2020 #13 Flower Lines with Elizabeth Borer Stamps {by Helen Chilton}

2020 Topic 13: Lines

I love how Helen has used the concept of repeat-stamping an image to create new patterns that catch your eye, in effect she creates new lines in an almost unexpected manner. Layer over that some translucent paint through stencils, and you get a pop of colour and more pattern.
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today, and I'd like to share with you my project on the theme of 'Lines'.

I have to be honest and say that this one stumped me a bit. I couldn't think what to make that would fit in with the topic until I looked at Elizabeth's flower drawings and realised that all stamp images are made up of lines, be they outlines, shading lines, pattern lines or whatever. I decided to go with outline images, lines of stamping and doodled lines of my own.

I first started by looking at different ways of stamping in lines. Straight lines:

Diagonal lines (interestingly with this one, you almost lose the original stamp image in the pattern):

And circular lines:

In the end though I went for a straight row design over stencilling. You can really do this with almost any stamp to build up a background. Just play around with the orientation of the stamp to see what fits.

Then, using translucent Frescos so the stencilling would show through...

...I painted in the flowers.

I stencilled and doodled on a central panel for my focal point.

And that's my 'Lines' project - you've got wavy lines, straight lines, hatching, outlining, framing. Quite often I also like to outline some of the stencilling but in this case I felt it wouldn't enhance the stamped images so managed to stop myself!

It certainly made me look at how stamps on a set can fit together and how they can be manipulated to create an overall pattern. I challenge you to pick any one PaperArtsy stamp set and build up a repeating pattern in this way! Enjoy!

Helen

Blog: A Splash of Colour

2020 #12 Topic Introduction: Typography

 2020 Topic 12: Typography

Hi everyone, Keren here, looking at our new topic : Typography.

Typography can elicit an emotional response, build a brand, structure a page or piece of art and communicates words in a different way. We've seen a turning to dislike certain fonts such as Comic Sans (remember that one?!) and this also is a good example of how certain typography is fashion led. It's been quoted that the first real example of typography is the Guternberg Bible that was the catalyst for typography in the West and that font used is in use even today (although, text and design can be dated back from 11th Century East Asia.) Typography changed more rapidly when things turned digital. We now have access to a myriad of fonts and typefaces. As an aside, a typeface and font are different. The typeface refers to a family of fonts and the font is the collection of sizings, weights and style of the letters. Whatever your preference; the scripty curly alphabets currently in vogue or more simple plainer text like American Typewriter, combining these and playing around with their size, position, colours and negative space is the art of typography.

There are lots of examples on the PaperArtsy blog. I had a tough time just choosing three.
Firstly, is this bold bunch of letters decorated using Hot Picks stamps by Lotte Christianson.

 PaperArtsy Blog

Next is this beautiful page by Claire Snowdon incorporating a tonne of different fonts including book pages. It makes your eyes dance between the words.

 PaperArtsy Blog

This next textured beauty from Sandra Reynolds has a real mix of words, letters and numbers, yet there's plenty of 'space' to rest your eyes upon.

PaperArtsy Blog 

For those of you that are interested in the technical side- here's a quick infographic (which ironically depend on good typography for clarity.)

Shillington Education

I think lots of us when thinking of typography will have similar images to this in our heads; wooden blocks used in printers trays many years ago. With a resurgence in popularity of Letterpress, these are now pretty collectable. This example shows just how a juxtaposition of different fonts, upper and lower case can look so beautiful.

Career Foundry

Typographical designs get clever when they're arranged to denote a familiar image but using the words to describe phrases linked with it. The linked article is a fascinating look at how typography can be a visual influencer.

Hanlon Creative

Words are everywhere, and so is typography. What we rarely consider is that there is a psychology behind the fonts and colour that we see and how this affects us. This link explores more on this topic.

 Medium

Typography can be seen artistically in fashion and also in art quilts. This is a quilt that uses texture, words and negative space to achieve a calming, gentle piece of fabric art.

Jette Clover 

Typography isn't limited just to the digital. Whilst this example may have been created digitally it's a good starting point to consider how doodling, designing and being artistic in creating your own fonts and typographical art could be incorporated into your journalling or artistic endeavours.

 Content Ninja

For years, scrapbookers have utilised typography, picking the perfect font to match the emotions or events described in their memory recording. Using different papers to decorate die cut letters is a useful technique. This idea would look fabulous using stamped papers.

 Scrapbook Nerd

Typography doesn't have to just use paper, I added this example for fun. I'm not sure the art would last long but it's a great example!

Becca Clason

The way that letters or words are arranged is another aspect of typography. Letters don't need to be plain, but when simply rearranged, give a new energy to a word.

Pink Fresh Studio

Sometimes using the alphabet in its correct order as a bold graphic background can be a strong design statement. This journal cover has a wonderful almost ombre textured look.

Anna-Karin

Talking about negative space earlier, I thought I'd add to the discussion with this beautiful  quilled example of how the space is forming the letter. It's another inspired idea to add to your techniques 'arsenal'.

Anna Chiara Valentini 

We also mentioned at the beginning how typography could elicit emotion. This font, and the arrangement of it seems to perfectly fit with the style of the drawn images and the sentiment.

Jane Davenport 

Another aspect of artistic typography is using words and phrases, cleverly arranged to form portraits. This is a really striking example carefully following the contours of the face.

Cris Wicks

One of the more recognisable modern art structures fits into our topic perfectly. Robert Indiana created this which is an iconic piece and the design even made its way onto a postage stamp too!

 Robert Indiana

How about using a single letter and adding a design onto it? Whilst not strictly typography, it fits our theme well and is rather beautiful in its natural simplicity.

Do Good Decor

This next example hasn't been chosen for its literalness, but because it uses a technique you might like to emulate. Using the same main word and exact font, they've folded back certain parts so when put back together it completes the whole. You'll notice the lower words are in fact the definition too!

Leandro Ales

Lastly I've included this rather dreamy set of artist blocks that use typography in a simple but impactful way. Using book pages as the background and 2 other fonts, they've been sparing enough with the words that it doesn't clash nor look overdone. Just gorgeous.

Shelly Hickox

I hope this typographical collection has spurred you to look around you. Typography is absolutely everywhere, from the TV titles of our favourite programmes, the food we eat and what we see on the internet. There are so many wonderful ways of using this in our art.

If you want to create along with us, please share on our social feeds so we can see what you get up to. The best places are Instagram @paperartsy or post in PaperArtsy People Group on Facebook. Make sure you tag us in your contributions, we love to see what you get up to in your creative world! 

2020 #11 Calming Lace Book with EAB {by Claire Snowdon}

2020 Topic 11: Calming Colours

So lovely to have a project sharing Tracy's Lace Booklets. There are plenty of ways to decorate these, and contrasts between cut and solid pages are the key to getting a 'pop'. These soft delicate colours Claire uses in sage greens, grey-blues and blush pinks certainly ooze a gentle, calming vibe.
~  Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Claire Snowdon with you today, and I'd like to share with you my take on the calming colours theme using one of Tracy Scott's Lace Booklets.

I've really enjoyed playing with the new Lace Booklets; most of my projects with them so far have been very bright and colourful, very much as Tracy would use them!  So I thought this topic would be the perfect reason to try using them in a different way and to play with some different colour schemes than I would typically use.

I started the project by thinking about calming colours, but those which would still offer contrast so when the pages are closed you still get the great lace effect.  I started with the pink pages - using Fresco Finish paints in Sorbet and Blah Mange.  I used the colours to get a kind of ombre effect and also the darker of each colour to frame the page.

The green pages were created in a similar way using Fresco Finish paints in Sage and Zucchini paints.

And the blue colour scheme was created using the paints in Blue Oyster and little touch of Wisteria.

As a great bonus with the lace booklets you can create some fab stencilled backgrounds with the 'waste' paper you put underneath the pages when painting the pages.....so I will use these papers another time for a different project :)

On the back page of the booklet I wanted to add some texture so I used lots of the text stamps from EAB19 stamped using Fresco Finish Snowflake - I also like this particular page as when you look through the layers of the lace pages it reminds me of clouds in a beautiful blue sky.

I added stencilling to the green page using PS187 and the Snowflake paint again.  Then I really wanted the beautiful quotes from EAB19 to really stand out from the pages so I embossed three of the quotes with white embossing powder onto black card. 

I added some white pen work to the green and pink pages with a white Posca pen. I really like this little detail as it brings the lace cuts to life.

I added a little bit of the Snowflake paint on a sponge all around the outer of edge of each page. I felt this added to the 'cloud-like' feeling of the booklet and was in keeping with the topic.

 

If you haven't tried using the lace booklets then I would really encourage you to give them a try - and Alison's stamp sets have such beautiful quotations that really can compliment any project.  I hope you'll find time to join in with the calming colours topic and spend some time relaxing with this colour scheme.

Thank you for spending time with me today,

Claire Xx

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