3 Things - Not-so-usual Christmas Cards {by Ellen Schrik}

For this challenge, PaperArtsy sends the same three items to 3 people from the blogging team. It is really interesting to see how each maker comes up with different ideas and techniques with the same 3 items. They have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send, the whole idea is to do something crafty in their personal style restricted to these 3 items.

And for this month they invited me to be a guest designer for this challenge.

Hi, my name is Ellen Schrik (ellen_schrik_crea), I am from the Netherlands. I was so excited when the PaperArtsy crew asked me if I wanted to be a guest designer on the blog. Of course I said yes and shortly after that I received the items shown below.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...

As I love quirky stamps, I was delighted to receive this Zinski Art Stamp set ZA35 by ZinskiArt. They are such happy and funny creatures! The stamps came with this deep orange Fresco Finish Acrylic paint Rusty (FF227) and a snow or confetti like stencil PS245 by PaperArtsy.

Here's a little sneak peak of what I came up with:

These items are perfect for not-so-usual Christmas cards, so let's see what I've created.

As one of the items was a Fresco Finish paint, I knew I wanted to go for gel printing. I discovered gel printing in spring 2013 and I immediately fell in love with the technique. I bought a gel plate and never stopped printing and exploring since.

For this post I made a bunch of gel prints using the Rusty colour I received and adding only a blue, Beach Hut (FF43) and a pink, Orchid (FF13). For texture all I used was bubble wrap. The effect of the different sizes of bubble wrap is simply wonderful, even with just one layer.

(Fun fact: I was published in Craft Stamper magazine in October 2013 with an article on gel printing, also using bubble wrap.)

For this project I used my 5 x 7 " and my 8 x 10" gel plates for a happy gel printing afternoon.

The Rusty orange and the Beach Hut (FF43) blue go well together and they make a wonderful green where they overlap. I did the same with Rusty and Orchid (FF13). It came out beautifully.

I just love the effect of bubble wrap! And it is only one layer!

Here you can see some of the masterboards/prints I made on both A4 and A5 sized paper. I used 160gms printing paper for this. I often like my prints so much that I don't want to cut them up, and just keep them, but I had to be brave this time.

Now on with the stencil:

The Stencil PS245 reminds me of falling snow, perfect for Christmas cards.

On two of the cards I used snow-like embossing powder from WOW Embossing with glitter in it. After all, Christmas and glitter go hand in hand....

I love how well the embossed dots work with the bubble wrap texture!

For the third card I didn't heat emboss; instead I added orange dots with ink through the stencil as a kind of confetti.

.Time to work on my focal critters!

I started by stamping all the characters from the Zinski Stamp Set ZA35 in black ink on white card.

At first I wanted to just stamp the images onto white card, cut them out and stick them onto the cards. I like the effect of a white image.

Then I decided to colour one of the images lightly, just to see what it would look like. I used my Derwent Inktense pencils.

As much as I like the striking effect of a white, fussy-cut image, this time I liked the lightly coloured version better. It was more in cohesion with the background. So I decided to colour all of them in.

I like this type of colouring: only some patches of colour here and there on the image. Kate Crane inspired me to try it this way and now I often use it, especially on these type of images.  Thank you so much for your inspirational posts Kate!

And here are the three cards I made. With one, two and three little creatures.

And each one apart:

So these are my not-so-usual Christmas cards. And as I have some gel prints and some cut out images left, I think I am going to make some more.

Extra layers and some easily overlooked details add depth and interest to your creations, even when you do not notice them immediately. Here's what I added:

I stamped two more layers onto the card: after the heat embossing I stamped with Kate Crane's set KC005 in orange and in dark brown ink. For some stamps I did not use a block to stick the stamp to, but held the stamp in my hand for partial printing.

But it did not all go quite as planned. On the tall card I stamped first and then heat embossed, but the dark ink was not totally dry. So when I sprinkled embossing powder over the snowflakes, some of the stamped background on the right caught some powder too. It was a kind of happy accident.

I also added some faux stitching and zig zags. I used an old tracing wheel, used for sewing, to track around the edges of the card, then slowly traced the lines with a black fineliner, following the little holes.

The text on the Zinski Art Stamp Set ZA35 is perfect for cutting up into strips. They were stamped on white paper, cut out and edged with black ink and/or a fineliner pen.

Paint, gel printing, a stencil and quirky stamps is a great combination for me.

I had lots of fun creating these. Thank you so much for your interest in my little journey here, I really appreciate it. And a big thank you to the PaperArtsy crew for having me. It was a great honour.

With love,

Ellen

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3 Things - Traveler's Notebook {by Martine Dubé}

Hi everyone, Martine here from @martined.crafts with you today for a ''With 3 things'' challenge post.

For this challenge, PaperArtsy sends the same three items to 3 people from our blogging team. It is really interesting to see how each maker comes up with different ideas and techniques with the same 3 items.  Typically we will receive a stamp, a stencil and a colour product. We have no clue what PaperArtsy HQ is going to send, the whole idea is to do something crafty in our personal style restricted to these 3 items.

So let's take a look at what I received from PA HQ ...

When the PaperArtsy package arrived with the ''with 3 thing'' materials, I was surprised to find the Holiday!/New year Theme  stamp set ZA35 from Zinski Art, a Rusty Fresco Finish paint and a snowy stencil PS245. It was still summer  when I received the kit, so I wasn't ready  for winter yet ! That's when I decided to create something totally not holiday themed.

I also used other Fresco Finish paint colours in my project in my project. They are Buff, Magic Moss, Prawn and Snowflake, to complement the Rusty.

Lets go look at what I made.

The first thing to do is prepare the paper for the size of journal you want. I use a sheet of copy paper folded in half and cut my other papers the same size. 300gms watercolor paper is used to make the cover and the copy paper, the grid paper and the 200gms watercolor paper are used  for pages.

Now I have to decide what design I will make for my covers. I choose simple, clean shapes.

On the first one, I decided to do hand drawn lines in Fresco Finish Rusty. It doesn't have to be perfect  lines.

I added some black pen lines for more definition and texture.

On the second cover, I went with circles of all sizes to cover the page using Prawn. I will add some stencilling and black details to this one.

On the third journal cover, I used a paint brush to make some marks with Magic Magic Moss. 

I also added some black line details with a marker later. I outlined the shapes and sprinkled dots for more interest.

Next I prepared the fabric for the traveler's notebook cover. I cut 2 pieces that are about 1.5 cm or 1/2inch bigger then the papers for the journals. I created a template for the oval shapes I wanted to add. This helped me evenly distribute and align them.

I used the same 3 paint colours, Rusty, Prawn and Magic Moss to do my fill the shapes.

I use the stencil on the Prawn circle journal to make dots by using different parts of the stencil. You can even make some outside of the circles like I did.

 

I also added free hand black outlines to help make the circles look finished and tie the covers together.

With the journal covers ready, the next step is to create the booklets by folding everything in one go. This includes the cover and the inside paper pages. You then need to put something heavy on top of the booklets over night so they stay flat. 

    

When I folded the booklets, the edges became uneven so we need to trim them. I cut them to 20cm x13.5cm (about 5.25 x 8 inches).

Before sewing the booklets, we need  to pierce holes using a craft pick. I made a template for easy spacing!

The last step to finish the booklets is to sew them!

                                                       

Now, for the main cover. Using my 3 colors, I stencilled the ovals with different densities of dots using different parts of the stencils.                                        

                                                                        

I love the different effects it creates, while still being cohesive.

Instead of using a black marker on the fabric, I sewed some black lines around my ovals to create texture.

Don't forget to prepare the pockets before sewing around the cover! With all the structure done, I was then ready to work on my focal elements.

I stamped and coloured my images using the same colours of Fresco Finish paints. I know my stamping look bad, but I will stamp again once they are all colored. Stamping this way ensures the lines will be on top of the colours and the images will look nice and sharp.

The 3 bears worked perfectly for my 3 journals and the Fresco Finish Rusty makes a great bear fur color! Then I fussy cut my images and placed them on my 3 booklets.

For the fabric cover, I wanted a fabric embellishment. This step is always fun to do. I used one of the images I have coloured, scanned it and printed it on fabric with the help of freezer paper. Freezer paper can be found in sheets or rolls, it's used by quilters for paper piecing quilting. Since mine is a roll, I cut a piece the size of my copy paper and iron my fabric on it. I then put a piece of tape at the end going in the printer to help it stay put when printing, otherwise it will get stuck in the printer.

Before printing, I set my printer to enlarge the image 40%. I felt the bigger size worked better with the ovals, and made it different than the inside one.

Before sewing the contour of the cover, I sewed the bear on it. Since my cotton was on the thinner side, I used some double sided adhesive (for fabric not for paper) to secure my fabric to a second piece of cotton, ironed both piece together and then stitched it all around.

Here's my traveler's journal with 3 little booklets made of different kinds of paper!  You can sketch, paint or write and in the pocket you can collect tags ,ticket, stickers and much more.

I hope this project will inspire you to create your own and for anyone that is not into sewing, you don't have to made the cover out of fabric, it can always be made out of cardstock.

Meet the bears!

Thanks for stopping by hope you enjoy!

Martine

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