2015:Semester 1 Summary.

Hi everyone Darcy here. As you read this, Leandra and the Paris team have just finished a long day at Version Scrap, while Emma and myself are at Ally Pally. *waves to those of you who came to see us today* It has been such a fun week, you all threw yourselves into 3up week, as always. The colour combinations were such a treat, seeing how each person interpreted them. Pretty much a rainbow week.  We love to see your creations, everyone raises their game and encourages each other, and the work produced is just awesome. 

So onto the end of the semester and Wow! what an amazing semester it has been, it has flown by in a beautiful blur of exotic new colours, gorgeous new stamps and jaw dropping projects! We are 1/3 of the way through the year and so it is time for a round up of just a few of those projects. 

This journal page created by Alison Bomber was a huge hit, many of you had never tried rusting powder with stamps. We hope this post encourages you to try it, see all the details HERE. 

This was a new technique to many of you, fabric paper. such a fun way to create a strong collage substrate. Anneke De Clerck took us through the process and created this beautiful book cover. See the details HERE.

Helen Chilton's creations always make me smile, this was no exception. A city on a hill, all in miniature. Create your own little kingdom by reading her instructions HERE. 

Jo Myhill is the queen of neutral tones, rust and texture. Her projects are bound to nature in colour and emotion, each one cries out to be touched. Here Jo showed us a great rusting technique with this salvaged porthole. See the details HERE. 

This mini book by Liesbeth Fidder is the stuff of fantasy realms, I am sure this book must be owned by a woodland elf! The tiny details are exquisite, go and see them all HERE. 

One of our signature designers, Lin Brown talked us through this stamped clay technique. We feel like we are there in Tobago, as Lin brings her stamps to life using Mica powders. Se how she did it HERE. 

One of our newer contributors is Lou Collins: how lovely and elegant is this decorated clock. Lou showed us how she created a really useful faux patina effect, come and see it HERE. 

We designers do love to mash up our designs with those of our fellow designers. Here Jo Firth Young uses her own gorgeous flowers to great effect alongside Clare Lloyds girl stamp. Don't be afraid to mix your collections, we love to see what combinations you come up with. See how this piece came together HERE. 

Pam Thorburn has some great ideas in this post where she turns everyday bits of texture into what appears to be a fully embossed metal plate, so very clever. Come and see how she did it HERE. 

Sue Carrington is a regular here on the blog and always comes up with stunning projects no matter what substrate or stamp collection she uses. Just look at the bold use of colour in this wall hanging. See how she achieved that gorgeous blending HERE. 

Trish Latimer is another new contributor to the blog, though you will have seen her around blogland and in magazines. We love her quirky style in these assemblages, so much fun. See how Trish used Treasure gold all over this project HERE. 

This canvas was part of our paint theme, Lynne Moncrieff really stepped outside of her comfort zone using our newest colour releases: you would never have guessed, as she did such a terrific job, and this piece really pops with such vibrancy. Come and see it HERE. 

This is of course the freaky altered/deconstructed doll. I am not sure there are adequate words to describe her, but she was definitely fun to make. Using stamps by Darcy Wilkinson, you can see all the steps HERE. 

One of our Signature Designers is Clare Loyd, here she creates this really eye catching tag. Deceptively minimal, there are in fact lots of layers and elements. See them all HERE. 

One of our regular contributor is Linda Cain. She has such an amazing way with colour, her blends are always rich and full of life. This busy little street scene was created with Emma Godfreys great new releases. Come and see how the text stamps were shrunken down to size HERE. 

So that is it for Semester One.. how time flies, seriously where does the time go. Thankyou to everyone who has participated, whether you are a designer, a guest or you have joined in the challenges. This blog is for you, inspired by you and we couldn't do it without you. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes too for keeping the machine running smoothly. 

..and so onto Semester Two: Topic #7. Whatever can it be? Come back tomorrow at 7pm to find out. 

Darcy.

Last Weekly Winners of Semester 2 and a Summary

Hi everyone Darcy here. Last week Kate created a frame with awesome drips, a dimensional tag and a multi layered journal page. This ended her semester with us, I think you'll agree she has made some wonderful projects. Then Linda dropped by with a fabulous page, those colours really popped and Jo went all miniaturized with a perfectly, tiny journal. Clare brought us her final piece in her face/tag project, making 4 faces in total. I finished up the week with the last of the monthly journal challenges. That has been lots of fun, I hope you have enjoyed taking part.

Thanks to everyone who joined in the weekly challenge and made projects last week. We, and the designers truly love seeing your creations. And thank you also for all the comments left on all the blog posts. It means a lot to us all that you take the time to leave comments.

The final journal challenge is HERE. Join in and leave a link to your creativity.

1.And the winners are...

Random winner #1 from the First Challenge draw (every single entry linked, including multiple entries) is: Jane Castle

Congratulations, you have won a PaperArtsy A5 stamp of your choice.

Random winner #2 the winner from the Second Challenge draw, (only one entry per name)

is: Sue the Iron

Congratulations, you have won a PaperArtsy A5 stamp of your choice.

*Winners please get in touch with Darcy (darcydotneedles@hotmail.com) with your full name, address and choice of stamp plate.

2. Thank you to all semester two designers and guests

Hi everyone, Leandra here just taking the opportunity to say a big thank you to all who have contributed to continued inspiration and creativity throughout 2014.

As Semester 2 draws to a close, this is a great opportunity to take a look back and reflect on the wide variety of creations our Guests have brought us. Not only have we had featured in depth each week for the last 4 months the unique talents of Liesbeth Fidder, Keren Baker, Penny Nuttall and Kate Yetter but we have in addition brought you many one off posts from our own PaperArtsy Stamp Designers, 2013 Blog Guests, and even the odd random extra person wherever we could possibly squeeze them in for surprise treats.

Huge thanks to everyone who works so hard behind the scenes to keep the PA machine running smoothly, it is very much appreciated. 

So let's take a look back at just a few of the projects that have been featured in the last 4 months from some of these wonderfully artistic hands and minds.

Alison Bomber created this beautiful reverse canvas, blending and creating new shades with a very limited colour palette. See how she did it HERE.

Ellen Vargo is one of our signature designers, and in this project she used her stamps to create this vibrant tag book. See all the details HERE.

I found Jan McGregor whilst perusing blogland, I loved her clean and simple, but still quirky, use of JoFY stamps. She created this wonderful card for us, see it HERE.

Kirsten Sheridan is one of our #patwits, she joined us one evening and made this fabulous butterfly shrine. See how she made it HERE.

Liesbeth Fidder created a stir on twitter when this haberdashery tin was blogged, everyone rushed off to burn tins, the twitter chat that evening was hilarious. See Liesbeth's version HERE.

Another of our signature designers, Lin Brown, created this bold and beautiful notebook cover from stamped fabric. See all her steps HERE.

Linda Cain's use of colour blending is always superb, this project was no exception. See all the photos HERE.

Jo Firth Young, a signature designer and regular contributor decorated this tree with her range of stamps. See how it 'grew' HERE.

Lucy Edmondson showed us a neat trick with this project, just how to glue down tissue in hard to reach areas. See how she did it HERE.

Marie Hampson has the cutest baby girl, and for her new bedroom, Marie created this fabulous door plaque. See how she brought all the elements together HERE.

A regular contributor, Jo Myhill, made this muted but elegant sewing themed piece. Read her instructions HERE.

Penny Nuttall's style is bright and fun, and a little quirky. How many of you now have pet rocks? If you missed her post, then pop back and see it HERE.

Sara Naumann is another of our signature designers, using her own stamps she created this beautiful card. See how she did it, along with a great video, in this post HERE.

Sue Carrington turned this hanging board on it's side and created this gorgeous free standing piece successfully contrasting purple and green, no easy feat! See her methods HERE.

This is the same hanging board as above, you would never know as they look so different. This was created by Teresa Abajo. See her techniques HERE.

Darcy Wilkinson, another signature designer, had a session experimenting with gel medium to create this canvas. See all the techniques HERE.

Emma Godfrey is chief elf at PA headquarters, in between keeping the PA machine running smoothly she created a brilliant blog post for us. With photos and video, see how her piece came together HERE.

Keren Baker has a CAS style, but with lots of interest and great techniques. See this watercolour effect card in this post HERE.

Elizabeth Borer is another regular here on the blog, we are thrilled she is a part of the PA team. Her colour blending is second to none, this project shows just that with her beautiful background colour scheme. See it HERE.

We were honoured to have Seth Apter join us, in this journal page he uses so many techniques,fresco paints and his own range of stencils. Check it out HERE.

3. Coming up this week...

There will be no weekly challenge next week, instead we have a very special week ahead for you. Full of creativity, inspiration. designers and guests...

Starting tomorrow, for a full 7 nights, we will be featuring lots of new products from 7 of our stamp designers, 2 of whom are brand new to the PaperArtsy family! We do LOVE to surprise you with great new products! All these new products are available now from your favourite PaperArtsy stockist, so they will be ready for you to purchase immediately.
Our designers and surprise guests have been working hard behind the scenes, putting together amazing projects with their new designs. So make sure you drop by every night this coming week at 7pm each night as we officially introduce our newest stamps and paints...
~ Leandra

Posted with Blogsy