2023 Topic 11: Monochrome {by Keren Baker} with Magenta & Scrapcosy stamps

Hi everyone, Keren Baker with you today.

What scares you, artistically speaking? Some of us find putting colour combinations together challenging. Others get freaked out by white space. Yet others (myself included) find a limited colour palette a little scary...but using just one colour? That's playing hardball!

So joining in with this Monochrome topic was a good way to push myself in a new direction. Resisting adding a tiny dot of extra complementary colour nearly finished me off!! I ended up with two finished projects- and here's one of them.

I don't ever really do art journalling and you'd be forgiven for arguing that this isn't either. But I wanted to use it as a piece of wall art, so didn't add it into my journal (even though I currently have a very bare one!!). I absolutely loved creating this A4 piece; not my usual pared back style- definitely a little too much product on one page for my level of arty calmness!

The pieces began with a pack of giant playing cards that I'd bought a while back and had been wanting to use. They measure 12cm x 17cm so are definitely super-sized. Nothing else was purchased for this creative session, I made do with what I already had.

My selection of products revolved around the colour pink; Cerise to be precise and then adding Little Black Dress and Snowflake both as contrasts and also to change the Cerise into shades (adding black) and tints (adding white). I had the beautiful nature-themed set ESC04 from Scrapcosy as my hero stamp set to act as my starting point.

I'll show you a pre-project photo. My original plan was to add in a neutral or two plus some Glaze but I decided against that. Let's go cold-turkey. Simply stick to one colour and black and white.

Breaking the 'plainness' of Smoothy Cardstock is always hard. I knew I needed some different tints and shades so started mixing colours and adding them lazily to my cardstock, diluting them down so I had more interest in depth of colour too.

Don't be afraid of 'letting go'. Let the paintbrush dance and allow it to move in random unexpected directions. Don't overthink (I'm definitely guilty of this one!).

I also needed to lay some colour down on the playing card. It is a plastic coated cardstock and I wasn't sure how the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics would do on that. I know that these lovely paints will go onto anything - but as I was diluting with water, I was interested to see what effect that would have. Added to that, Cerise is Semi-Opaque, so wouldn't give as solid and opaque a colour as I might have wanted.

My concerns were unfounded. Everything went down onto the cards justfine. If you need more coverage - add more paint, or, add in a little of the Snowflake / Little Black Dress which are useful fully-opaque paints.

Hold your nerve at this point. It's not looking too promising right now- but once we start to add layers, the piece will start to develop.

 

The next step was to use Grunge Paste onto both the playing card and the painted A4 cardstock sheet. My Grunge Paste didn't have much left in it and it also needed 'reactivating'. If you find that your paste has gone a little harder (but not rock hard 'set'), you can get it back by adding a little warm water and mixing (or chopping into it with a plastic knife) until it reaches the original consistency. You can always add more, so be sparing when adding water.

It's hard to know which stencil design to use. I like to 'audition' my stencils to see which one seems right. The Scrapcosy PS108 worked well.

After I let the Grunge Paste dry (doesn't take very long) I started to add more paint. This will colour the paste, and as I preferred a contrast, I simply sanded off the top with a nail file.

To add more texture to the 'flat' cardstock, I enlisted the aid of Infusions, which if you've never tried them- they're like unexpected magic!

I wanted the strength of the initial colour, not the secondary brown walnut stain that comes through more strongly as more water is added, so I dried them off fairly quickly with a heat gun. You can see here the other stencil that I used (my all-time favourite) PS021.

It was definitely time to stamp, and I grabbed the beautiful ESC04 set from Scrapcosy

You might be bothered that you've got to stamp over an uneven surface after using Grunge Paste- so 2 easy tips. Firstly- a stamp positioner is a really handy tool for situations like this. Secondly- I'd used the lighter-weight Smoothy cardstock (rookie error) and had thrown quite a bit of water and paint at it, so it was a little warped. One easy fix is to run it through your die-cutting machine, or leave it sandwiched in there over night. The added bonus of this is that it will flatten your Grunge Paste relief thus making it easier to stamp on!!

I wanted to focus all my detail into one area of the piece so as not to make it feel cluttered (design-wise). I trimmed some thin strips from some of the painted cardstock and created a small woven section.

To help 'ground' the focal point, I thought to add some of the stamps from the EC04 set but in a very delicate way. Using Matte Duralar, stamped and white heat embossed was a good solution, and helped that you could see a little of the underneath colours showing through.

It was heading towards the home-straight now, just a few little flourishes to add.

I love to add a quote - I do like CS Lewis and this quote fitted perfectly with the stamping I was about to do.

I rarely create projects without some sort of fibre or fabric and felt that this needed a few French knots. I was sorely tempted to add some turquoise knots at this point but managed to resist!! I also added a few pieces of washi tape and little tiny pieces of text that were under the butterflies in the Scrapcosy set.

I was looking for a mid-sized alphabet and the Ink and The Dog Words 2 (W2) is perfect stamped onto the larger Scrapcosy butterfly.

You can see the other finished playing-card project here. It's almost grungy!!

I did love the restricted monotone challenge and also how you can achieve interesting results just using a few simple techniques. I would definitely use the Metallic Glaze if I was doing something similar again and I'm looking forward to making more art with the giant playing cards. Wouldn't they look great bound as a book or with hinges on? So many possibilities. 

What could you create by editing your starting supplies? What could you add to increase the texture and interest on your journaling pages? Could you get a friend to challenge you - or hunt down one of the previously popular 'tic-tac-toe' challenges online.

I hope that you'll try a limited colour palette and see how freeing it can be...no more guessing which colours go with each other!! Thanks for being with me tonight,

Keren x

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2022 Topic 13 : Fabric {by Riikka Kovasin} with Lynne Perrella stamps

 

Moikka everyone, it's Riikka Kovasin from Paperiliitin blog here today sharing my fabric project with you! I printed some fabric of my own, added several cloth pieces to the collage background and gave Lynne Perrella's ladies frilly lace dresses. So, let's get going!

I used to work in the wardrobe department of theaters. I started in a smaller summer theater and after graduation worked several years in Finnish National Opera and Helsinki City Theatre. Maybe because of that, or even my childhood crafts, I love fabrics and in recent years have explored adding fabric elements to my mixed media. I've even done a video series with some ideas using the "Sewing Basket Treasures" (link).

My idea for these collages was to use fabric in a couple of ways. I originally thought to make an art journal page or two, but then couldn't bring myself to trim the background smaller to fit inside my journal. So instead I got two framed collages pieces!

The first thing was to gather the fabrics for the collage in the background. So, first I headed to my sewing cabinet and rummaged the drawers. As the collages weren't going to be that big, I could utilize even smaller pieces of fabric. I picked up several patterns but I tried to keep the color scheme cohesive. As I was going to clad the ladies to lace, I had this pastel, rococo styled color palette in my mind and I followed that with the fabric choices.

I also made some patterned fabric of my own using Arcival Ink pads and a Lynne Perrella stamp set (LPC056). I used the tall lady in the set with layers and layers of lace and only inked the lace part to add the patterns to the fabric. I chose Archival Ink as this was a mixed media piece, not something that needed to handle to be washed or worn. I stamped the pattern on top of cream colored cotton fabric. If you wish to use the same technique, I suggest using as smooth a surface as possible, especially if you're working with stamps that have minuscule details.

Besides the patterned fabric, I also created some smaller details using the same cotton fabric.This time I used red ink as I wanted these little details to pop from the finished, otherwise pastel colored background. These label stamps I used are from the same Lynne Perrella set (LPC056). With a bolder color, better contrast between the light cotton and darker red, you can really make out how even the thin lines are clearly visible on top of the smooth cotton.

Now I had prepared some elements for the background, but I needed to have the focal point ladies started as well as the background itself. First I grabbed a black ink and stamped the faces of the lace-clad ladies to a cream colored cardstock. I used a profile from other Lynne Perrella set (LCP056) and a front portrait from the other (LPC058). I love how you're able to transform the heads to different characters as rest of the character is totally up to you!

I pondered about the ink color a little but decided that the high contrast black would be the best as then your eye is naturally guided to the face. If I had used a paler tone, more in line with the pastels I used, otherwise I feared that the lady would have been lost in the background.

As the last preparation step I added some color to the backgrounds. When I'm working on an art journal page I often start with a bigger sheet, pattern and color it and then cut a piece that fits inside my journal afterwards. Now, thinking back, in this case, should I have wanted to actually finish art journal pages instead of framed works, I should have cut the background pieces to fit the journal in this stage.

So, if you are following along my steps, this is a good place to ponder what sized project you actually want to finish. Using a bit smaller heads, you could turn these steps even into a card, but in such case, cut the background piece to a fitting size!

 

To color the background I used four Fresco Finish acrylic paints and just used a brayer to spread them a little throughout the background. I first added blobs of the four colors to the background and then used the brayer to spread the colors. I used Butter (FF129), Granny Smith (FF108) and Pixie Dust (FF113). Of course I had to include the Vintage Lace (FF18), too, as I was going to use lace on top!

I tried to avoid putting the opposite colors (Granny Smith and Pixie Dust) too near to each other so the end result wouldn't be just pastel mud.

Now that I had the elements done, it was time to start putting everything together. First I tore and cut the fabrics into smaller pieces. I used ready bought versions from my stash, but also the lace patterned one I made previously.

I cut some of the pieces to elongated shape, some into squares to have a bit of variety. I then added the pieces to the background using just double sided tape in the middle of the piece. This was just to keep the pieces in place for the next step.

When I was placing the bits on top of the colored cardstock, I tried to match the pieces with the background a little. Like where there was a bigger area of green I added the green patterned fabric and where there was more yellow showing, I added the white and yellow stripes. This was to avoid too harsh a contrast, making the background more subtle and kind of fading to the, well, background.

When I had the pieces in place, I took to my sewing machine and secured the fabric pieces in place with stitches. I used the similar shape I had in my pieces and cardstock and sewed in a square format going around the sheet. I tried to make sure each piece was secured in more than one place.

After sewing the quilts, I then added a little something into the mix. As the colors were inspired by this idea of pastel rococo, I thought some crackles might go into the mix as well. I added hints of the Crackle Glace (FF22) here and then with a small brush and dried the medium before adding another layer of color. I knew the effect would be really subtle as I was going to use the same colors on the top layer as the bottom, but I didn't want anything too overpowering near the ladies as they were meant to have the center stage!

I then added another acrylic layer on top using the same Fresco Finish acrylic paint colors - Butter (FF129), Granny Smith (FF108), Pixie Dust (FF113) and Vintage Lace (FF18). I painted little batches here and there but also added the colors through a stencil.

I picked the stencil from Scrapcosy collection (PS108) but the patterns reminded me of lace. With the additional color and stenciling,I tried to combine the pieces of fabric more to be a part of the background and ground them better.

Now was the time to add the other fabric element to the background, the little labels. I first added the piece of fabric on top of double sided adhesive sheet and then cut the labels loose. This way they became little fabric stickers!

I added a couple of stickers to each background. I tried to place them near the edges as then there was a bigger chance you could actually see them after adding the lady on top.

Background parts now finished, it was time to turn my attention to the focal points, the lace-clad ladies. To make things easier, I decided to make the dresses separately from the background and add them on top. This way, if something went wrong, I didn't have to start the whole thing all over again but instead just make a new dress.

For the dresses I first cut pieces of white cardstock about the size the dress needed to be and then rummaged through my stash of old laces. I picked several different ribbons as well as thin pieces of see-through silk for the dresses.

To make the frilly lace dresses, I sewed the lace ribbons on top of the cardstock pieces. I started from the bottom layer and moved upwards. I added little pleats along the way to make the dresses more dimensional and voluminous. After I had sewed layers to the piece of the cardstock, I tested the head on top and also the character on top of the background.

Leaving the stamped head part just on top of the dress looked a bit bizarre. The two parts looked unrelated, just thrown together. So, to have a better transition between the head and the dress I added another frill on top of the stamped piece. I used the same thread and everything as the previous frills and that did the trick. At least to my eye the characters now seem to wear a dress rather than a floating head on top of a frilly piece of cardstock!

To further make a connection between the dress and the heads, I added just a small detail to each with a little piece of the silk cloth and a lace rose. I also gave the ladies rosy cheeks with Fresco Finish acrylic paint Pixie Dust (FF113).

Before adding the ladies in place, to the background, I added a shadow around the lace dress. Even though there was a good contrast between the pale background and the black and white head, the same didn't apply to the dress. Even if it was of totally different texture, the dress seemed to blend in a bit too much. You can see the difference between the shadow and shadowless in the picture underneath.

The shadow is done using just a black watercolor pencil. I first drew the outline, then made it a bit stronger, added some water on top to make the layer fade in a bit and after drying added some random lines on top to make it look somewhat sketched.

After adding the shadow to the other lady, too, I then adhered the characters in place. To finish the works I adhered the pieces to the back of a black passe-partout.

I went with a black passe-partout as I thought it gave the pieces some additional contrast and rhythm. I was first thinking of giving these as gifts, but maybe they're going to be hanging upon our walls first... We'll see!

I hope you liked these pieces! Even if you don't like sewing, the stamped little fabric stickers is something you might be interest to try. Adding another type of material in the mix might do a big impact to your project!

Also, if you have a stash of fabric, consider using it in collaging. Fabrics add some texture to the piece and they also have a variety of different patterns! If you don't own a sewing machine and don't want to be hand sewing a lot, you can naturally collage the pieces in with a soft body gel medium as well!

Thank you for stopping by today!

xoxo Riikka

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