2023 Topic 6 : Tracy Scott Designer Focus {by Amanda Pink}

Hi everyone

Amanda Pink (p1nkart) here with you today.

It's sooo good to be back creating after a few unexpected life curve-balls at the start of the year prompted a short hiatus! Back in my 'happy' place I've been having lots of creative fun making a project for our 'Tracy Scott' focused topic and quarterly 'Texture' theme.

As we all know Tracy is known for her love and use of bold, bright colours in her creativity.  Although in more recent years I have found myself creating with colour (even daring to go bold and bright at times) I can't deny I'm a 'grungy girl' at heart, so I thought I'd stay 'true to me' and  create a grungy, textural mixed media art block using some of Tracy's detail stamps, a few of her stencil designs and some of the PaperArtsy mediums.

Painty layers, plenty of PaperArtsy Grunge Paste stamping/ stencilling, some cracking and rusting were all involved in the making of my art block but I have to say, in this instance, for this particular project it was the results of the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste stamped with some of Tracy Scott's detail stamps that really impressed and excited me as they were really something special! Hope you will agree.

Before making a start with my creativity I gathered together some of the products I thought I might use. I knew (knowing me) some may get switched out or be left unused but better to have them there in sight... just in case. 

 

A heart as a focal had been an idea from the get-go so PaperArtsy Stencil 054 by Tracy Scott (PS054) would be ideal. I added a few large PaperArtsy Stencils by Tracy Scott (PS224), (PS234) into the mix too. 

Tracy's stamp set 41 (TS041) would give me plenty of detail stamps to choose from and her mini stamps EM57, now rebranded/recoded on her own mini index sheets TSM01 (TSM01) and EM60 (TSM04) were possibles too.

Although I wasn't going bold and bright with my colours I did want to use some of Tracy's PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics colours so picked out 3 that I thought would work well together and lend themselves to being 'grunged' up in one way or another: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics- Pea Coat (FF27), Deep Sea (FF198), Butternut (FF02). This colour combo for whatever reason often makes me think of 'rust' so I included some PaperArtsy Rusting Powder as well as some PaperArtsy Grunge Paste (a definite) and PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze (FF022) too.

I have to admit as eager as I was to get creative I was slow to make the first mark on the card. Whether it was to do with me doubting myself and my ability to create having had a length of  time away from the creative table or whether it was the 'white fright' of the blank card or indeed a combination of both I'm not sure??

I thought about how I could work through this especially making that first mark! Maybe if I reduced the size of the card that would help? It most certainly did! So I guess this was where the overall design of my background was realised.

I'd create 9 small 'tiles' that I would then piece together to make a grid design.

By working with smaller pieces of card this would also enable me to make some headway into all the 'off cuts' of card I've accumulated over the years and keep neglecting to use.

The 'offcuts' were cut to twinchie size (2x2 inch) so 9 would piece together to fit a 6x6 panel. I chose the small dotted stamp and line stamp from Tracy Scott's stamp set 41(TS041) to use.  My thinking being that their designs would work well stamped into PaperArtsy Grunge Paste, that they were the right size to not overwhelm or be lost on the size of the 'tiles' and would ultimately create a pleasing pattern when pieced together.

I covered the tiles quite generously with PaperArtsy Grunge Paste using a palette knife. Although there are 3 in the photo below I did tend to work 1 at a time so the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste didn't dry out too much as that would have make it harder to achieve a good stamped impression.

Now I don't proclaim to be any great expert when it comes to the technique of stamping with  PaperArtsy Grunge Paste but I am a little more practised than I used to be and through trial and error (plenty of those) I have found a few things have helped me to achieve good results!

They are:

• Don't scrimp or be over zealous with the application of PaperArtsy Grunge Paste. Aim for a good coverage that has some depth.
• Let the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste sit for a few minutes or so before stamping into it.  
• Very, very lightly spritz the stamp and the PaperArtsy GrungePaste applied to the substrate with a bit of water before stamping. I find spritzing from a distance can help control the amount of water released.
• Stamp with the aid of an acrylic block as the block allows you to firmly press the stamp into the paste/ apply a bit more pressure than if you were to stamp without it.
• Fine detail stamps work better than bold, as they won't displace too much paste, giving a nice sharp result.

I'd love for you to share any hints or tips you may have too. Always happy to learn and improve :)

I'll slip in a quick reminder here too!

Always clean your stamps after each stamping with PaperArtsy Grunge Paste to get rid of any debris that may fancy hanging around! It is a water based, clay like product, and so it will dissolve in water nicely - this is not a difficult clean up.

After I'd stamped 5 of the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste 'tiles' with Tracy Scott's small dotted stamp I repeated the process on the remaining 4 'tiles' with her line stamp.

Pleased with how they turned out I was keen to get them pieced together, painted n 'grunged' up even more!

TIP: Did you know Grunge Paste is sandable? By sanding the tile edges if needed, it was easy to butt the tiles right up nice and snugly next to each other.

After adhering the tiles to a panel of PaperArtsy Smoothy in an alternating pattern I coloured them with two of Tracy Scott's PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Pea Coat (FF27), Deep Sea (FF198). I love these colours together but then I may be biased being a big fan of blue in all its guises.

Using stencil brushes to apply the paint enabled me to get the paint into the depressions made by the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste stamping. I didn't think too much about what colour went where; it was very much a case of following my muse at the time.

Now, my next idea/ experiment was to crackle some of the painted PaperArtsy Grunge Paste stamped panel. I wasn't sure if it would be a success or not having never played around with a 'PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze (FF022)/ PaperArtsy Grunge Paste cocktail' before but felt I had nothing to lose and potentially everything to gain giving it go as it would certainly 'big up' the grungy texture if it worked.

PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze (FF22) is the type of glaze that is sandwiched between 2 contrasting PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics colours. The cracks develop from a reaction where the wet top coat cracks and shrinks as it dries on the underneath layer of already dry paint. 

I applied ther reactive glaze to one of the painted corners of the panel to start with. Once dry I needed to paint a contrasting top layer over the base colour. Now that proved to be near on impossible as the base colour was pretty much a mix and blend of the two colours  (PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Pea Coat (FF27), Deep Sea (FF198)) due to my loose and free application so I just had to do the best I could.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work as I couldn't see any cracking? Not exactly sure why but my creative hunch was that it was due to my inability to apply the contrasting colours on top of each other with exact precision (i.e. PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic- Deep Sea (FF198) on PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Coat- Pea Coat (FF27) and vice versa). Perhaps had I chosen a contrasting colour like white, it would have been more obvious of a contrast. Or it could be that I was not heavy handed enough with the top cost, in the online videos, the reccomendation is to apply the top coat once and very generously ...so don;t overwork it, layer it on heavily then wait. 

Of course, it may just be a case of PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze and PaperArtsy Grunge Paste not getting along with each other or that the glaze was struggling to work on the random raised areas of the textured surface. I guess I can't rule out the possibility either that the cracks may well have formed but they were just too small for the naked eye to see? One thing's for sure though, with my curiosity now peaked, I will definitely be giving it another go and experimenting/ exploring more.

(note from PaperArtsy - We have never tried Crackle Glaze over such fine texture before, but the glaze probably prefers a smooth surface. Once the glaze is dry, the top coat needs to be pretty thick for the cracks to form - it is literally the sensation of wet paint drying that triggers the chemical reaction, so if the paint is dry brushed, or sponged on, then you will not get cracks as the layer is not thick/ wet enough)

As I mentioned earlier, whenever I see/ work with this colour palette (or something similar) I often find myself thinking of 'rust'. So I guess it was inevitable my next step would be adding some rust effects to the panel.

PaperArtsy Rusting Powder is a 'magic' little pot of powder that is sprinkled over a wet medium/ adhesive and then activated by spritzing with vinegar/ lemon juice. You can just use water, but using a household acid speeds up the effect. It creates some fantastic rust effects on all kinds of substrates - even fabric!

I have played around with this powder before but only on occasion so would say I'm an 'enthusiastic novice' when it comes to using it.  I still have a lot to learn and a lot more experimenting to do.

 

Tim Holtz-Distress Collage Medium was my chosen adhesive as it dries clear and has good adhesion and I activated the PaperArtsy Rusting Powder with white vinegar decanted into a small spritz bottle. The activation takes time and I found that the rusting effects definitely became more 'rusty' with multiple spritzing's of the white vinegar, again over time. I think I 'hit the spritz' 3/4 maybe 5 times spaced throughout the day and left the panel overnight to thoroughly dry.

(TIP from PaperArtsy: you did great! Your instinct was bang on, you can't get rust unless the rusting powder is wet, so it does like to go from wet to dry over the course of a few hours, or even overnight. I tend to spritz and repeat throughout the morning or day until I get the colour of rusted patina, from Orange to deep brown that I prefer)

The powder and vinegar found its way into the peaks and troughs of the stamped PaperArtsy Grunge Paste and happily rusted those areas too. I liked how the rusting of the panel gave it a far more 'grungy' appearance than it had previously! You can make anything look old with this stuff!

Tracy's PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Butternut (FF02) was an ideal colour to use with the other colours to highlight/enhance the texture of the stamped Grunge Paste along with some light touches of metallic wax. My finger tip is pretty much always my 'go to' tool for jobs like this!

With the background panel now finished here's a few close ups focusing in on the stamped  PaperArtsy Grunge Paste  with Tracy's stamps, set 41.

Above the small dotted stamp, below the line stamp! The depth of the impression, the grunginess and texture definitely made me happy, especially those dots! :D 

My attention turned to creating a central panel. I wanted to keep this relatively plain and simple, lightly textured so it didn't 'fight' with all that was going on in the background.

I decided on a crackled panel.

I applied PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze (FF22) thinly over Deep Sea Fresco (FF198). Pea Coat (FF27) was the top coat applied with a sponge. Sponges application is thin and even producing small and round cracks. For bigger cracks, apply the paint more liberally.

Tracy Scott's Butternut Fresco again highlighted any raised texture.

Time now to make the focal element which was always going to be a textured heart. I knew I would create the heart itself with PaperArtsy Stencil by Tracy Scott (PS054) but I wasn't sure how I'd texture it??

After giving this some thought I decided to continue along similar creative lines as I had done for the background and use PaperArtsy Grunge Paste again with Tracy Scott stamps and  introduce one of her patterned stencils as well.

PaperArtsy Stencil by Tracy Scott (PS224) includes some lovely round designs and although I liked them all the one that (to me) looked like a 'funky sunshine' really caught my eye. So using another 'off cut' I stencilled the design with PaperArtsy Grunge Paste.

 

Before removing the stencil I stamped into the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste with Tracy Scott's mini stamp EM57 (now TSM01) to give it some detail and texture. With the stamp being a mini I had to stamp it a couple of times but with the design of the stamp being so random there was no worry about matching up. 

When dry, PaperArtsy Stencil by Tracy Scott (PS054), a sharp pencil and good scissors made easy work of drawing and cutting out the heart.

I could have worked the opposite way round - drawing and cutting out the heart first and then stencilling and stamping but I found doing it this way made it easier for me to get the centre of the 'funky sunshine' design in the middle of the heart.

My chosen colour palette came out again and used as before. PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic-Pea Coat and Deep Sea to colour, and Butternut to highlight.

I did add some rusting that you will see below.

Although I liked the heart I'd just made and thought it worked with the background I couldn't help wondering if an alternate may be better suited? Maybe a painty, stencilled heart? So I made another, just to see.

The second heart was quick to make (apart from the rusting). I used PaperArtsy Stencil PS054 again for the heart, the same PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylic colours, PaperArtsy Grunge Paste and PaperArtsy Rusting Powder that I'd been using throughout my creativity. The only thing I changed was the stencil I used to decorate the heart. This time I went with lines of the small circles that are on PaperArtsy Stencil by Tracy Scott (PS234) applying PaperArtsy Grunge Paste through them before rusting them and the edges of the heart with Paper Artsy Rusting Powder.

I did like how this heart turned out too but when I looked at the two hearts together I was now sure the first one I made was the one for this project as I felt it was more cohesive with the background. Worth checking though, and nothing lost as I now have a ready made grungy painty heart for another project !

At this point, after painting my art block with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - French Roast (FF32) I thought the sides of the block looked quite plain so rustled up some PaperArtsy Grunge Paste stamped strips to decorate.

I kept the colours and techniques I'd used so far the same but chose a different stamp from set 041 to stamp into the Grunge Paste. As I was working with thin strips, they only allowed me to stamp one row of the 12 dot stamp along the length multiple times but it was easy enough to do thanks to the design of the stamp. I may have gone a bit wonky at times but I was ok with that as it all adds to the grungy look and feel of the project.

Here are the strips in situ.

I also made a few pieces of 'faux' hardware with the help of the Grunge Paste and Rusting Powder and some of the circles on PaperArtsy Stencil by Tracy Scott (PS054).

They decorate the corners of the central panel and look like a bolt holding it all together.

I hadn't planned to add any words but a Tim Holtz - Ideology sticker had been hanging around my desk for the longest time so I thought I'd give it a place down the side of the central panel.

I'm sure some of you will relate when I tell you I'm a bit of a 'magpie' when it comes to collecting (and hoarding) rusty hardware, finds etc that I spot when I'm out and about. (I once dodged traffic to get into the central reservation of a busy road to retrieve some rusty wire - all in the name of art, of course!! ;0)  ... I call it my 'Street Swag' and it provided me with some great rusty embellishments for my art block.

A chunky rusty washer found its place in the centre of the heart.

You can see the rusting of the heart in these photos too.

A length of rusty metal with holes top and bottom sits behind the heart, serving as a platform to raise the heart from the central panel and give a touch more dimension to the focal area.

With the addition of the rusty bits 'n' pieces, my grungy art block was now ready to be displayed.

I have had great fun making this project and am pleased with how it turned out.

I really enjoyed engaging in the various creative processes even my failed attempt to crackle the background! It may not have worked out (this time) but I see it as a positive as I now have a 'take away' to explore further.

I was super impressed with the results of the PaperArtsy Grunge Paste stamping with some of Tracy Scott's detail stamps. Together they really worked their magic!

Like I said in the post I'm no expert when it comes to stamping with PaperArtsy Grunge Paste but I hope that from what you've seen and read today it may tempt/ inspire you to give it ago yourself, if you haven't all ready.

Wishing you all a fun creative week

Amanda

x

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2023 Topic 6 : Tracy Scott {by Mags Woodcock} with Tracy Scott stamps

Hi everyone

Mags here with you today.

I've been having fun lately exploring the theme and topics of this quarter's blog posts. I couldn't decide which topic to concentrate on, so in the end I incorporated them all: Mail Art, Tones of colours, Tracy stamps and texture of course!

Tracy Scott designs the most amazing stamps and stencils and I couldn't wait to combine those with my own grungy distressed style. Exploring the tinged topic was also on my list of things to try ... I love to mix tints, tones and shades of a colour in projects so quite often work in a fairly limited colour palette. Cerulean was the obvious colour choice to combine with my rusty textures and colours. 

The next decision was what type of project. As I enjoy sending and receiving art in the mail I decided to create a set of notecards with matching envelopes. The theme for this part of the year is texture. Well what can I say ! I am a texture junky/freak and just love adding it in my work. As I gathered my supplies to start work, I was very excited to combine lots of texture into the project: Rusting powder, Crunchy Waxed Kraft Paper, Fresco Finish Paints, along with the stamps and stencils by Tracy were going to be so fun.

I really enjoyed adding machine stitching to the waxed paper envelopes and using a centuries old technique to add texture. I love how the set of notecards have so much texture and many tiny details to explore, including adding colour to the stamped images with rust.

When I first started thinking about this project I had several ideas in mind. As it progressed some of these were abandoned and some developed further. I knew for certain that I wanted to use Rusting Powder on cotton rag paper. When combined with vinegar to activate it, the depth of rust is fabulously intense in some areas and subtle in others. 

Tracy's Fresco Finish Cerulean is a great contrast to the rust and also adds a pop of colour to the project. I chose to create the envelopes for the notecards from Crunchy Waxed Kraft paper as I know how easy it is to add texture to this in many ways.

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As I mentioned, I wanted to create the first layer of the notecards using cotton rag paper. It's easy to achieve a lovely textured rusty background by sprinkling Rusting Powder (RP45) onto the paper. I laid my paper panels in a deep plastic tray, dipped a fan brush into the Rusting powder and then tapped the brush over the paper to release the fine powder. I sprinkled on vinegar to activate the Rusting Powder and set aside, overnight in a well ventilated room.

While the rust on my cotton rag papers was developing I started creating the coloured papers onto which I would stamp my flowers and leaves. I wanted a variety of tints tones and shades and also some visual texture. With this in mind, I chose Heavy Cream (FF203), Elephant (FF64) and Little Black Dress (FF19) Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics to mix with my Cerulean (FF200) paint. I must admit I loved all the variations I achieved and got slightly carried away. 

I mixed varying amounts of the neutrals separately with the cerulean and applied them to heavy weight copy paper (160gsm). Once I had started the painting process I realised I could add more visual texture by dry brushing a lighter tint over a  shade for example. This then developed into painting rough circles with a variety of the colours I had created. I loved how the brush strokes added interest, so kept as many as possible showing.

 

Once all the paint was dry it was time to stamp the flowers and leaves. I decided to use a stamping platform and Ranger Archival ink (Jet Black) The circular paint layers lent themselves well to the flowers and the more linear dry brushing was a good fit for the leaves and smaller flowers. I chose Tracy's stamp sets TS029 and TS056, both of which had some large flowers and lots of leaves for creating a strong focal image on the notecards.

As I said earlier I may have got a little carried away ! I needed only a few stamped images, but I know there will be many occasions when these flowers and leaves will be perfect addition to a project. So the extras will always come in handy.

It was now time to return to the sheets of cotton rag paper which had turned our beautifully. I removed them from the plastic tray, brushed any loose rust powder back into the tray and set the papers aside for later. I wanted to harvest the rusty goodness in the plastic tray, so added a small amount of clean water. Using an old brush I loosened any dried on rust from the base and sides of the tray, this took a while but was worth the effort. I transferred the resulting rusty water to a small jar with a close fitting lid.

Using rusty water to add colour to stamped images is one of my favourite techniques. I started by using a palette and swatching the rust water onto plain paper, adding a little water to each section along with some of the rust. The more water, the paler the colour. Again I stamped the flowers and leaves from the stamp sets onto heavy copy paper, once dry I used the rust water to add colour and interest.

I think you will agree that once all the stamped and coloured images were fussy cut out they look lovely and a feast for the eyes. I was very pleased with my results and couldn't wait to move on to creating the envelope.

Now that I had the main elements for the notecards created and ready to go, I moved on to the envelopes. I had already decided I wanted to add lots of texture to these. The Crunchy Waxed Kraft Paper (WKPA5) looks fabulous when pressure embossed, but I also wanted to add stitching in some way. I created a prototype envelope and learnt quite a few things along the way.

Using a ball tool to add pressure embossing to the Crunchy Waxed Kraft paper was easy. I found the best results came from embossing on the reverse of the paper with a stencil for the template. I laid the paper on a soft stamping mat (a sheet of foam would be a good alternative) placed the stencil (PS226) on the top and used this as a guide to add the embossing and details to the leaves.

The next technique I wanted to try was something my mum has used on her handmade cards for years; Victorian pinwork. It is similar to Pergamano, but just slightly different. I pared the technique down slightly to a simpler version as it is normally quite ornate looking. I started by using the pricker on my craft tool, but found this wasn't very easy. I had some push pins on my desk and gave one of those a try, it was ideal, the right size hole and very easy to handle. Again this technique is best applied on the reverse of the paper to get the best effect. A tip to make things easier is, rest your hand on a wad of kitchen roll when embossing and pricking the paper, that way any jewellery and rings don't scratch the paper and leave a Mark.

I was happy with how the Waxed paper was looking but I also wanted a pop of colour to tie in with the notecard flowers. The Waxed paper takes Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics really well so I painted one half of the leaves with Tracy's Cerulean. A couple of thin coats gave a nice solid block of colour.

I wanted to add some details to the blank areas of the envelope, so I chose to stamp some mini circles using one of Tracy's mini stamps (TSM04) and Cerulean paint.

To add more texture still I decided to pressure emboss the centres of the circles I had stamped. There was just one problem, I couldn't see them from the reverse of the paper. So the solution was to emboss from the front, flip the paper over and then repeat from the back. Strangely enough that seemed to enhance the embossing even more and gave the raised dots an almost metallic gold look. Quite an unexpected bonus !

As I mentioned before, I wanted to add some stitching to the project, in particular the envelope. To contrast with the Cerulean paint I chose black sewing thread and stitched across the leaves. The pricked holes were great to sew into and made life so much easier. I tied the thread off at the back and added a tiny blob of PVA to stop it coming undone.

It was now time to stitch the envelopes around three sides. I had learnt that stitching with the back of the envelope facing me on the sewing machine gave a more textured look, a little similar to the Victorian pinwork idea. I had also learnt from my prototype that I needed to add another sheet of waxed Kraft paper behind the hand stitched sheet, otherwise the notecard flowers and leaves caught on the inside stitching. So I added the extra sheet and used a large zig zag stitch to seal the edges of the envelope. It helps to stop ruching of the paper if you stitch from the bottom of the paper to the top.

All that remained to do now was to punch a semi circle from the top of the envelope to make it easier to remove the notecard . I also glued the extra sheet of waxed paper to the front sheet with a tiny amount of strong PVA just at the top.

Now my envelope was finished I could go back to creating my notecards and adding more details.

Once I started to work on the notecard layers again I realised I wanted to incorporate some of the elements from  the envelopes, so creating a cohesive look to the two parts.

The mini circle stamp was the obvious choice, it added extra visual texture and another pop of the pure cerulean.

One of the techniques I use quite often with circular stamped images is to add a little shading to one side of the circle. This gives a slightly more dimensional look. It is very easy to do and gives great results. Using a soft pencil (5B) I drew a small line at one side of the circle and used a cotton bud to smudge out the graphite slightly.

Before assembling the notecards I wanted to add some details to the darker coloured flowers, this was easy using a Signo Uniball white gel pen. It just added a lighter pop to some of the flowers.

It was now time to bring everything together on the notecards. I spent quite a while deciding on combinations of colour and flowers. Eventually I created 3 completely different looking cards, but all combining the rusty goodness and cerulean. I mounted the cotton rag panels onto panels of kraft cardstock. PVA was a good choice for attaching all the leaves and flowers.

I love all the texture on the notecards and all the tiny details which make them so special. Hopefully the recipients will feel the same.

To finish the project off with a bit of bling I added some sequins in coordinating colours and black. I glued these onto the rusty backgrounds with gel medium.

Some of the rust coloured flowers needed a touch of the cerulean paint to lift them a little, as you can see here.

Once the stitching was completed on the cards I tied the loose threads off, leaving some short ends and tying others in a loose bow.

I loved creating these cards and envelopes, it was great getting to grips with stitching on a project, as this is something relatively new to me. I also learnt quite a bit about using the Crunchy Waxed Kraft Paper and how fabulous it is when embossed. 

I must say my mum was very pleased I had embraced one of her favourite techniques. The paint mixing was a joy and I have lots of leftover flowers and leaves to play with later. I must admit I love the rusty painted flowers and leaves and will definitely be combining those in art journal pages in the future. I have an idea for a project inside a shadow box frame using a combination of the flowers and possibly an Ombre type background. I hope you give the techniques a try and have some creative fun too.

Happy crafting! ......Mags 

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