Wings Spool Journal with Hot Picks {by Etsuko Noguchi}

 

Hello everyone Etsuko (@pixienes ) here with you today and I'd like to share a little spool journal I’ve made using Hot Picks stamps.

I’ve been wanting to try making a journal using small spools of thread for quite some time now. The theme I was given this time was the Hot Picks stamp set. I believe this was PaperArtsy’s very first original A5-sized set, and I always find the number of stamps, the variety on offer and their versatility extremely useful. Today, I focused on the butterfly from the Hot Picks stamp set 1506EZ (HP1506EZ), whilst also adding two moth designs Hot Picks stamp set 1109EZ and  1104EZ (HP1109EZ and HP1004EZ) to my selection.

For the paint used to colour the butterflies, I chose five vibrant colours, from the left of the page: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic – Green Patina, Southern Skies, London Bus, Persimmon and Banana; and for the background of the journal, three more subdued colours: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic – Wisteria, Blue Oyster and Lemon Meringue. I’ve started working with these lovely PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics.

I created some layered material to add to the background of the journal. I applied PaperArtsy Mattint—Bellflower, Dragonfly, Glow and Shadow—or watercolours onto PaperArtsy Printed Tissue Hot Picks – Blank (PT10), and placed a sheet of copy paper underneath to prevent the glaze from bleeding through. This resulted in a pattern as shown in the illustration below, so I used that as a layer too. 

Blank Tissue is an essential item for me; I simply cannot do without it when I’m working. For example, I can use it to apply a sheer layer of colour to alter the look of the background, or stamp an image and colour it from the reverse to create a focal point, or even use it to position the stamps I’m using. It can also be crumpled to create surface texture, and there seems to be many more uses for it yet.

I applied Mattints and watercolours to a sheet of tissue paper using a flat brush.

These are the sheets of copy paper that collected colour as underlays.

For the journal’s band, I glued together three 2-inch-wide strips of Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white stamping card, cut to the width of the spool. I then applied Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic – Wisteria, Blue Oyster and Lemon Meringue – using PaperArtsy Brayer as the colours were a little pale, I added some Persimmon to create the base for the background.

To finish off the background, I arranged torn-up sheets of copy paper and the tissue paper cut into circles as shown in the diagram below.

Now let’s create the butterflies and labels, which are the main features. To ensure the butterflies—the focal point—stand out, I coloured each one in a vivid shade. The colour scheme for the butterflies on this screen uses, from left to right, Banana, Persimmon and Green Patina; I blended the colours so that the boundary between Banana and Persimmon forms a gradient. Initially, I cut them out right along the edge of the stamp to blend them into the background, but after checking the contrast with the surrounding area, I left a small white border around them.

As well as the HP1506EZ, the ‘Hot Picks’ section featured a butterfly from the HP1109EZ and moths from the HP1004EZ and HP1009EZ, so I’ve included them here and coloured them using Wisteria and Southern Skies in addition to the three colours mentioned above.

To make the labels, I combined all four ‘Mattints’ colours with an additional shade, ‘Mattint- High Viz’, and applied them to Smoothy (Heavyweight) A4 white stamping card to create the base. I then used the HP2402 and HP2602 stamps to produce the labels.

As I wanted some slightly thicker embellishments, I dyed several types of fabric using some powder pigments.

I stamped an HP2602 butterfly hair clip onto a piece of paper, coloured it, attached it to an O-ring, and applied a thick layer of resin to create a decorative element for the end of the string used to bind the journal.

Now that the base and components for the journal are complete, I’d like to share the details with you. Please do have a look. It’s a bit long, so it’s a shame I can’t show the whole thing on one screen, but I’ll go through it frame by frame.

The first frame.

The second frame.

the third frame.

the fourth frame.

the fifth frame.

the sixth frame

the final frame.

Finally, I’d like to show you the finished piece, featuring the embellishments I made from resin and the coiled design.

 

Place the dyed fabric beneath the label so that it takes on a slightly three-dimensional shape, and stitch it in place to help it adhere to the background.

I tore the coloured tissue paper into circles and stuck them here and there.

I layered some fabric and secured it with eyelets to make some embellishments.

Labels, stamps and small round labels, made in the same way as the first ones.

As I kept unravelling and rewinding the paper time and again for the photo shoot, the stiff paper became creased and wrinkled; the tips of the butterflies started to peel away, and after gluing them back on repeatedly, they were on the verge of breaking—it was a close call, and I nearly ended up with a half-baked vintage journal. However, I’m delighted that I managed to pull it together and was able to show it to you all. I’d like to thank you for stopping by today.

Etsuko xxx

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Gift Giving with Tracy Scott products {by Keren Baker}

Hi everyone,

I'm Keren and delighted to be here with you today.

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 Tracy Scott's gorgeous products. 

The nights are drawing in here in the Northern Hemisphere, and if you're a little like me, the prospect of the upcoming season is making me think about giving gifts and also, what they might look like when we gift them to our loved ones and friends.  

I thought that I could create some paper flowers- almost like a present corsage. It certainly would elevate a simple thoughtful gift!

I also had some leftover glass pieces from a chandelier (that my parents had thought I could make use of) to use with Tracy's lovely flower stamps (more on that later)!

I love the contrast of the bright florals against the backdrop of inexpensive black paper!

I wanted to use mainly Tracy Scott colours. Her Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic collection is a rich collection of colour and I wanted to show what two colourways could look like with one image. I was mostly thinking of Christmas, but to those of you who remain adverse to it at this time of year, I thought I'd do a brighter more summery version too!

These were going to be simple striking dimensional flowers and I thought I'd try wiring up a paper flower to see how well it could work. 

Several of Tracy's colours are translucent, and for the centre of the wired flower I was using Ochre and even though it's a translucent paint, it still made sense to paint circles and then stamp over the top so the paint didn't dull the crispness of the images.

Wiring was simpler than I'd imagined. Using Smoothy Heavyweight cardstock, I stamped and painted part of the flower. Add the wires next and glue to the reverse.

Then just adhere some plain cardstock to the reverse of the image, covering the wires and trim around it.

I also painted the reverse of the flower and the edges so the white didn't show when I was bending the petals.

Most of the rest of the putting together was pretty simple. I loved layering up the flower, adding the wired part on foam pads and another centre on foam pads too.

I'm not sure why I thought I'd need so many leaves, but it's always simpler to lay down lots of paint and stamp the image over the top, then trim out. I had had an idea to have a pleated paper wrapping and insert leaves into the folds, but it looked too busy in the end.

I wanted to keep the wrapping as simple as possible. I had ordered some striped red and white ribbon, but it didn't arrive on time, so I thought I'd add some stencilled details to ground the Christmas flower on & used my favourite stencil PS021.

With a little more painting and colouring, I've ended up with a trio of interestingly wrapped gifts and the fact that I have 3 presents already wrapped for Christmas makes me the most organised I've ever been (but it sadly finishes there!!).

The dimension works so well for this beautiful flower- and the stamp set has a gorgeous corner spray plus some other smaller blooms.

This smaller set of flower buds and leaves works just so perfectly when you glue them into a circle to create a wreath. The letters (which works in lieu of a tag) is from the EGL16 set.

What of the leftover chandelier? The lovely angular nature with the tiny holes lends itself perfectly to a structural earring....

They have a lovely weight to them. Simply add some glue to the back of the chandelier part, stick on the stamped and coloured image and then leave to dry. Once it's dry, trim the edges close to the edge of the glass and then paint the reverse so if it spins around, it's not blank white cardstock showing.

I did enjoy creating these and with some prettier brighter paper, these gifts could look amazing. Add some layered stamped paper to wrap them in and you'd have a totally unique wrapping that your recipient could frame afterwards!

I think these would also work well with tags. The corner spray in the TS097 set would be the perfect image for a tag. I hope that you'll enjoy getting organised for whatever season you're preparing for and maybe give your presents a little glow-up whilst you're at it !

See you soon,

Keren

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