Pocket Shrine "Seth-style" with SA {by Ann Barnes}

Hello everyone, Ann here with you today sharing a folded "Seth-style" pocket shrine using the newest Seth Apter Stamp Release for PaperArtsy. 

I was thrilled to receive the three new Seth Apter stamps from PA HQ. Seth's designs never disappoint; and these newest stamps are some of my favorites! It's definitely worth checking out Seth's PaperArtsy Release Blog created for these new sets, it offers insight into the designs as well as inspiration from the designer himself!

Seth's stamp designs are so perfect for incorporating into backgrounds and creating mixed media abstract art. For this project I wanted to create something meaningful that allowed a few of the designs to become focal points. I decided to make a pocket shrine, combining my love for religious art with Seth's unique grungy, layered style. This is a special piece that can be used for prayer or contemplation. I drew color inspiration from the image of Mary, choosing PaperArtsy Fresco  Chalk Acrylic in Castleton (FF231), Admiral (FF233), Tomato (FF229), Buff (FF96), and Gold Rush (FF204).

Using images stamped onto PaperArtsy Printed Tissue - Blank (PT10), I was able to figure out the shrine sizing. I cut the shrine shape from a piece of primed canvas. Working on the outside surface, I began to add layers of paint first with a brayer, and then with a chip brush.

I started with a layer of Buff (FF96) then built up layers with the colors, each time brushing more Buff on top to create a muted and worn look. Partially stamping different images randomly onto the surface added texture. I stamped in Tomato (FF229) along the fold locations to create a binding appearance. I love how this looks when the shrine is folded.

The interplay of this lined image atop the canvas texture gives the surface a linen appearance. It's a good idea to put the stamps into water after using them with paint, they are much easier to clean.

As soon as I saw the frame image in Seth Apter Set 53 (SA053), I knew it would be amazing in 3D. Stamping into air dry clay allows you to create a relief of the image.

I rolled out the clay onto my craft surface. I kept the thickness to about 1/8". The thicker the slab you create, the longer it will take to dry. Also note that if it is very thin, it will be extremely fragile. Stamp directly into the clay with consistent pressure. (Note: spritz the stamp with water before stamping for easier release after impression.)

You can make various versions of the frame by cutting out different sections. The central opening can be removed or remain intact; while the outside can be decorative or square. There are many variations you can try. Adding color to the raised edges or within the recessed areas allows the design to stand out visually.

Once you select the frame style you desire, the rough edges are easily cleaned up with a small piece of extra fine sandpaper or by using a craft knife to scrape away any excess.

When the pocket shrine is unfolded, the beautiful interior is revealed. I chose the mandala style stamp image to balance the central framed piece. I stamped the image with Ranger Archival Ink in Watering Can onto separate papers and allowed it to dry. I colored the image using watercolor paints, then set it aside to dry.

 

I next worked on creating the main background for the interior of the shrine. I painted the entire surface of the canvas with Castleton (FF231). This color complements the watercolored images as well as the framed Madonna. Using a hardened paintbrush, I added streaks of Buff (FF96). This created a textured effect adding interest while also softening the appearance. The patterned areas were created using the repeating diamond shape stamp, and gold embossing powder. This surface makes me think of a wallpaper design.

With the main interior background complete I wanted to focus on the pocket. This is where the outside surface becomes an interior surface. To close the edges securely, I stamped some twill with the tread-like stamp. The twill ribbon was narrower than the stamp, which allowed me to create a unique pattern. I secured this around the right and left sides of the pocket with glue.

I wanted to add a special detail to the top edge of the pocket. This was created by stamping and embossing the DNA-like pattern onto a piece of paper then fussy cutting around the design to create a unique "Ric Rac" piece. This piece was trimmed to the correct length and attached to the pocket just below the red stamped edge.

I stamped out the bubble letter phrases onto paper with Ranger Archival Ink in Cobalt. Then using a small circle punch, I punched out the circled letters to form the word MARIA. These were glued in place along the base of the pocket.

When the two watercolor panels were dry, I added gold details with a metallic pen as well as some gemstones to embellish. I then attached them to each side panel with French knot stitches at all four corners.

I want to make the outside closure flap very special. To do this, I emboss the radial circular stamp in gold. Red stitches follow some of the rays upwards accentuating the design and mimicking the attached flaming heart Milagros.

On the inside of the flap, I added pieces of thread to balance the stitched threads and glued an accent piece at the center.

I love how the different patterns interact, can you spot at least 6 different stamps in the detail image above?

The frames I created are truly beautiful. I am looking forward to using the extras in different projects.

The connections between the "DNA strands" created the perfect spot to attach additional Milagros.

Here is a close up view of the stamped twill used to secure the pocket sides.

I made a few cards that can be tucked into the pocket, for a prayer or special intention. I love the way that the designs look embossed in gold and colored with watercolors.

I love the way this turned out. I have so many ideas for using these new stamp sets from PaperArtsy, and look forward to sharing more! I can imagine creating a pocket shrine to hold a treasured coin or good luck piece to carry with you. I think I might try my hand at making some of the "bits" Seth shares on the blog. There are so many possibilities! If you are interested in grabbing any of the newest stamp sets, there is a list of stockists on the PaperArtsy site where you can find one that's located in your area. Hopefully you are inspired to get creative.

I'm so happy you stopped by,  Ann xx

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Art Panels with NEW Alison Bomber products {by Amanda Pink}

Hi everyone, nice to be back with you again

Amanda Pink (p1nkart)  here with you today.

This year on the blog, we have free reign to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product range and for this post I've had the priviledge of exploring Alison Bombers fabulous new release products launched just last week.  

So today I'll be sharing with you not 1 but 2 projects that I made with some of the products from Alison's new release. The project's differ in style but do have some similarities as I was keen to play around n flex the versatility of the stamps and stencil I used. I certainly haven't exhausted either the stamps or the stencils potential; merely touched the surface and only done so staying true to my own creative styles which tend to vary between bold colourful and graphic to more muted/ neutral, distressed, grungy, painty layers.

With this being a '2 in 1' post by default it's a long post as lots to share so given that let's not hesitate in making a start. 

Project 1

The inspiration for this project came about while I was trial stamping the 'front facing' flower on Alison's stampset 51 (EAB 51). Without any forethought or intention I stamped the flower out in a grid like format on a piece of copier paper.  It was the 'visual' of seeing the bold flower image repetitively stamped in this way that led me to think of some of Andy Warhol's iconic pop art ('Marilyn Monroe', Campbells Soup etc) and ultimately spark the creative idea for this project. 

Please don't let the mention of Andy Warhol lull you into thinking it's a complicated project to make. I can assure you it isn't, nor do I have the talent of Andy Warhol so that's extra reassurance. :). It is in fact what I would consider to be a 'one size fits all' project suitable for beginners through to more seasoned crafters. 

 

There are 3 new stamp sets  (EAB51, EAB52, EAB53) and 3 new stencils (PS486, PS487, PS488) in Alison's new release and as I mentioned at the start they really are fabulous.  

If you haven't already be sure to stop by Alison's launch blog post (here) as she chats about the new release products, the inspiration behind the designs and also shares a plethora of gorgeous samples she's made too. 

For both the projects I'm sharing today I primarily worked with Alison's stampset 51(EAB51) and a couple of the new stencils by Alison (PS486, PS488). 

I wanted some bold colours for this project so went with what I've come to learn are known as the 'psychological' primary colours so picked out a Red, Yellow, Green and Blue PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic -Tomato (FF229), Sunshine (FF223), Granny Smith (FF108), Baltic Blue (FF07). 

To enrich the colour's I'd chosen I added some PaperArtsy Mattints into the mix in similar hues to the chosen PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Ladybug (MT12), Acid (MT14), Mojito (MT13), River Deep (MT11).

Aswell as my go to Tsukineko Versafine ( Black Onyx) ink thats always on hand I knew I'd need some coloured inks so rounded up some Ranger Industries- Distress Archival inks too. 

To begin I cut 4 panels of PaperArtsy Smoothy to size, painting each with one of the PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic colours. One or two coats was enough to give a a full colour coverage for the opaque / semi opaque colours (Granny Smith (FF108), Sunshine (FF223), Baltic Blue (FF07)) but with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic -Tomato (FF229) being translucent a few more coats were necessary.

For a bit more depth of colour I applied a top coat of PaperArtsy Mattint's in similar colours to the paints: River Deep(MT11), Ladybug(MT12), Mojito (MT13), Acid (MT14). 

Next some detail stamping.

I thought the text stamp from Alison's stampset 51 (EAB51) was simple/ neutral enough to suit the project and not dominate, even more so when stamped in a tone on tone way with Ranger Industries - distress ink ( Fired brick, Fossilized Amber, Rustic Wilderness , Prize Ribbon).

The fine detail and precision of the letters/ words of the stamp are really quite remarkable!  I had to stop and 'take a moment'!  

So just some painting and stamping and the painted panels are all finished.

Time now to focus on the flowers.

Below you can see the grid like way in which I stamped out the flowers that sparked my inspiration and idea for this project.

The Cosmos flower is from Alisons stampset 51 (EAB 51) stamped with Tsukineko - Versafine (Onyx Black) ink on copier paper. 

I wanted to keep the flowers primarily white adding only subtle colour at the centre . I thought that would help play to the graphic style of the project. So the PaperArtsy Mattints I used on the 4 panels were my medium of choice to paint the flowers starting with PaperArtsy Mattints - River Deep (MT11).

I then added some fine blue accent lines using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Baltic Blue (FF07). 

The centres of the Cosmos flowers were dotted with a black Sharpie pen.

Before adding a few white highlights with a white Posca pen. 

When all the flowers were painted I was as good as ready to start bringing everything together but not before I stamped and embossed one of the ephemera stamps from Alison's stamp set 51 (EAB51). 

I wasn't sure if I'd use it or not but thought it would be handy to have 'ready made' just in case. 

Fast forward through the assembly and here is my finished 'Pop Art' inspired Cosmos Panel.

I went with a red, yellow, green, blue layout and after some auditioning with what colour flower to put on what colour panel I finally settled on diagonal opposites. So as you can see blue Cosmos on red panel and vice versa, green Cosmos on yellow panel and vice versa.

A close up of the blue Cosmos on the red panel

The black embossed ephemera placed in the centre of the panel turned out to be an ideal finishing touch.

This was a fun, quick and easy project to make and I realised during the creative process and when finished the potential it has for many variations. Here's a few alternative ideas that I rustled up to share with you.

The panels would make lovely individual pieces of art which could be used for cards, notelets or hung/ displayed as wall art/ home decor. 

Another idea would be to make an alternative version of the large Art panel maybe something like the one in the photo below. 

For this I changed up the square panels for rectangles, painted them in the same way but rather than stamp them with inks I stencilled them with one of the new PaperArtsy stencil's by Alison (PS486) and PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics - Red Lipstick (FF160), Haystack (FF03), Lawn (FF156), Midnight (FF123). I switched up the Cosmos flower too for one of the other beauties from Alison's stampset 51 (EAB51).

Just a few extra creative ideas but I'm sure you'll be able to think of more. Maybe even try them out too!  

Thanks for staying with me so far. I hope you'll stick around as I move onto sharing my second project.

Project 2

For this project I've continued having fun exploring some of Alison Bombers new release stamps and stencils. 

Having worked with just one of the 4 Cosmos flowers from Alison's stampset 51 (EAB) so far I was keen to use them all so I I've made a 'Cosmos collection' of mixed media art panels. 

This time though I've turned the volume down on the colour and leaned towards more muted/ neutral colours and my distressed, grungy, painty layers style of creativity.

Stamps from all of Alison's new release stampsets 51(EAB51), 52(EAB52), 53 (EAB53) were used in this project, one of the new PaperArtsy stencils by Alison (PS488) too.

As mentioned above my colour choices were more neutral this time: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic -Stone (FF59), Cloud 9 (FF149), Concrete (FF63), Koala (FF141), Snowflake (FF15), Little Black Dress (FF19). I did pick out similar red and blue's though for the flowers: PaperArtsy Mattints - Ladybug (MT12), River Deep (MT11) and PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic- Baltic Blue (FF07), Mahogany (FF124).

Being the fan that I am of PaperArtsy Grunge Paste (GP190) I had to drop it in into the mix as I was keen to include some grungy texture in some way. 

My creativity began with the background panels. PaperArtsy Smoothy cut into 4 equally sized panels painted and brayered with the neutral PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic palette I'd chosen to use.

I allowed dry time between each application of colour to prevent the risk of 'mudding' though that time was literally seconds as PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are real fast dryers. 

Just like with Project 1 some detail stamping came next.

I used the same text stamp from Alison's stampset 51 (EAB51) too, stamping it with Ranger Industries-- Distress Archival Ink (Hickory Smoke).  

The pedicels of the Twisted Umbrels stamp from Alisons stampset 52 (EAB52) also provided some lovely touches of delicate broken detail. 

The pedicels were stamped randomly around the painty background in Ranger Industries - Distress Archival Ink ( Ground Espresso). 

I do like a stamp like this Twisted Umbrels stamp that allows you to use it in ways other than what it's design initially suggests!  

From stamping detail to stencil detail. I opted for the new PaperArtsy stencil by Alison (PS488) to create outline prints of the stencil design. 

 

To do this I rubbed Paper Artsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Cloud 9 (FF149) around the shapes of the stencil design. Some of the paint seeped through to the underside of the stencil. 

Keeping the stencil the same way up I then placed it on the background and applied pressure around the painty area both with my fingers and the heel of my hand.

After which I lifted the stencil for the reveal -an outline print of the shapes in the stencil design. Perfectly imperfect in places but I like that! 

Here's a close up of the stamping and stencilling detail..... 

.... and an overview of all 4 finished backgrounds.

Time now to focus on bits and pieces I'd be embellishing the backgrounds with starting with the Cosmos flowers. 

 

All 4 Cosmos flowers from Alison's stamp set 51 (EAB51) were stamped on watercolour card  and painted in the same way as the flowers in project 1 with just an additional delicate touch of colour to the ends of the flower petals. I painted them either blue or red using all but one of the PaperArtsy Mattints and PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics I'd used in Project 1. Wanting a darker red for the accents I changed out PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic  - Tomato (FF229) for Mahogany (FF124). PaperArtsy Mattints- Ash (MT10), Shadow (MT16) added a subtle touch of colour to the flower stems.  

A sheet of ephemera and words next.  All the stamps I stamped out are from all 3 of Alison's new stampsets 51, (EAB51), 52 (EAB52), 53 (EAB53).  A great collection to choose from and I didn't stamp them all so there's even more!!  

The stamped ephemera got me to thinking about other bits n pieces I could include in the final design of the art panels. This led me to reach for my pot of Paper Artsy Grunge Paste (GP190). Well, I did say I was keen to sneak in some grungy texture somewhere! ;). 

I made a couple of textured strips by stamping the text stamp from Alison's stampset 51(EAB51) into PaperArtsy Grunge Paste (GP190). 

Conscious this is already a long post I hope you won't mind if I leave a few links here and here to posts I've shared previously that have 'how to's' / info/ hints and tips etc about stamping into PaperArtsy Grunge. It's also worth doing a search on the blog as alot of the PaperArtsy bloggers/ designers have shared too. 

It also led me to make some washi tape! 

I'd recently acquired a few rolls of microporous tape and had set them to one side with the intention to use in my creativity at some point. So out came one of the rolls and with the text stamp already sat on my desk seeming like it was asking to be used I brought the two together to make washi.  

Keeping in mind the colour palette of my project so far and the tape potentially being used as an accent element I painted it with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Little Black Dress (FF19). A couple of coats were needed due to the tape having porous properties. Once dry I repeat stamped the text stamp with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic -Snowflake (FF15).

Yet again I was as impressed with the text stamped in PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics as I was when stamped with inks!  

(just a gentle reminder to always clean your stamps immediately when using them with paint or grunge paste)

 At this point I felt I pretty much had everything to start bringing the project together.

Here are my finished 'Cosmos Collection' of mixed media Art Panels. 

A few close ups of the flowers

The seemingly bolder Cosmos flowers were featured on their own.

While the thinner stemmed Cosmos flowers were featured in pairs.

With the fronds of these flowers being very delicate and fine I had little choice but to cut them free. Still beautiful flowers. nonetheless.

The strip of numbers and par avion ephemera found their place on each of the 4 panels. 

As did some of the text tape and stamped grunge paste strip, serving as 'groundings' for the flowers.

The final addition being a word for each panel: Create, Change, Timeless, Wander.

Just like I did with project 1, I couldn't help making a variation of this project too so here's a couple of quick ATC's. The backgrounds are the same apart from a change of stencil to PaperArtsy stencil by Alison (PS486) and the leaf stamp from Alison's stamp set 53 (EAB53) steps in instead of the Cosmos flowers as the focal.

Now that IS a wrap on a lot of creativity and a super long post sharing the fun I had with some of Alison's new stamps and stencils. They really are fabulous, versatile designs that offer endless hours of creativity.  

Thanks PaperArtsy and Alison for the opportunity and thanks to all of you who popped by today.  I hope there maybe something that I've shared that's sparked an idea that you can take away and use your own creativity way. 

Have a lovely creative week 

Amanda 

x

 

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