Nut Shell Books with I&D {by Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos}

Hi everyone, Liesbeth here. These beautiful PaperArtsy I&D 'Vintage Nude' stamps were once among the very first I ever owned about 20 years ago, and today I'd love to show you how I used them to create two (nut)shell booklets.

I no longer have the original packaging, but here you can see the wonderful stamps featured in this blogpost: PaperArtsy Ink & The Dog Collection: Vintage Nudes plate 1, Vintage Nudes plate 2, Vintage Nudes plate 3 and Vintage Nudes plate 4.

I also used real shells and nutshells, and PaperArtsy Stencils PS234, PS002, PS239, PS173 and PS105.

For the pages I used PaperArtsy Smoothy white stamping card,regular. The perfect cardstock!

Paints I used: PaperArtsy Fresco Paints: Smurf, Banana, Snowflake, Gold and Gloss Glaze.

I started with the shell book, two shells will be the cover. Using one of the shells as a template I cut the double pages out of the folded cardstock.

Time for some layers, first I used the stencils with the Fresco Finish paints Banana and Smurf to paint some marks at the edges of the pages here and there. Later on the paints will work as a resist. I sponged the pages with Distress Inks: Wild Honey, Salvaged Patina, Salty Ocean and Chipped Sapphire, overlapping areas.

I sprayed some waterdrops to create nice spots, after drying I made a next layer with Distress Ink Chipped Sapphire and the stencils as shown.

Time for the beautiful Vintage Nudes stamps, I stamped them with Tsukineko StazOn - Jet Black. I used every single stamp from the four stamp sets and tried to create nice compositions. I also stamped the small flower (Plate 3) here and there with blue and yellow Distress ink. After that I bleached (watered down bleach and a synthetic brush) and coloured the women and some other details, and finished with a bit of glitter glue.

A hard decision.. shall I paint the shells or not? I did, using the Fresco Paint Snowflake :-) Onto very thin, one layer napkin paper I stamped the small flower (Plate 3) with three different blue colours waterproof ink (I used Versafine Clair), tore them out and glued them one by one onto the shells with Fresco Finish Gloss Glaze. 

I glued the double pages back to back to create a book.

Something was still missing, so i decided to take the amazing Fresco Finish Paint Gold and painted the edges of the shells a bit ragged. It's so shiny..to me the perfect finishing touch!

To 'bind' the book, I added some washi tape on the spine of the booklet, glued some pieces of fibre in the shells and glued the booklet in the shells.

Here you see how the first page is glued into the front shell. I glued the edge and secured the page with clamps till it was dry.

I couldn`t resist making another tiny walnut book, the stamps are so perfect for this! Made in much the same way. This one, however, is an accordion book, 6 pages long.

The closed books. I decided not to paint the nutshell, but of course it's up to you.

This picture shows the beauty of the stamps! And also the layering, glitters, colour pencil make-up and other details. 

Finished! A small shell book and a tiny nutshell book full of lovely Vintage Nudes:-)

Look at that cute nude ladies in their gothic arches, love it!

Another detail of the nutshell pages.

This is the final page of the shell book. The bleached woman pops out, the golden Fresco paint and glitter glue make it shine!

It was a pleasure to create this two books with the wonderful ,oldies' PaperArtsy Ink & The Dog ,Vintage Nudes`.

Hope I inspired you, have fun!

Liesbeth XX

Blog: Liesbeths Arts & Crafts

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2022 Topic 11: Stamp Mash-up {by Kate Yetter} with Tracy Scott, Nicci Battilana and Scrapcosy stamps

Hi everyone, it's Kate (Kate Yetter – Musings, Tea and Drippy Paint) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a stationery set.

Letter writing is one of my hobbies and I love writing on pretty paper. Lately, I have found it difficult to find stationery in the stores as letter writing is a lost art. I thought, "Why not create my own set with matching envelopes?" 

I knew this was going to become a set of stationery, so I decided to keep the colors pretty and pastel. Some of the stamped images were very detailed so I chose coordinating colored markers for the small areas on the paintbrush and pen handles.

As this was mail art, I challenged myself to keep everything relatively flat. With the rate of postage nowadays, I don't want to pay through the roof for a thick envelope. My goal was to keep it simple yet pretty.

When choosing how to use the stencil, I thought it would be cute to have the squid blowing bubbles up the page. I ended up loving this stencil and using it throughout the set.

Who doesn't like to get a bookmark in the mail? A matching bookmark seemed like the perfect way to use this paintbrush stamp.

On the envelope below, I decided to use the bubble stencil again to create continuity throughout the set. To add depth to the bubbles, I used some pink.

 On the envelope closure, I added the stamped seal, colored with markers. 

 Stenciling around the paintbrush added color and texture.

For the greeting card, I again used the two-toned bubbles and stamped script on top.

Stamping with paint is also an effective way to use paints and stamps together. Just remember to clean your stamp off right away.

To finish off the letterhead, I used an ink pen around the edges to add squiggles. I love adding this hand drawn border to tie a piece together. {NB Irish Cream is a discontinued colour}

To complete the bookmark, I stamped on top of the stenciled area to create more interest.

An area for the name and address was added to the envelope below.

Embellishments were made for the greeting card using stamped images, paints and markers. I also stamped, colored and cut out several circular motifs and layered them on top of the bubbles.

Below is the completed greeting card and matching envelope. This card was the only one where I layered embellishments.

I had so much fun putting this stationery set together. I never intended to make this many things but once I got started, I couldn't stop. While creating, I made an envelope that I had to throw out as it didn't match the set at all. That is what happens when I venture outside the chosen color palette. I like how everything turned out and I am in LOVE with those bubbles! I hope you saw how easy making your own stationery can be. All you need is paper, stamps and some color. You should give it a try!

Until next time,

Kate

Blog:Kate Yetter – Musings, Tea and Drippy Paint

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