma Godfrey
Cindy Gilstrap
Karen Gaunt

Summer 2016 #3UP {EKC,EEV and EEB}

Hello Leandra here

As our lovely #3UP week nears a close, we are reeling from yet another tragic international incident.

In the glorious seaside location of Nice, towards the end of the day celebrating France's own Independence: Bastille Day, one person chose to take the lives of many. We mourn deeply with France, and send all our love and condolences to those families affected.

Bastille Day, July 14th is a day when France celebrates the heartfelt meaning of values such as Freedom, Equality and Unity, and I believe it it is indeed those values that I take for granted every day. For many of us, our forefathers fought so we can live freely today. We can choose our partners for life, our occupation, our place of habitation, our governmental systems and we can respect the same and yet different choices of our friends, families and neighbours, even when they might differ from our own. I do not think it serves any purpose to lay blame or to live our life in fear of the unknown. Rather, we should continue to look ahead to create a positive future, and through the years, treat each other as we would wish to be treated. If we each lead by example, and enjoy our freedom, equality of sex, gender or race and if we strive for unity, then surely the world will be a better place. I think it is so important for us to hold dear these values, and share them for the benefit of generations to come.

I am thankful that again, tonight, we celebrate our own sense of fabulous community here on the PaperArtsy blog. It is such a joy to see those who normally follow the blog revealing to our wider community their amazing crafty ideas. So a big thanks to Caz, Mary and Samantha for spoiling us tonight! They have created such delightful ideas in a delicate pastel colour palette with Eclectica³ Kay Carley, Ellen Vargo, and Elizabeth Borer stamps.

Please take a moment to drop by their blogs and leave them some love. It is very much appreciated!

Enjoy your evening

~Leandra

First up this evening we have Caz Newton.

Hi, I’m Caz Newton. I’m a huge PaperArtsy fan and am never happier than when I surrounded by fresco paints, stencils, stamps and inks. The pastel theme of the challenge was slightly out of my comfort zone as I usually work in brights but I thoroughly enjoyed using the different colours for this post.

I love working in 3D and as soon as I received the stamp sets I knew I had to use a large pocket watch from Art Parts and the focal image from the Elizabeth Borer set! I was pleased how the pastel colours blended well for the background and the only problem I had was not adding too many extra flowers and leaves!

I tried a couple of different ways to do the leaves as I was concerned about getting them neatly cut out and bend to shape. Firstly I stamped onto thicker card but I didn't like how rigid it was; then I tried stamped onto thin card and stuck onto Clearly for Art but that was too thick to cut neatly but in the end stamping and painting straight onto white Clearly for Art worked really well and allowed me to shape the trails of leaves exactly how I wanted.

I decided to build up the fairy with layers and also make her wings out of Clearly for Art painted with pearl glaze. I loved the 3D effect this gave her and heating her wings allowed me to bend them and give them more shape.

To see the full project please visit my blog post HERE.

Places you find Caz. 

Blog: Candelle Creations

Next this evening we have Mary C Nasser

Mary's paintings and interview appeared in Featuring magazine, and she’s a contributing artist in the books Stencil Girl by Mary Beth Shaw and Making Art From Maps by Jill Berry.

I really like the creative possibilities of Ellen Vargo's stamps! And all the doodles and designs within the shapes are fabulous!

Blue is my favorite color, so I was delighted with the range of blue Fresco Acrylic Paints I received – especially Turquoise and Mermaid! It was fun painting my own papers, and the chalk finish of the paints made them perfect to stamp on.

I enjoyed the process of arranging the stamped pieces into a unique composition onto this 12” x 16” stretched canvas. My favorite part of this piece is the area where I stamped Kay Carley's word "dreams" into one of the blank petals.

To see the full project please visit my blog post HERE.

Places to find Mary.

Blog: Mary C Nasser

Facebook: MaryNasserArt

Instagram: Mary C Nasser

Website: Mary C Nasser

Twitter: Mary C Nasser

Finally this evening we have a project from Samantha Wade.

Hello I am Samantha Wade, I really enjoy paper crafting and mixed media. Shabby chic, girly and sparkly things are what i’m drawn too. I always have a project on the go and love to share on my blog.

I really enjoyed using these Kay Carley stamps EKC01, the flowers are perfect to colour and cut out for dimension. The sprig is ideal to fill in-between the flowers.

The flowers are so cheerful and really wanted to make them bright and pretty. The watercolour background makes me feel they are enjoying a beautiful summers day.

I love to make a background from a piece of white card. Then to add dimension with the 3D flowers, words and sparkle. The image from the stamps is so clear and perfect every time.

To see the full project please visit my blog post HERE.

Places to see Samantha.

Blog:Craftroomdelights

Oh such delicate and beautiful projects.

I hope these have inspired you to seek out these stamp collections. whether your images are bold or pretty they can all be transformed by colour choices, the possibilities are endless.

We are almost at the end of our 3up week, only one more night. come back tomorrow to meet our final 3 guests.

~Darcy