2024 Topic 10 : Gilded {by Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos}

Hi everyone!

Liesbeth here with you today. I would love to show you my gilded book/starbook with wonderful women faces, gilded and framed behind glass!

My inspiration and starting point this time was the beautiful Lynne Perrella stamp sets by PaperArtsy: LPC069 and LPC070. Love the fact that the faces of the stamps are in profile, perfect to cut and frame.

I used three different ways of gilding: gold leave flakes, golden paint and rhinestones. And of course I didn't forget our current theme ,Nature'!  Let's start! 

Maybe you already know I never have a (ready from start to end) plan for a project...never..., only some ideas and some starting points. For this gilded star-book I new I needed the two lovely Lynne Perrella stamp sets LPC069 and LPC070, a metallic paint, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish matte glaze and gold leave flakes. I was planning on using the beautiful platinum PaperArtsy Fresco paint White Fire but later on I changed that to Gold.

The surface I used are 6 cardboard microscope slide mailers and glass slides. They are used in the medical world to protect and send medical preparations to the labs. I used 2-place mailers, they are also available with 1 or 4 places. In combination with the glass slides they are so great to create with!

First I made the book, I piled up 6 slide mailers and glued backsides onto front sides.

I coated the entire book with a layer of gesso and after that I started with adding some Nature, our theme! There fore I tore out some small pieces of Alison Bombers PaperArtsy printed tissue paper (PT08). I glued it onto the front, back and left ,pages' of the book using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Matte Glaze. Works perfect!

I chose 4 beautiful colours of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints: Summer Sky, Glass Blue, Inky Pool and a bit of Coral, applied it in spots with sponges, covering every part of the book.

I painted the edges of the frames with the dark Inky Pool to accentuete the depth. With a bit of watered down Coral paint I coloured parts of the Printed Tissue paper, like berries, acorn and so on.

At this point I was sure  the pages needed a bit more...but I didn't know what... So I decided  to first create the glass slides.

 

Time to use the gorgeous images of the Lynne Perrella stamp sets (LPC069 and LPC070)! I stamped the different women on white cardstock with dark blue ink (Tsukineko Versafine Clair-Twilight, and cut them out a bit bigger, outside the lines, to be sure it fits.

   

Using Ranger Distress Inks (Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire and Abandoned Coral) and blending tools I coloured the faces, large areas of colour. I think it's about the same colours as the paints I used. With a little bit of watered down bleach and a synthetic brush, I bleached some details of the images here and there to highlight them.

 

One of the glass microscope slides was my template: I cut 12 slide size cards out of the stamped images. I hope this makes sense ... if not...see photo below ;-)

With a bit of tacky glue I glued some shiny gold leave flakes at the edges here and there. I have a little box with multi color flakes...no idea what brand it is. Once the glue is dry, you can make it shiny by gently polishing it with a paper towel. I applied a very small drop of Glossy Accents on every corner of the stamped paper and added the glass, and I glued the whole thing in the niche.... 12 times!

Some more for our current theme Nature: Onto the left pages I stamped some small parts of the stamps like this rose. Again with Tsukineko Versafine Clair - Twilight. I inked them with just a corner of the ink pad. The other stamp is a kind of a swirl...you can see it on other pictures. Above the glass slides, into the thumb grooves I put  golden rhinestones.

I gilded the spine and the edges of the book by sponging some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish-Gold.

The final finishing touch was adding some small parts, like words or this circle below, from the Alison Bomber Printed Tissue (PT08) and...a extra tiny bit of golden paint.

The book is ready! Here I show it as a star-book I think the images of the stamps and the printed tissue are perfect together..although the style is completely different, it works!

One of the pages.

For the front of the book I used some left overs from cutting the stamped images and glued them at the edges. No waste!

The backside of the (almost) closed book. I used a cut out stamped image from one of the PaperArtsy Lynne Perrella stamp sets (LPC069).

An overview of the book among most of the materials I used. 

Another detail picture of one of the pages. Oh how I love this stamp from LPC070!

I had so much fun with this gilding adventure! It is a pity that on the pictures the shininess is not very visible. In real life the book is glossy and shiny and bling bling, believe me!

I hope I inspired you to create some gilded projects yourself! Have lots of fun, see you next time!

Liesbeth XX

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2015 #4 Under the Microscope {by Penny Nuttall}

2015 Theme 4: Miniature Art

Hi everyone Penny here, joining you this evening with a microscopic look into the world of miniature art. I first started to experiment with Darcy's wonderful new stamps when I was happily asked to take part in her new product launch, and was inspired by the theme of "Cabinets of Curiosities". 

I discovered that it is very simple to stamp using Jet Black Archival Ink onto glass microscope slides (clean the slide careful with a soft cloth to remove dirt and greasy fingerprints!). Leave the ink to dry, or if you are impatient like me, use a heat gun.

Choose a selection of sizes of slides and images. I used Eclectica EDY12 and EDY13,

...but all the images in this collection are brilliant for this.

The next step is also inspired by something popular with the Victorians...painting in reverse!

This backward technique requires a bit of forward thinking :) You now paint over your stamped image using Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints and a small brush, letting each layer dry, in the order you want the colours to be seen when you finally turn the slide over.

When turned over all the stamped details are revealed. Detail the edge of the glass with a metallic gold pen.

Now to make the display.

For each slide, paint a cotton reel with Fresco Brown Shed, stamp the word labels on copy paper.

Glue short lengths of matchstick on the top of the reel leaving a gap of TWO glass slides thickness.

Back the painted slide with a matching plain one (to protect you art work!) and clip together at the top with a mini bulldog clip, then add this to the stand, with a bit of clear glue in the groove.

Why not remind yourself how you can make more microscope art on Darcy's launch blog.

I hope you enjoy making your own mini curiosities.

Bye for now,    Penny.     cuttingmycoat.blogspot.com

I loved the samples you made for Darcy, but these are very cool too!! Yes Darcy's stamps do look a bit like microbial organisms, you have latched onto a funky mini display! Thankyou for sharing this great idea with us!! ~Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #4: Miniature Art. 

Perhaps one of our guests has triggered an idea you might like to try, or perhaps you have other mini pieces of art you want to explore, whatever you decide, we'd love to have you join in our fortnighly challenge on this topic and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher (includes freight cost) to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Fresco Paints link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 8th, winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.