2017 #17 White: Christmas Ornaments with Squiggly Minis {by Ingrid Vichova}

2017 Topic 17: Shades of White

Our bloggers seem to be loving the shade of white challenge, even if it does seem a tricky idea at first, they certainly get on a roll! Ingrid is giving paper clay a whirl in this post!!

Hi everyone, it's Ingrid with you today, and I'd like to share with you my take on the 'Shades of white' theme. At first, I thought, my Goodness! All these gorgeous Fresco paints and you want me to create something white?! And then I thought, why not! I like to challenge myself and in the end the biggest challenge of all was to take the photos of the all white thing. The creative part was super fun! I kid you not, it took me three days to get some decent shots. Even with my studio lights it is a challenge on a dark rainy day. 

I always think of how I can stretch my stash and how I can use it in other than the obvious ways. I have already done stamping in the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste so I wanted to push it even further. I got my paper clay out and it all went from there... 

I'm no expert on paper clay and I use it mostly with molds to make frames and other embellishments for my mixed media art. I never tried stamping on it before so this was more of an experiment. I knew I was going to stick to whites so I needed a bit of a contrast as well as to protect my stamp a bit so I used the Ranger, Wendi Vecchi, Archival Ink in Shadow Grey before stamping into the clay. Is that cheating?:) 

I highlighted with Snowflake paint and then it was too fiddly so switched to a white Sharpie. Is that cheating again?! :) I'm doing really well, apparently.. LOL! Guess what though, I discovered you can use the sharpie as a base for heat embossing so my raised areas were suddenly shiny! Ha! 

As you can see, I added more interest and sparkle to my background before I found these lovely berries and snowflakes. The music sheet was confiscated from my partner. He's a musician, but it's not like he needs it more than I do, right?  

I couldn't stop playing with the clay. The stamping into it became rather addictive. 

Squiggly Mini 26 (SM26)

Squiggly Mini 25 (SM25)

 Suddenly, I wasn't just making a wintery card with a cute clay cat embellishment. I made so many I turned them into some ornaments too. I stamped and cut them out and left them to dry. I came back and nearly keeled over! Not because they were so cute! Because they slightly curled. So, learn from y mistakes and put something over them to keep them flat. I have an obsession of solely decorating 'my' Christmas tree to nothing but a perfection. These, my dears, will be decorating my daughter's spare tree in their bedroom. LOL! But anyway... it's an idea that counts. 

And there you have it! Why not use your rubber stamps in new innovative ways! You could swap the clay for a lovely melted embossing powder to stamp in. It's the same process and it's quick too! Try it and make your own embellishments too! The best thing is that you have a vast number of fabulous stamps available from the PaperArtsy shop. You don't have to used the Squiggly Mini 26 or the Squiggly Mini 25 to create these fun embellishments and ornaments. Have a browse to see what catches your eye and treat yourself to an early Christmas pressie. Just don't tell your husband!:D 

Have fun and stay creative! 

Ingrid xxx 

Blog: Ingrid Kristina V Designs 
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I'm happy for you to get in touch, if you have any questions! 

Being challenged seems to always take you in an unexpected direction! This is fabulous Ingrid, and I'm fascinated by the Shadow Grey ink with the sharpie!! Awesome result! Thank you for such great exploration!

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

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Why not join our 2-weekly challenge by blogging your create response to the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link Topic 17: White will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, 26th November 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.

2015 #23 Snow People Landscape {by Darcy Wilkinson PA.Signature Designer}

2015 Topic 23: Christmas

Hi everyone, Darcy here. Christmas is almost upon us, cards are being made.. gifts are being wrapped. It is all too easy to forget to take time out for ourselves just for a little play. This was a play session, but turned out cute. In fact if I knew anyone geting married this Christmas it would make a great Mr and Mrs gift. 

Onto an 8x8 greyboard I added Teresa Green, Granny Smith, Professor Plum and Captain Peacock using a credit card as a scraper. This creates great overlaps and texture. once dry I added a little Snowflake with a brayer. 

I then ripped up some inch wide strips of sheer fabrics and lay them across the board. I twisted them slightly and secured with dabs of matte gel. 

Next I used a heat gun over the fabric strips, because they are synthetic the heat causes them to shrink and curl. This ads great texture and the initial background shows through a bit more. 

I glued some book text to card for a little extra strength, wiped this over with a little Hey Pesto and Snowflake. Then I embossed the word tree from EDY15. 

EDY15

I used WOW embossing powder in Bark, Metalline Green, Evergreen and Vintage Champagne. I glued the tree onto the bottom left corner over the fabric strips. 

Next I embossed the stars from the same stamp plate. This time I used WOW Bright White. It is possible to emboss over the fabric.. as it has already been heated up and shrunk it really shouldn't shrink any further. That's not to say it definitely won't so just go careful and keep the heat gun moving.

I love how it looks at this stage, so pretty, a bit of glitz and so much texture. 

Now to make the Snow people and the holly. Thanks to Lauren for this idea, I loved her paper clay snowman from launch night.  I rolled out some Artista superlight paper clay and pressed down the snowman from EDY15, I carefully trimmed around him and set him aside to dry.

From EDY04 I did the same thing with the holly and berries. 

EDY04

I knew I wanted a Mrs. Snow, so I pressed the snowman again and while still damp I flattened the hat area and using a bone folder I marked out a new hat with a bow. I left them to dry over night and then gave them a base coat of paint, pushing it down into all the dips and lines. 

Then I was able to carefully paint the 'sticky-out bits' ..the raised sections. Once done I added a little glitter glue and glossy accents to the eyes. 

My snow people were glued in place and some snow added using Dreamweaver Crackle paste. This was heat set and then a little glitter glue painted over it. 

How cute are they?

Not forgetting the paper clay holly. This was painted with Holly and Granny smith and then brushed over with White Fire Treasure gold. The berries were coloured with Ruby Treasure Gold and then had glossy accents added. 

I hope you liked that, paper clay is a brilliant way to get more from your stamps and add great dimension to a project, as is the addition of fabric. it has been a wonderful year here on the blog, thankyou to everyone who bought my stamps. I always love to see what you make with them. Have a great Christmas and New Year. 

Darcy x

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