2023 Topic 7 : Art Dolls {by Jennie Atkinson} with Lynne Perrella stamps

Hi everyone

Jennie (Live the Dream) here with you today being creative with our current theme of Art Dolls.

My granddaughter and I love to create articulated dolls from scraps and stamps and we always have a lot of fun creating a little art doll with (as Caitlyn says) attitude!  Although my Lynne Perrella doll is quite arty I hope the basic steps will provide you with some ideas and fun which can be shared with younger crafters.

I love her transparent butterfly wings and thought she looked lovely fluttering in the greenhouse! By using eyelets instead of brads I was still able to articulate her arms but this allowed me to add some wire for a hanging so the transparent wings can be seen.

Our theme this quarter is Transparency and so my use of plastic packaging and lace fits the theme. She has also been made from scraps of previously printed gel plate papers and odd little bits of lace that I seem to have lurking in my lace jar, so a sustainable project too.

My starting point for this project was the stamps as I needed a nice looking "face" to be able to isolate from the stamp design and was easy to cut out.  I chose LPM03 as my main character stamp and added MN109 to be able to isolate a word or two and also MN115 for the wings. Being PaperArtsy Minis they were all in scale with each other.

The next job was to find "body parts" ! It is possible to find a number of free templates online and these are usually my go to as I am not that confident at hand drawing them. They can be printed out at different scales to fit your chosen "head" and if I am creating with Caitlyn I often print them directly onto patterned paper so she only has to cut out one set.

Given the vintage look of my lady I knew that lace would be involved and I find these little pearl gems are good for adding little details around the neck and sleeves.

And finally some scraps of paper. When making these small art dolls I try to keep patterns small so that they are in scale with overall doll.  I keep all my little scraps of gel plate prints in a folder as they are generally useful for some smaller projects. I decided on this pink piece which I had created for a PaperArtsy project some time ago. It had some lovey imprints from some stencils and I had thankfully written on the back the paint colours! PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Professor Plum FF109 and Sour Grapes FF115.

The first step was to ensure the head was in scale with the body and I found that a print scale of 75% worked well. I traced my body pieces onto heavyweight cardstock after my attempts at printing them directly ended in a massive printer jam!

I had decided against legs as I wanted to use the stencilled patterns on my papers for a long dress. It was easy enough to hand draw a template for a long skirt.

I now had my basic doll with everything at the right scale.

And now to the fun part! Once all the parts had been covered with the papers I marked the areas where I needed to punch holes to make the arms articulate. I would normally use brads but decided on eyelets instead as this then allowed me to attach some wire so the doll could hang. They make the arms slightly stiffer but they are still able to move.

I decided not to articulate the head, but glued that directly instead so I could get the angle I wanted and the ruff just showing above the neckline.

Before adding the head I had used some inks to add a little colour to her hair and lips and also added a hat band from the left over gel plate papers.

The wings probably caused me the most problems ...... I had a few pieces of plastic packaging in my stash and thought they would be perfect for the transparent element of the project. But .... I struggled to find an ink that would dry on it. There must have been a film of something on the packaging that wouldn't allow the ink to dry. In the end I experimented with different ink pads and then reversed the plastic. Game changer! the ink dried...... eventually !

I now had all my main elements completed and then on to another fun part - adding the final details.

I am a huge hoarder of lace - even the tiniest little scraps! however these are just perfect for a little project like this. The little pearl gems just finish off the sleeves.

The sentiment came from isolating one word from MN109. There were a number of possibilities from this stamp but "thankful" seems to fit nicely.

I did stamp two sets of wings so they could be cut with a small edge to make attaching them a little easier and so they extended wider. They sit just below the wire hanger.

This was such a fun project as at various times the character of my doll peeked through - the tilt of the head, the placement of the arms, the way she turned when hung. And the butterfly wings give her an ethereal feel. My granddaughter is already in love with her.

I hope my project gives you some ideas of how you might be able to create something similar with your own children or grandchildren with just a few scraps or papers and lace. There is so much fun in choosing the face to create different characters and even when finished more fun in placing the arms and legs to create even more character - or attitude!

As always thank you for joining me.

Jennie x

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2022 Topic 08: Split Complementary Colours {by Etsuko Noguchi} with Jo Firth-Young's stamps

Green – Grey Tones

Main Colour: Soft Green

Complements: Salmon Orange, Pink Purple

Type: Twist - unusual grey-blue softens the entire wheel

Created from Frescos: Lemon Meringue, Prawn, Glacier Ice

Hi everyone, it's Etsuko (My favorite things) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a Mixed media 'Junk Journal' project that for our current 'Split Complimentary' colour wheel topic.

Rather than mix up the colours suggested in the colour-wheel above, I decided to choose existing colours from the PaperArtsy Fresco range that were similar but a bit deeper in tone. To Prawn I added Sour Grapes and Niagara Falls to represent the split complementary concept.

When I saw Jo's new stamps, I had the idea to make the Junk Journal using fabric. And I wanted to make a junk journal incorporating fabric and see how this colour wheel might change if the same colour and different materials were used. 

The first thing I did was to decide on the paint colour wheel theme, and I chose these three paint colours for me. My main colour was PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Niagara Falls (FF205), and with it's split complimentary colours being Sour Grapes (FF115) and Prawn (FF98). One of the split complimentary colours nominated is a little more yellow than Prawn, but the gauze fabric is coarse and i expected the colour would be lighter when painted, so the Prawn was used as is, another close options could have been Peach Nectar.

I painted the fabric to see how the colours would look. I used gauze fabric so that the paint would look soft in colour and fabric would not become stiff after painting. You can also add textile medium to your paint for washable permanence and softness on fabric, useful if painting clothing, not so important for journal or fabric art. 

First of all I using JoFY set 113 and 114 (JoFY 113, JoFY114) and JoFY mini 54 (JM54) with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics as shown below and Snowflake (FF15). 

On a heat mat, the paints were spread thinly with a palette knife and stamped onto each piece of cloth, and some cloth was dipped in paint diluted with water, dyed, and allowed to dry. As you can see in the photos, some of the colours do not resemble the colour wheel, but in reality they are almost the same, but the colours in the photos change depending on the location and time of the subject, which is really difficult. 

I want used JoFY114 large flower as a focal point on the front cover, I then stamped JoFY114 in Niagara Falls (FF205) on the gauze fabric and also I stamped Sara Naumann set 61(ESN 61) script in Ranger Archival CornFlower Blue from above.

The painted fabric was used for the petals, stitched and cut around the petals using an embroidery frame to create the focal point and other printed fabrics were patched to create the background. I added the sentiment of JoFY113. On the spine I made tassel from leftover and used them as decoration.

Now prepare the window for the first page, the small JoFY114 flowers printed on the acetate with StazOn Pigment Snowflake, made a hole in the lace page, glued the acetate from the back.

Next I made JoFY113 tulip peeking through the window. Snowflake (FF15) and Niagara Falls (FF205) painted through PaperArtsy Stencil by JoFY (PS250) on the raw fabric, 

I painted the tulip used Niagara falls (FF205), Sour Grapes (FF115), Prawn (FF98) these three colours and a touch of Mustard Pickle (FF148) as a highlight.  

I made the frame by placing a piece of fabric dyed in Niagara Falls underneath the painted tulip, and stitched a small flowers from JoFY114 on the background the page.

The small page inside was made of paper clay with JoFY114 stamped on it too look like a seashell specimen, finger painted in three colours and finished with gold wax.

I embroidered JoFY113 tulip on this narrow rectangle page although I did not use three colours. 

I though pocket page was nice, then I made a pocket to put a tag in.

I printed Snowflake and Niagara Falls on the leftover paper through PaperArtsy Stencil by JoFY (PS136 and PS250) to create the background and printed JoFY113 tulip on a book page and coloured it.

I made the pocket using various of laces. JoFy114 flower painted and stitched.

Finally I made a patchwork page using the main colour and the two split complementary colours print fabrics. Each fabric was Sashiko stitch with the same type of colour embroidery thread, and the seams are embroidered to give a little depth to the printed I then decide on the pattern to be placed in the rectangle. The flowers made in the previous photo was cut with a thin cotton for quilting on the back and sewn to make it little fuller. JoFY 113 sentiment was embossed in black powder on the white painted fabric, cut and sewn then finished page.

  

I used JoFY114 and ESN61 stamps for the front and back covers and simply made in the main colour Niagara Falls.

This slightly smoky colour wheel was a combination of colours that I rarely use, but it was a lot of fun with this project and I wanted to continue exploring this further it. Please share with us for your creations using these color wheel on PaperArtsy Instagram or in the Facebook Group 'PaperArtsy People'.

Thank you so much for visiting here.

Etsuko xxx

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