2024 Topic 3 : Vintage PaperArtsy Stamps {by Autumn Clark} on the PaperArtsy Blog

Hi everyone!  It's Autumn Clark from SewPaperPaint here with you today.  

I've been super excited about the Vintage Topic, as it's by far my favorite of creative styles.  With our underlying theme for the quarter being Glazed, I began thinking about how to incorporate a little "trash to treasure" in with a vintage glaze concoction using the new PaperArtsy Mattints...

The reason I'm enamored with Mattints is their gentle ability to transform the color of the surface on which they are placed, especially tissue paper.  It's magic to see the tint and glue abilities work simultaneously!  

I thought long and hard about a mash up of designers and chose to work with PaperArtsy Hot Picks 1507 (HP1507) as my focal imagery and a beautiful background Eclectica stamp set 03 by Courtney Franich (ECF03) to compliment.  

I pulled together a super simple palette of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in Calypso and Mulled Wine with Stone as my neutral.  My goal was to create an earthy brown glaze from Mattints in opposing colors: Squeezed and Dragonfly and I hoped to add some Just Walnut Infusions for good measure, since this is a Vintage Topic after all.  

You might tilt your head a bit when you see this color palette.  As beautifully styled as the photo is, the colors just don't go together do they?  I really had fun with this experiment and hope you will enjoy it just the same.

We've shown a lot of tissue paper techniques lately with the gorgeous range of PaperArtsy Printed Tissue evolving to include designs by Jofy, Tracy Scott, Alison Bomber, Seth Apter, Scrapcosy, Hot Picks and even Frames.  I decided to go old school and make my own Hot Picks tissue by stamping stamp set 1507 (HP1507) onto plain white upcycled gift tissue.  

Some tips on stamping your own tissue: always stamp over scrap paper to absorb the excess ink and always use permanent ink, which you heat set. The fun thing about working with tissue, whether stamped or printed, is having the ability to paint the reverse side for unusual effects.  I colored my tulips and butterflies with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in Calypso and Mulled Wine with a detail paint brush over scrap paper.  I did make the mistake of painting the front of some of my images, so I learned to tape down the tissue as not to confuse the front/back along the painting process.

A couple of years ago I shared another Hot Picks post, found HERE, where I showcased stamped tissue.  With the addition of Mattints to the PaperArtsy line, I've since posted on the beautiful stain/glaze facet of Mattints on THIS post and fallen in love with the tintability concept of glazes, which previously I had used untinted (i.e. ModPodge of matte medium).  I saw a post by our Mags Woodcock on the PaperArtsy People FB group mixing the various colors to create an unlimited array of tints.  Thanks for the inspo Mags!  I wanted to create an earthy brown, so I picked Dragonfly and its opposite on the color wheel, Squeezed, knowing that blue mixed with orange creates brown.  

Next, I tore the flap off of a cardboard package and used my mix to adhere my painted stamped tissue.  Waste not, want not, right?  If this was a total failure, what had I lost?  I did an equal mix of each color for this first test and found the Dragonfly was more dominant in pigment.

I thought some 3D embellishment would work well on the panel, so I fussy cut the butterflies, which I had colored with pencils on kraft card and given the same coat of mixed Mattints.  I stapled them over some sisal fibers.  Then I used the pencils to add a bit of highlight to the coloring work on the dried glazed tissue and edged the panel with Colorbox Chalk Ink in brown and black.

To add the final vintage touch, I dipped the panel in watered Infusions in Just Walnut for some good splotches of deep brown.  The sentiment is from a piece of printed music I found in the recycle bin at the church where I work.  :)

I wanted to use the other two pieces of painted stamped tissue I had created earlier, but was at a loss for a different type of substrate.  While procrastinating, I looked through my own blog posts labeled "vintage" and found a cool post from when Distress Oxides had just been introduced.  In the post, found HERE, I created an unusual effect by dipping my card into Oxide, then brayering over it with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics.  The result was the Oxide bled up into the painted layers.  I thought this would be fun to recreate.  I dipped a couple of kraft panels (to tie in with the brown from the cardboard) in Distress Oxide in Vintage Photo, then brayered with Fresco Acrylics in Stone.  After the paint dries, you can mist the panel and the Oxide will bleed up.  What a fun, mesmerizing process!

Now, in all honesty, during my procrastination a day had gone by and my Mattints mixture had dried up completely.  I thought it was a good chance to even out the brownness of the color and remixed using one part Dragonfly and two parts Squeezed.  You can see below how much warmer this mixture is and hopefully notice how the Oxide blends up into the glaze.  Now the cool part to me was that the Mattints glaze sealed in the Oxide.  When I misted these dried panels the Oxide did not bleed through.  And as I said in my last post, the paper like texture of the dried Mattints is AMAZING!  It's as if there is nothing on the surface, no glaze at all.  100% totally matte!  

I decided to add some embossing to all of these projects using the peeled paint texture stamp from PaperArtsy stamp set 03 by Courtney Franich (ECF03).  I used an old PSX brass embossing powder for this and love this color for a vintage vibe.  I added some sticker sentiments and sewn crinkle kraft paper.  

This one of those play by ear projects where I learned a lot.  The thing about playing this way is that the outcome may not always be our favorite work, but the techniques discovered usually become favorites indeed.  

These simple projects showcase some of my very favorite Hot Picks stamps and I hope the simplicity will inspire you to play with similar imagery, even if these stamps aren't part of your collection.  And I hope you will experiment with your own mixed glazes and paint combos.  After all, don't we all have a cardboard box lying around these days?  :)

It's always a pleasure to join you on the PaperArtsy blog.  Until next time...

Autumn

Blog: SewPaperPaint

YouTube: SewPaperPaint

Facebook: Autumn Clark

Instagram: @sewpaperpaint

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2022 Topic 14 : Colour Study: Triads {by Nikki Acton} with Scrapcosy stamps

Hi everyone, it's Nikki (Addicted to Art) with you today, and I'm here to share with you some layered Christmas cards using a selection of stamps designed by Scrapcosy.

As Keren explained in the launch post to our Colour Study on Triads we are using colours that are separated on our colour wheel by 1,2 or 3 segments. My chosen colours ended up 2 segments apart, and so they are less influenced by the blue, cool side of the colour wheel. I selected some colours that I hoped would work for some simple cards - and it's always good to get a few Christmas cards made early! 

I began by establishing my colour scheme. I selected a 'red', 'blue' and 'yellow' PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Mulled Wine, A Bit Fishy and Haystack. I completed the colour wheel before deciding on which of the segments to use.

I have highlighted my options with the asterisks (segments 1, 7, 10) also seen in the swatched circles. I knew I would need to come back to mixing more colour on another day - so I gave myself a quick reminder of how to mix them from the primaries. The colour wheel always reveals its secrets, maybe in the future I might even choose 3 differnt combinations from this wheel. It's so good to have swatches of these colours. 

 

 

I didn't try it, but I am pretty sure if I mixed these 3 colours together while wet I would get mud! The theory is if you mix 2 coloours opposite each other on the wheel you will make some kind of brown. But I was mixing just 2 of these 3 colours in the required proportion to create the selected colours. 

Out came the trusty gel plate in order to build some layers! For some prints I just brayered the colour over the plate and pulled the print. For the green I used one of my favourite (and simplest) methods of adding scrunched paper over the painted gel plate before taking the print.

 

I combined 2 colours on some prints by adding each colour individually to the gel plate and building up the layers on the print - I do this by taking the plate to the paper - so I can selectively add colour in different places. I used PaperArtsy Stencil PS074 (Scrapcosy) for these prints.

I selected some groups of prints to work together - ensuring all 3 colours were in each card.

Next I stamped and fussy cut the bauble and bow from PaperArtsy Stamp Set ESC08 by Scrapcosy. The ink was very close to the Mulled WIne paint, so that was a great way to reinforce the chosen colour combination.

 

I also added some stars to my base layer - sponging a little Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Chalk using PaperArtsy Stencil PS264 (Scrapcosy).

 

Having adhered by layers onto the small (4x4 inches) cards - I started playing with positioning. I stamped my greetings - one from ESC08 and the other from PaperArtsy Stamp Set ESC29 (Scrapcosy).

You can hopefully see the gold twine I added underneath the bauble and bow - for a bit of Christmas bling!

 

 

And the paint spatters on both focal points for some added interest and to tie in with the white card base.

 

These colour studies are great for challenging me to use different colours to my normal go-to. I am really pleased with how these worked together! Give it a go - it's great to experiment.

Nikki

Blog: Addicted to Art

Instagram: @a2a.craft

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2020 Topic #18 Patchwork Patterns with I&D (by Jennie Atkinson)

      2020 Topic 18: Geometric

If you thought that patchwork was old fashioned, Jennie will hopefully shatter those illusions with her cool stamped and rearranged designs. With the simplest of supplies and a load of stitching, you can end up with some super stylish makes.

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live The Dream) with you today, sharing some patchwork pattern ideas for our current geometric theme. 

I am not a great lover of creating patchwork with material but I do love experimenting with patchwork patterns using coloured papers. There are so many pattern ideas on Pinterest that you can spend ages looking for different ideas and inspiration. I have kept my designs quite simple for these two cards, but they still look just as effective and make great cards for sewing minded friends.

I have used Ink and the Dog stamps to pattern my papers  looking for some smaller patterns with text and postmarks:

Clocks 1

Words 4

I created background papers using my brayer and some Fresco colours I thought would go well together: Venice Blue, Mulled Wine, Brown Shed and Green Patina. I am in a bit of "brights" mood at the moment with all the lovely autumn colours in the garden, which makes such a change from my usual soft choices. I have just brayered the colour directly onto Smoothy Cardstock.

I have stamped randomly, but not made a masterboard as such. I regretted using black ink initially thinking it was far too dark, but it did work in the end.

For this pattern I have cut 2" squares and then made half and quarter triangles. The design centres around the square in the middle. The base cardstock is 5½" x 5½" and although it was easy to find the centre it was more difficult to make sure the square was straight!

Stitching around the edges of each piece does make a difference and when layered onto two coloured layers really has the feel of patchwork.

I added a sentiment using a quote from Alison's Friends and Friendship stamp set and a little cluster of ribbon and a flower. 

EAB10

My second design used 1" squares cut into triangles and was much more fiddly!

I only needed a 4" x 4" background for this smaller pattern and it was easier to get started from the middle. It is a good idea to have your design set out before you start glueing as it is easy to get lost!

Stitching the smaller triangles was very fiddly and I took a few shortcuts in trying to keep a single run without having to keep stopping. I have used the same sentiment as before and a similar cluster around the tag.

 

I really enjoyed putting together these geometric designs but would suggest that keeping your squares to 2" makes life much easier all round. It was a great opportunity to experiment with colours I might not normally put together and I was also pleased to use some of my smaller text stamps which sometimes get lost on bigger projects. Needless to say I have a huge collection of pins on Pinterest with other ideas for designs, so will not be short of any ideas.

As always thank you for joining me and I hope this idea of using patchwork patterns provides you with some prompts for cards and layouts and provides a different style of creativity for your stamps.

Jennie x

Blog: Live The Dream