A Plein Air Painter’s Box with Courtney Franich stamps {by Tracy Hickman}

Hi everyone, nice to be back with you again!

Tracy Hickman aka @anonymous.palette here with you today with a brand new PaperArtsy Project.

This year on the blog, we have free rein to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product ranges of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring 3 PaperArtsy Eclectica Stamp Sets by Courtney Franich (ECF05), (ECF06) and (ECF07).   I’ve also used some PaperArtsy Tissue by Scrapcosy - (PT05)  and a few favorite PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics, a couple Mattints and finally, a few PaperArtsy Infusions that I’ve turned into an Alcohol Ink. 

Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you what I figured out when I decided to go too colorful on a project that wanted to be more classically colored and neutral. I am a landscape painter (I finally said it out loud..) and wanted to repurpose a beautiful wooden box to house my smaller paint tubes:  oil, gouache and watercolor all fit as well as the larger Kuretake paint pans which I’ve used here.  Holding onto the idea that  I can take this box outside to paint plein air, on trips, or just have it looking pretty on my studio table to lure me into a more consistent daily practice.

There is a second small removable paint tin on top that has been crackled, stamped, embossed and collaged that houses more watercolor half pans or can be used as a mixing palette for the big box.

Keep reading to see the layered steps: creating an ombré crackle, glazing the tissue map that surrounds the box with PaperArtsy Mattints and working in Fresco finish Chalk Acrylics for an additional hit of color that surprisingly worked really well (and a technique I’ll be using again in the future ;)

The colors above ended up being more in line with a classical landscape palette versus what I thought to use initially.  I’ve included a shot below of the original brighter palette that I abandoned when the idea of colorful ombré leaves popped into my head..

A recycled box, inexpensive plastic palette from an art store and a repurposed tin are about to be transformed into a Plein Air Artist’s Box, PaperArtsy Style….

I used the map from a beautiful PaperArtsy Tissue by Scrapcosy, -  (PT05) and placed over a coat of Mod Podge applied to the box with a lightly damp brush and followed with another light coat over the adhered tissue.

Painting tissue doesn’t get much better or easier using PaperArtsy Mattints in (Shark) and (Fern) with a side of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in (Surf’s Up) and (Green Olives) that added a bit more saturation into the glaze.

After coating this plastic palette in Gesso, I used two PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics: (Taupe) on top and (Slate) toward the bottom to Ombré the background imperfectly which will become the crack color.

A thin layer of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish (Crackle Glaze)  was applied next, very thinly, with a plastic key card to both the palette and repurposed tin.  Then the fun part, painting on Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in (Buff) and (Taupe) to be immediately rewarded with a crackle effect!

Some stamping from PaperArtsy by Courtney Franich  (ECF05) in permanent brown ink here and there while trying to keep the type relatively straight…

Additional Stamping using PaperArtsy by Courtney Franich (ECF07).  Both the palette and tin were stamped and embossed using a bronze embossing powder.  I did warp the plastic palette slightly  but heat set the back to offset the damage.  Not perfect but a save nonetheless. 

I loved painting the tissue and learned that I can tint Mattints with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics for added depth.   In the end though, I wonder if leaving the map unpainted would have created a greater contrast thus allowing the painter’s palette to shine.

The adorning of these substrates follow and the promised picture of brayered ombré leaves that I loved, just not quite right for this project ;). But having a stash for a later project, a win for sure!

Where I started… love the ombré but realized the palette was too saturated for my vision.

Where I ended up, a simpler more monochromatic set of stamped leaves that shows the vintage book pages of an art journal underneath. I came in and splattered the leaves with my palette colors (see below) for interest. Slightly obsessed with these stamp sets, the perfect mix of vintage with contemporary elements!

The “palette”, PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in: (Chantilly), (Glacier Ice), (Venice Blue), (Caramel) and (Holly). I used a palette knife for the paint swatches but chickened out applying them directly to the project and aired on a substrate of deli paper instead.

Creating Alcohol Ink out of PaperArtsy Infusions, my new obsession… - in (Golden Sand) and (Olive Tree) mixed with Isopropyl Alcholol to color an embossed transparency with that wonderful quote.   The icing on the cake for this plein air art box.

See how it all comes together and the colorful eye candy inside each of the boxes below! 🎨

This tin has two Velcro circles on the bottom that adhere the tin to the box below for hand holding, easy reloading and clean up.

A glimpse of the half pans of watercolors inside the tin and watercolor brush attached with a marbled ribbon.

A repurposed clear zip pouch for brushes and pencils also fitted with that same PaperArtsy Tissue from Scrapcosy over Gesso and adhered with Modpodge completes this paint kit.

This box fit these paints perfectly but a cigar box would work equally well.  I’ll be adding a clip inside the top lid to hold paper or a small canvas and possibly a tripod mount to the bottom of the box for a true plein air experience .

This vintage inspired art box will be the perfect companion for some outside creative play with the hope of capturing the world around me one color and brushstroke at a time.  🎨

Instagram:  @anonymous.palette 

Instagram:  @tracyhickman_artist

Wall hanging with Scrapcosy stamps {by Liesbeth Fidder de Vos}

Hello everyone, Liesbeth here! 

This year on the blog, we have free reign to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product ranges of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring some of Raquel's PaperArtsy Scrapcosy products. A wonderful stamp set, a belonging stencil and some Scrapcosy printed tissue paper.

I decorated a wall hanging with it and I love to show you how I made it!

I am actually quite happy with the result! The stamps are perfect for what I had in mind. Now the wallhanging hangs in our kitchen :-)

My starting point was a ready-made wall hanging, consisting of three 15 x 15 centimetres panels, covered with nature pictures that I didn't like.

The stamp set I used is one of my favourites: Eclectica (Scrapcosy)15 (ESC15) and I used PaperArtsy stencil PS105 by Scrapcosy and some pieces of Scrapcosy printed tissue PT05

As I love to work with the three colours yellow, pink and blue (I often do) and I love Mattints I chose PaperArtsy Mattint Dragonfly, The Pink and the new Acid.

My plan was to cover the pictures of the wall hanging with stamped cards and to create a nice frame around them. So first I made the cards. I cut three pieces of  PaperArtsy Smoothy Regular white cardstock 12 x 12 cm, and coloured them with blending tools and Distress inks. I used Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon, as I always do :-)

Using Tsukineko StazOn Jet black I stamped the different stamps (ESC15) onto the cards and some pieces, like the flowers at the tea cup, on a seperate piece of cardstock. At this stage I didn't know yet what I was going to use. I also cut masks for the tea cup and the postmark stamp.

I masked the two big stamped images and used the stencil PS105 with a blending tool and Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire. After splashing some water drops, wiping them up I accentuated the spots with a white gel pen to create ,stars'. I also used the gel pen for the text and for some other accents. Using watered down bleach, I bleached the images where necessary to let them pop out. I sponged the edges of the cards with black ink and made shadows around the images with charcoal. The card with the text was still a bit empty so I cut some of the stamped lace, coloured it and created a frame at two corners as shown.

Here you can see the bleaching and the charcoal shadows. The cards are ready!

Time for the wall hanging itself and how to put it all together!

It's all about the edges, the center will be covered. First I sanded the edges a bit, because it was glossy paper, and covered the edges with a few layers of gesso. I decided to do some crackling and I searched for the perfect background colour for it, I came up with a mix of PaperArtsy Fresco paints Twilight and Blueberry. Perfect, exactly the colour I was looking for! I painted the edges with the mix...two layers was enough.

One of my favourite PaperArtsy products is the Crackle Glaze! By far the best there is, it always works perfect and you can dry it with a heat gun, so quick and easy! I applied a layer of Crackle Glaze on the edges onto the blue paint and dried it, and painted the top layer with the opaque white Fresco paint Snowflake. Immediately the crackles appear. Magical!

Oops...there's some white on the ropes as well ;-) I will paint them black again later on.

A little bit of decoration on the crackled frames. I tore some small pieces of texts out of the printed tissue  and glued it onto the crackles with Matte Glaze (my perfect gel medium, I use it for everything!!) here and there with a soft brush. 

After drying I painted the crackled frames with the three Mattints Dragonfly, The Pink and Acid. For every board a different colour.

Very carefully I painted the sides of the boards with Fresco paint Little Black Dress and a small  sponge. It provides a nice finish.

I cut out the butterfly and lots of flowers I stamped before, and painted everything with the three colours of Mattints: Dragonfly, The Pink and Acid. I used a very small brush for this.

The finishing touch: I matted the cards on pink, blue and yellow cardstock and glued them onto the boards of the wall hanging. I added the little flowers and butterfly at the images.

The colourful wall hanging is ready!

Yellow..

Pink...

The entire piece..

and Blue!

In the following photos you can see some more details:

It was so much fun to create this wall hanging! I love the combination of the paints, crackles and Mattints. And of course the wonderful Scrapcosy tea themed stamps! Hope I inspired you, have fun!

Liesbeth XX

Blog: Liesbeth's Arts & Crafts
Facebook: liesbeth.fidderdevos
Instagram: liesbeth_fidder