With 3 Things: You're all invited! {by Tracy Hickman }

Hi friends, it's Tracy Hickman from @anonymous.palette with you, super excited to be a guest blogger for this 'With 3 Things' blog post.

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 bloggers are sent 3 items in the post. We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send us, there are slight variations (for example on this round we each were sent slightly different stamp sets) but generally 2 of the 3 things will be identical.

I received a wonderful surprise in the mail from PaperArtsy with a Hot Picks Stamp Set (HP1011), a PaperArtsy Stencil (PS106) and 2 PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints, in Taupe and Marbles. I also added vintage book boards for my substrate. The theme this part of year on the blog is 'Nature' and we are launching a new Topic about 'Printing' so I wanted to include both in my project.

The idea for this project came together very quickly: Ann Barnes (@aksbarchitect, part of the regular PaperArtsy blogging team) and I are friends and she has an amazing garden. When I saw the arched door stamp I imagined her garden so I created an imaginary “invitation” to all the PaperArtsy folk as if I was hosting a party in her garden and all were invited (but an imaginary one ;). I made it with formal event invitations in mind to go with the 'Printing' Topic.

My starting point was the stamp set HP1011 with its amazing floral arched doorway that immediately gave me tunnel book vibes. Have I ever created a tunnel book? You may wonder and the answer is definitely no! ... but I was up for the challenge! Ellen Knutson from UFlibraries has a tutorial on YouTube that I watched to get the basic gist of the construction.

I experimented stamping on several types of paper in both black and brown archival inks and ultimately ended up using vellum for the crispest images.

The conundrum I had was the size of the stamp: it needed to be larger and scaled up further for the scenes to create a tunnel. I finally had eureka moment of using a printer to scale up the stamped image. This had me very excited! I enlarged the arched doorway image to 110%, 130%, and 150% and printed on to Canson Mixed Media Paper, a thinner weight that would go through the printer.

The size of the tunnel book and frame 7 1/2 “ wide x 9” tall ended up deciding the size of the cardboard book structure, 9” wide by 10 1/2” tall.  I spent a ton of time on mock ups using duplicate images and sighed with relief when the actual tunnel construction happened and worked out…

I also used the owl stamp in that set and reduced it to 75% and 50% to add to the tunnel. To bring some colour and variety, I had some vintage floral illustration books that were calling out to be fussy-cut. I added them to the floral arches using the larger flowers in the foreground and smaller flowers in the background to further enhance the sense of depth.

Now, onto the background! I’m an oil painter and currently taking a cloud workshop which inspired the background.  A coat of white Gesso covered the book boards and then the fun began!

The back and forth dance of a brush quickly blended three paints, Marble and Nougat with hints of Taupe to make a misty summer sky, perfect for a picnic garden party!

PaperArtsy Stencil PS106 by Scrapcosy followed and was placed strategically on the front cover and both inside pages. I used a few drops of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Paint in Taupe to tint a paste to spread through the stencil for some pattern and depth. I did have one area on the front cover that smudged but the other areas turned out beautifully. I ended up sticking a butterfly on the smudge in order to conceal the mistake ;) Butterflies fix everything, right?

My tunnel needed a frame! I almost attempted a plaid pattern on it but really wanted some grungy texture to contrast with the “prettiness” of the other elements and a weathered crackled wood look came to mind. 

PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze came to the rescue and I revisited a PaperArtsy YouTube tutorial by Leandra that was super helpful. The first layer of Taupe went down on the front and when the cardboard started to curl a bit, I ended up applying paint it to the back as well and it flattened right out. Once dry, I used a wide plastic pallet knife to apply the crackle paste very thinly and evenly and prepared my 2 top coat colors of PaperArtsy Fresco Paints in Nougat (tying in the clouds) and Chantilly.  The key to the crackle is to apply your top coat generously and fast, so I did so with a wide flat brush, being careful not to go over existing areas of paint. 

Those glorious cracks you can see on the frame started forming immediately and using a heat gun, I was happy to see both large and small cracks come together. I added a bit of Ranger Industries Distress Ink in Vintage Photo around some of the edges and using a brayer (a Mags Woodcock tip) applied some hits of Marble to pull in the sky themed book background onto the frame also.

As further embellishments, the flower stamp in PaperArtsy Hot Picks set HP1011 were also stamped on vellum and printed out in 3 sizes. I even mirrored the image as I wanted the swing of the flower and stem to be very specific on the front cover. Another Eureka moment and now all stamps will be looked at with new orientation and sizes…  

I cut out a whole field of flowers onto mixed media paper, used three colors of Ranger Industries Distress Oxide Inks (Antique Linen, Lost Shadow, and Vintage Photo) along with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Chantilly to create a vintage daisy. I cut off some of the petals of several and used them to stack on top for a 3-D effect on key flowers.

For extra interest, the center of the flowers was embossed with WOW Embossing Winter Ice and Lindys gang Toadstool Taupe which I dotted with an embossing pen.

Now I needed an actual invitation!

PaperArtsy Crunchy Paper (waxed kraft paper) was the perfect accompaniment for a picnic! The blackthorns from PaperArtsy Eclectica Set EAB31 by Alison Bomber seemed perfect to adorn deckled paper with WOW Clear Ink and embossed with a fine Taupe embossing Powder from Lindysgang as a base for a delicate vellum text. I also used the postcard stamp on the “r.s.v.p.” slide die cut and added some of my customs flowers. 

With the inside now all decorated, it was time to work on the covers. 

I wanted to make them interesting but just a tease for what was inside. For the front, I printed out 2 more enlarged doors, cut out the awning and door panels of one and layered them to make the door feel more 3D. 

I added even more dimension with a bit of Oxide Ink in Lost Shadow for shadowing. A vintage flea market escutcheon was the perfect addition to anchor the assemblage and some ephemera from AB Studio and Tim Holtz Ideology were nice add ons!  Note the “for you” stamp from set HP1011 that leads you to the knob to open the Cover….

When I saw the 'Wise Owl Quality' stamp from Hot Picks stamp set HP1011, I knew this would go on the back cover like a signature. To go with this, I included another owl from that set along with a stamped flower quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson from Alison Bomber.  The larger owl is from the PaperArtsy Scrapcosy PT05 Tissue Paper for scale. A feather and a few other tiny labels finished off the back cover.

Thank you PaperArtsy for the challenge and coming on this imaginary picnic with me :)!

Tracy Hickman

Instagram: @anonymous.palette

Facebook: @anonymous.palette

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With 3 Things: Flirty Flamingos {by Laura Denison}

Hi friends, it's Laura (my Instagram) with you as the second of three guest bloggers for this feature. I was so excited when PaperArtsy asked me to be a participant in this month's "3 Things" challenge! I wonder what you would have done with the 3 things shown above?

For this feature on the PaperArtsy Blog, 3 bloggers are sent 3 items in the post. We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send us, there are slight variations (for example on this round we each were sent slightly different stamp sets) but generally 2 of the 3 things are identical.

When the mystery box arrived from France, I opened it to find a Scrapcosy stencil (PS106), a Hot Picks stamp set (HP1009), and two bottles of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic in Peachy Keen and Marbles. My initial thought was: uh-oh, I don't really "do" pink and light blue. I've never been one to shy from a challenge, so I dove in. The Peachy Keen color reminded me of flamingos. Hmmm, maybe I can do something with that I thought, and I was off and running!

This idea resulted in a dimension textile panel with, indeed, a couple of flamingos. Let's take a closer look.

My work is evolving these days as I am merging and combining many of the types of art I create, with mixed media being the foundational thread. As a teenager in the 1970's, I designed and created soft sculpted dolls and teddy bears, by college I had started quilting. For many years, these two were my art form. 

In 2009, I turned to bookmaking and paper crafts incorporating mixed media and 3 dimensional projects. My education and professional experience is as an interior architect so 3D is natural for me. In the past year or so, I have returned to my quilting and doll making roots. In the last few months my focus has been a combination of these two textile expressions with what I call dimensional quilting. I decided to create one of these projects featuring flamingo's using the supplies sent to me. Some of these items are going to require thinking outside the box to become a flamingo!!  

First up was getting the cool Peachy Keen color onto fabric. You can actually "dye" fabric using acrylic paint! However the tone of the base fabric will impact the result as the color sits on the surface rather than changing the fibers. This is great for getting multiple tones from one paint! Here, both of these fabrics (far left and right) were colored with this same paint, you can see  the before and after with the original fabrics in the centre.

To "dye” your fabric an overall color, the fastest and easiest way is immersion in a container. I use a large jar, but a bowl will also work. The ratio I use is approximately 60% water, 20% fabric medium (any brand will work), and 20% acrylic paint. Fresco Paints are some of my favorites as their chalk finish works seamlessly with fabric to leave a great finish. The fabric medium helps the paint to bind to the fibers. After the colour is heat set, it helps the fabric to remain soft and pliable, and the fabric can still be washed.

Once the paint/medium mixture is ready, I put the fabric into the jar. I tend to use smallish fabric pieces, so the jar is a sufficient size. Stir the fabric to get full coating. The more agitation, the better and more even the coverage.

The fabric shown was a grey piece with writing and diagrams so it came out as a tone of the peachy color.

Wring out the fabric and lay it flat on old towels to dry. Once air dry, heat set using a hot iron on a steam setting, or tumble dry on a cotton setting. Heat setting will make the color permanent. My projects don't end up as usable items so machine washing isn't critical to me, but these fabrics can (typically) be washed as is appropriate for the fabric you have dyed, cool water with your usual detergent should be fine. Note: Always do an experimental trial washing before creating something important that will need cleaning.

For fabrics that don't take well to being immersed into liquid, like this upholstery corduroy, you can paint them or add an even layer of color to the top. My favorite method for this is using a gel plate as a "stamp pad" to apply the color. I use a brayer to spread an even layer of paint to the gel plate and press the fabric onto the plate. Voilà! nice even color and you can pull a paper or fabric print from the now textured plate to add to your fodder stash. TIP: You may find you need to add water to the paint to loosen it enough to sink into the fibres easily, or spritz the fabric with water to dampen, then add paint is another method.

After creating the fabrics for the flamingos, I started to building the background elements of the project. To set off the flamingos, I wanted a deep neutral fabric that I could add some stenciling to, thanks to the Scrapcosy stencil PS106. I like using a cosmetic sponge to stencil on fabric, though a flat brush works as well. You can add fabric medium to the paint and heat set it to make it more permanent

The beauty of using an opaque lighter shade of Fresco Finish paint,  is that when stenciled, it will show up on a darker surface. Transparent paints will lose some of their vibrancy over dark backgrounds. The warm light blue tone of this Marbles color on the deep taupe color is the perfect contrast for the pink of the flamingos. I then heat set the fabric and added other commercially printed fabrics to create the project background. It was then layered and machine quilted.

I decided to use the Hot Picks stamp set (HP1009) to make details for the feathers that would give dimension and detail to the bird-bodies. I use a waterproof pigment or dye ink (for exmple Ranger Archival inks) on fabric for better permanence. Most water-based inks will wash out, even with heat setting. (unless you need them to wash out and then they are PERMANENT, but that's a different story, lol).

As I looked at the hexagonal flower stamp, I realized it looked a bit like feather tips if I cut it apart after stamping. The grasses and birds stamp were stamped onto the fabric and feather shapes were free cut from the stamped fabric. I then fringed the edges of all feathers and tips.

To add to the floral motif of the stenciling in the background of the project, I wanted to add further 3D elements - flowers!

First, I "dyed" fabric with the light blue Fresco Finish Marbles paint. I sandwiched a layer of fusible material between two layers of the finished fabric. Fusible material comes in both sheet and roll forms. It is fused together with an iron and creates sandwich that has more thickness and less fraying. While still warm, the flowers can be gently shaped and they will hold that shape as they cool.

I stamped the little single flower onto the double layer fabric sandwich. I also used  water soluble crayons to add further color.

To create the flamingo’s, I drafted a pattern for the birds and their beaks. They were then stitched, cut out, and turned. Polyester fiberfill was used as stuffing. They are stuffed firm in the head and neck and loosely in the body.

The beaks were hand stitched to the head/neck body piece. I then added the details of the head and beak using water-soluble crayons, acrylic pens, and permanent markers.

To flatten it, I stitched/quilted the body with lightweight yarn. I wanted contrast so I used a darker yarn. If you want a matching color, you use the same immersion technique on white cotton embroidery floss. Once dry, wrap the floss onto a larger piece of cardboard to heat set.

After cutting and fringing what seemed like about a zillion feathers, they were attached to the bird bodies. I used multiple fabrics; most were immersion painted with the Fresco finish Peachy Keen paint. I did add additional color to some feathers with water soluble crayons

The birds were then attached to the background. The birds are only partial, so I created a dimensional frame using fabric covered thin foam for the birds to lay on.

Once the birds were in place, the flowers were attached to the background along with some silk flower leaves.

The flamingos are now ready to be wall hung and enjoyed!

I had a lot of fun with this project and hope you did too! 

Laura

Blog/Website:  www.lauradenisondesigns.com

YouTube:  @LauraDenisonDesigns

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/lauradenisondesigns

Instagram: @lauraddenison

With 3 Things: Sea Candles {by Jayne Charlton}

Hi friends, it's Jayne Charlton from (The Craft Planet) coming to you from my art studio in beautiful West Cumbria (UK). I've been invited to create a guest 'with 3 things' post for PaperArtsy, in fact I am the first of 3 invited guest bloggers for this feature coming your way!

This feature on the PaperArtsy Blog is where 3 bloggers are sent 3 items in the post. We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send us, and there is a slight variation (for example on this round we each were sent slightly different stamp sets) but generally 2 of the 3 things will be identical. It is quite exciting and I had a lot of fun creating with my mystery package.

As soon as my parcel was delivered I couldn't wait to open it and see my surprise items: a PaperArtsy Hot Picks Stamp set (HP1111) - which is fantastic because nautical, steampunk and botanical are right up my street - so many many possibilities; my mind was in overdrive! I named the darling fish Deena (short for Sardines). 

With it was PaperArtsy Stencil PS106 designed by Scrapcosy that I find very nice, highly usable, really a stash must have. 

Colourwise, my bundle included PaperArtsy Chalk Acrylic Paints in Verdigris and Marbles. I adore them and have used them lots already. They are a wonderful combo together so I'm off to a great start!

I like to create useful practical items, I enjoy upcycling, I love making things that will make the owner smile and this little make turned out to be no exception because with all of that in mind, I have made... candles! Let's take a closer look.

I've wanted to add some candles to my bathroom for a while so I grabbed some pillar candles, stared at my stencil, stamps and paints, and then back to my candles for about 15 mins whilst having numerous ideas and not being able to decide. 

Then the idea hit me to test all the ideas I had and use a consistent colour scheme to pull them together. No need to choose! So I had the idea, however I decided to sleep on it for a few days, leaving all the items out on my desk to mull it all over. Just in case a better idea comes along... it didn't ( it never does; I have no idea why I procrastinate but I do)

So how do you put you designs on candles? I hear you ask. All will be revealed... But first, I gathered my supplies, as well as an array of coordinated VersaFine Clair ink pads, some PaperArtsy Smoothy and greaseproof paper, and my trusty gel plate, as the future Topic here on the blog is (Gel) Printing!

I started off by having a play session with the Scrapcosy stencil PS106. I had so much fun reverse stencilling, mono printing, drawing through with a fineliner pen and doodling. The paint colours are a perfect marriage, they blend together beautifully.

Just some very clean and simple doodles over the stencil design...

Then out came the stamp set, PaperArtsy Hot Picks HP1111 and some gorgeous colours in Versafine Clare ink (Nocturne, Paradise, Golden Meadow and Warm Breeze). This one ended a bit chaotic, busy and bright! Really loud !

I then toned it down for the next idea, mixing botanicals with nautical stamps over a reverse stencilled background.

I kept on playing and soon I had 4 stunning, colour coordinated but very different masterboard ideas. I printed the 'real' masterboards onto white TISSUE paper.

Once I had selected a section of the tissue design I liked, I wrapped it around my candle, and then wrapped the lot in greaseproof paper and held everything together nice and tight with a crocodile clip.

I then used a heat gun on my bundle until I could see wax starting to melt (watch your fingers those heat guns do get real hot and the clip is metal!)

You then simply unwrap the parcel and as if by magic, Ta Daaaa, your design is beautifully and seamlessly embedded into your candle. Seamless.

This is a nice and easy way to created unique homewares or one-off gifts for friends and family. Its also a great way to recycle old pillar candles that have seen better times. To clean up a old weary, dusty pillar candle or a tatty charity shop find, place it on a heat resistant plate and use the heat gun to lightly melt the exterior wax while rotating the plate (watch your fingers again!). Before the wax fully dries, polish the candle lightly with a piece of greaseproof paper. Its a perfect way to prep before adding your designs!

I hope I inspired you to try some candle decorating of your own!

Jayne

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