2021: PaperArtsy - A Year in Review {Topics 13 to 15}

  

Hello again from PaperArtsy HQ,

Here we are at our final post for the year. I hope you have enjoyed taking a look back at some of the blog highlights with us. It's amazing the variety of ideas that we have shared over the past year, and of course, we will be back with many more next year too!

As we round off the year, I would just like to offer a heartfelt thanks to all our bloggers, past and present, (and future) ! The projects they create for us, and of course for you, are always absolutely superb, we cannot thank them enough for their attention to detail and willingness to share their tricks, tips and creative secrets with you all.

To our designers who go from strength to strength, you are such a fun team, all so supportive of each other, and an absolute joy to work with! I know you all have your individual quirks, and work differently and that is why you are all so unique! We have missed seeing you all face to face at the trade shows, and look forward to spending time again hopefully in the not too distant future!

 

To our retailers around the world who have pulled out all the stops to offer classes, both online and face to face and who regularly order so that you have access to our brand in all your corners of the world... thank you for your friendship, support, feedback and encouragement, and especially your patience as we have adjusted to life in France and all the new systems we are still coming to grips with!

 

And to the lovely staff here at PA HQ, we thank you too for always picking orders accurately and shipping fast so that people don't have to wait too long for anything! I love how you are always thinking on your feet and make suggestions on how we can all improve and be more efficient. You guys have been so patient as we continue to try to get things set up in the new PAHQ spaces. Oh and also for the fun Friday after-work gin tastings!

To those of you who follow the blog, thank you for all your comments, we appreciate them all, it is so nice to know that there are people out there reading and following along, and that you find this blog a valuable tool and source of crafty inspiration!

So lets talk about today's topics we are remembering! We have picks from Topics 13: Tiny (News) Print, Topic 14:Mash Up (with LPC, EGL, EEV and EAB) and last of all Topic 15: Journaling Gratitude. These have all been beautifully written,and joyful ideas as we have come to the end of the year! Lets take a look back.

Leandra 

Topic 13 : Tiny (News) Print

Text and letters play a crucial part in creation, from titles and describing, to expressing what images cannot, or perhaps to play a role as the visual texture of a piece. Topics linked to writing, typography and letters are recurrent on the PaperArtsy Blog. This time we wanted to put a big focus on tiny letters. Newsprint is the obvious example but encyclopedias, telephone books (now a vintage memory), medication spec sheets or travel guides are also good candidates, as well as lots of stamps! Our bloggers run with the idea, sneaking snippets of text in their backgrounds, putting emotion in their sentiments, or creating embellishments out of printed pages. 

My first pick is this amazing vintage spool book by Jennie Atkinson. As she explains in her original blog post, this was not her initial plan but sometimes you have to go where your muse takes you. Tiny text is everywhere, from quotes to subtle stamping on the fabric. Yes, that text on the fabric looks part of the design but she actually added it to the pre-printed design! I love how all the elements are pulled together by the repeated use of limited colours.

And I hope you didn't miss Lynn Good's bright bouquet, a riot of colour in her art journal.The tiny letters are obvious here, busy filling the background. As Helen also shares in her original blog post, mixing different dictionaries, with a range of fonts, sizes and colours, is a fantastic idea to create easy and interesting backgrounds.The contrast between the subdued text and the vibrant flowers, aided by subtle shadowing, makes for a truly striking piece.

I adored how Jenny Marples took Seth Apter's rather abstract stamps, saw their architectural inspiration and translated it into a completely representative scene, full of texture and depth. The tiny print is quite discrete here, but her original blog post shows in detail how she transformed a text stamp into the stone wall. Genius! A real lesson in how to look at stamps differently and discover the other images hidden within.

Topic 14 : Mash Up with LPC, EGL, EEV and EAB

The end of the year comes near and with it the third and final of our Mash-Up topics. This time the participants are: Lynne Perrella, the original queen of collage, with her intricate characters, Gwen Lafleur, with her intricate and ethnical patterns, Ellen Vargo, with geometrics bold and delicate, and Alison Bomber, with inspiring words. As somewhat expected with this selection, the Lynne Perrella stamps often provided the focal people but it is always amazing to see how differently our bloggers are able to interpret the same stamps. Be it with colour, technique or composition, they beautifully merge together each with their own style.

First up is Alison Bomber with this magnificent wintery piece. I love how she looked past the first most obvious use for Gwen's and Ellen's stamps and translates them into crystals and snowflakes for a very atmospheric set-up. The Ice Queen  and King obviously come forward as the focal point but they are still perfectly integrated. Alison's original blog post explains all her process and is a wealth of inspiration and tricks for subtle texture and details.

Even with an LPC lady as the main image, Etsuko Noguchi truly showcased Ellen's stamps in this wall hanging. I love the association of the ghostly vintage character and the modern colourful background. I feel it really portrays the idea of an old soul lost in the current world. In her original blog post, Etsuko shares her technical inspiration for this piece and details her creation of the masterboard that becomes her background, quite the transformation!

Nikki Acton experimented with vellum and a royal colour palette, gold and purple! How she has used only parts of the stamps is so interesting, revealing new details and creating new combinations. I also love the text peaking through the face: is it a hint of their thoughts? Her original blog post is a fascinating look at how inspiration flows, how sometimes only one little idea drives a project, which then seems to advance almost by itself.

Topic 15 : Journaling Gratitude

The end of the year is approaching fast... This is our last topic! As tradition dictates, it is the time to reflect back on another strange year. Lots of crafters explain how creating helps them express, process and share their feelings, and provides a bit of balance in their life, making things more manageable. In these isolated and anxiety-inducing times, we should not forget the good things and be grateful for the small rays of sunshine or unanticipated joyful moments. We hoped this topic to be an occasion for the community to share tips for journaling, memories of the year and inspiration for positivity.

Autumn Clark made her journal from junk materials and leftovers from the year's projects, a great way of doing her year in review and expressing her hopes for the future. I love her use of the hands and rope, so clever and innovative! In her original blog post, she shares all her inspiration and tricks for this journal, as well as two other finished spreads. Her gel printed backgrounds are full of interest, making the pages easier to fill, battling blank-page anxiety. 

She might not be a regular journaler but Helen Chilton still wanted to celebrate positivity and did so in a heartwarming riot of colours and texture. The mix of Infusions and paints create so much variation and surprise combinations. I love how the colours swirl and mix within the images, revealing details and creating depth. Helen's techniques and process, detailed in her original blog post, are very intuitive and playful and could absolutely used in a journal.

Keren Baker focused on future gratitude and made this journal to practice thinking positively in the new year. What a great idea! She also ventured out of her comfort zone to try and paint a marble effect. Her experiment is wonderfully documented in her original blog post and the result is incredibly accurate! I love how it contrasts with the main colour of pinkish-red, which also makes an appearance on the inside pages for a soft cohesive look.

Thank you for joining us again today.

In 2022 we are adding a handful of newbies to the team, something we have not done for a few years, so we are very excited to be sharing with you who they are over the next week or so on our instagram @paperartsy . Wishing you a restful holiday season, and here's to 2022 being a key turning point for us all. Warm wishes to you all

 Leandra and the team at PaperArtsy 

2021 Topic 13: Tiny (News) Print with EKC {by Lynn Good}

 2021 Topic 13: Tiny (News) Print

It's not always obvious how people have created their art, so I love to read the process behind adding colour and texture. Lynn uses different text (both size, fonts and colour of book pages) and it really draws your eye into the vibrant piece and is a great technique to tuck away in your memory.
~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Lynn with you today, and I'm here to share my interpretation of the topic Tiny (News) Print.

This is one of my favourite ways to create a background whether it be on canvas, in my art journal or even making cards. Each time it comes out a little different depending on the paper you use.

I first start by ripping up dictionary paper (this is my tiny (news) print!) I adhered it to the page using matte medium, covering the entire art journal page with the papers.

I then randomly painted the following colours onto a 12x12 Paper Artsy Super Smooth Heavy cardstock : Tangerine Twist, Zesty Zing, Bubble Gum, Dirty Lime and Red Lipstick.  Once dry I placed it into the misti so I could stamp the flowers.

 

   

I used Stamp EKC48 by Kay Carley.  I like to stamp in the Misti stamping platform as you can re-stamp the image if it isn't clear enough.

I then fussy cut them all out!

At this stage I wanted to make the colours pop and used Prismacolour pencils over the top.

I then adhered them to the page using matte medium

I used a Stabillo All pencil to highlight and add a textured look to some of the paper joins as well as a shadow around the flowers.  I stamped some twigs coming up from the pot and round the layout.  I have added some white paint pen to the twigs.  I used a quote from stamp set EKC44 - "Its your time to bloom".  

                                                       

Once everything was dry I added some gel pens and glitter glue to the flowers - everything looks better with a bit of bling!!!

Here are some close up photos.

 

I hope you have been able to follow the process of making this page and give it a go yourself. I love the texture this page has with the dictionary pages, cut out flowers and glitter.

Lynn xx 

2021 Topic 13: Tiny (News) Print with ZA {by Tracy Springer}

    2021 Topic 13: Tiny (News) Print

When we start with one idea, it often springboards to another one and Tracey began with the idea of a set of ATCs and ended up with.. well I won't spoil it! Check out her beautiful vintage typewriter and her clever idea for adding tiny text to painted stencilled panels.

Keren.

Hi everyone, Tracey Springer here with you today to share my version of Tiny ‘news’ Print. I knew right from the start that I wanted to do ATC’s with this topic so I rummaged (incredibly skilled at this, lol) through my stamps looking for what to use. I decided that there are a lot of little birds in these sets they may get overlooked for the bigger characters, so I challenged myself to use them. I picked out 2 sets of Elena’s stamps (Zinski Art) and 2 sets of Jo’s stamps (JOFY).

I already had quite a few off-cut gel-printed backgrounds that I could use up for these, but also had an idea to play with this little stencil and these really fresh Fresco colors. I have decided that I love to use my paints like I would inks, and they blend so beautifully!

I chose the cute little guy from JOFY15 to use on my first ATC. I coloured him with Copic markers and also a bit of the tree branch, leaves and little flowers. I die cut the clouds from an offcut background that had blues in it, and stamped a newsprint stamp on them. I used the ‘tweet tweet’ because I love really busy, collaged backgrounds. I stamped the newsprint stamp on the bird as well; I quite liked it, but was just too busy for the finished card – and that’s coming from me who loves crazy, over the top lol! I added a few flicks of pink ink and  I always finish with a double pen line around as a border and a thick surround of Gesso.

The next one I picked was one of the lovebirds from JOFY JM20, and I had an idea to stamp multiple of the same bird on the same colour background and then have one that stood out. I chose my fav Fresco colour Mustard Pickle (FF148) and sponged that on to a piece of book paper I had, and stamped multiple of the lovebird and cut them out. I coloured one quite boldly with my Copics and raised him up on foam tape (I once again tried stamping him with a newsprint stamp but changed my mind later on and covered him with a plain bird). I used my trusty typewriter (isn’t it gorgeous!) to type the wording, a pen border, some tied baker’s twine and gesso to finish.

 

 

The last 2 ATC’s were using the fabulous little birds from the Elena Zinski set’s ZA07 and ZA08. I had random strips of offcuts for the backgrounds, clouds, CUTE flowers, my go-to background script stamp of JOFY’s (JOFY89) and this very fitting quote stamp from Eclectica Emma Godfrey (EEG24) Everything got a heavy surround of Gesso to frame them.

And then….what are cute ATC’s if you don’t have anything to keep them in…I felt a little book coming on LOL!  A couple of pieces of craft board, another random little gelli print background, book page paper, this funky bird from Elena Zinski mini’s (ZN22) , an ATC stamp (MN21), typewriter quote and finally I had to use the ‘Handle with care’ stamp from the set by Eclectica Seth Apter (ESA19). I coated it all with Mod Podge which strengthens and protects the cover from wear and tear, and then added a whole pile of ribbons and tassels. I used the disc system to bind as it enables you to add and remove pages easily (I used cut down clear plastic sleeves to hold the cards).

 

This has been such a fun project to work on….I'm not sure if I met the topic entirely but the main thing is to have fun…zone out and de-stress! Thanks for coming on this journey with me! 

Tracey xx

Instagram: @tracey_springer