PaperArtsy Blog Summary of Topics 1-3 {Curated by Leandra Franich)

Blog Summary: Transparent Art, Hearts, Wax Crayons

The week ahead is a time to reminisce as we look back on the topics this blog has explored during 2016. 

Tonight's curator is me, Leandra! In fact, I am curating a few of these posts over the next few nights they are so much fun. Often I am crazy busy for extended periods, and this is the perfect time for me to go back and properly remember, study and appreciate how talented our bloggers are.

I know my year has been the more challenging than I expected. 2015 was pretty stressy for us so I figured 2016 would be a doddle. Wrong! Breaking ties with NZ (we sold our house) was a wrench as we didn't really want to endure. All the the kids seemed to be going left right and centre over the country and inter-country as they settle into adulthood, be it a new school, new university, or a Gap year. The house was either loud or quiet, depending on who was home! I could not keep track of who was supposed to be where and when! Business-juggling seemed harder than usual. Lots going on, I guess we were growing but knowing when to add staff isn't easy. Then all the political turmoil with Brexit (and then Trump). I guess the unpredictable nature of 2016 has been quite an unsettling thing for us all in many ways. It there is one thing 2016 has been its unpredictable. I quite like the unexpected, so I think we just need to continue to be flexible as 2017 unfolds with all it has to offer!

Tonight I'm sharing my blog post picks from Topics 1-3: Transparent Art, Hearts and Wax Crayons. Grab a Christmas day treat, and enjoy!

Leandra 

Topic 1: Transparent Art

It does take a bit more planning when you work on a clear surface, be it the ink or colouring option you select, or just figuring out how to disguise the attachment method you will use! None of that seemed to phase our bloggers, and here are just a few highlights from that wonderful Topic in January.

My first pick is this amazing beauty by Keren Baker. A very poignant piece that brought to Keren's mind the tragedy in Paris of late 2015. Representing (in Keren's words) 'the beauty evidenced in the way people stood together amidst tragedy'. 

The simplicity of the piece, and the heartfelt sentiment hit straight to my heart. The horrific events in Paris were a night of fear for Mark and I. We watched the news in horror. We have a deep love for Paris and her people, we are fortunate to visit every year for a wonderful scrapbook show 'Version Scrap', and frequently have visited too on family trips.

However, our horror on that night went somewhat deeper. The week before Ella was sitting in the outdoor seats of the exact restaurant that was first hit. And the night of the attack Courtney was in Paris just along the road from that same area. Her group managed to get to their nearby hotel. It was an anxious night for us all as the horrific events unfolded. We all seem to see things more clearly after an event such as that. I think there are so many parallels in this gorgeous piece Keren made. I love it.

I hope you didn't miss Anneke's icy cards. There are lots of clear mediums out there, but glass bead gel is something super-special and I particularly loved this piece! Anneke has such a gift for layers of elegant simplicity!

I adored how Liesbeth made these 'jewels' with shrink plastic, check it out here .  

Not only was colouring from the reverse of a shiny surface a popular past-time in the transparent art fortnight, but the whole act of shrinking them just accented the depth to create amazing jewels. A gem of an idea...see what I did there!!

Topic 2 : Hearts

With such a broad topic, perhaps some of these ideas might help you along with valentines crafting? If not go back and take a look at the rest of the topic, I really wanted to show you everything! Space does not allow!!

I loved this canvas by Wanda. She kicked off the new topic with simple elegance. The flowers by Darcy sit perfectly on top of the textured background, and I love the pale heart in the centre, and that the flowers are red, not the heart. What a fantastic 'New Home' gift this would make! You can see the process here.

I adored The amazing details in this project by Chris Cresswell. Not only were the colours striking, but the textures, floating elements on wire, and sheer number of techniques she managed to fit into one project was mind boggling! What a masterclass!

Lucy Edmondson reminded us how Fresco Chalk paints stick to anything, even glass! I love how she  managed to emboss with gold INSIDE, yes INSIDE the bottle, and then she put paint on top for a fabulous contrast! It is great how painting the interior allows the exterior layer of glass to act as the perfect gloss top coat. And, shrink tags to embellish the bottle too!

Next up for something completely different! Karen Daniell treated us to a textile treat. Stamped and coloured fabric was sewn together patchwork style. After the pic below she added lace along the joins to separate the borders. It turned out fantastic! All with JoFY stamps.

Topic 3 : Wax Crayons

I knew this topic was going to be a pleaser, and lot of people were stuck on a wax kick for months after this!! It really is an enjoyable way to collage!. Get yourself a meltpot (yes they are still available), dip, scrape, layer, zap, job done! When you start to play with inclusions, colours, then the excitement just builds until you go wax crazy - and that's the best kind of crazy!

My first pick is this wood block by my buddie Lin Brown. She seems to master every craft she turns her hand to, and encaustic is yet another that she has all the gear for! I love the trapped layers, stencilling and copper embellishment above the door. Lin always seems to nail placement and composition so perfectly!.

Tracy Scott dripped, flicked and splattered wax like a posessed woman! 

Sue Carrington was stamping onto tissue and creating amazing layers along the way too. 

It is fun to look back on what our genius bloggers have shared with us over the course of a year. This year seems to have zapped by in a blink, but at least the blog remains as the perfect reference tool Don't forget to save the posts that float your boat on pinterest. No excuse now, you'll hit the New Year with a dozen ideas to crack on with!

Leandra 

2016 #1 Jewelled Card {by Liesbeth Fidder}

 2016 Topic 1: Transparent Art

Hi everyone Liesbeth here !

Tonight I'd like to share with you this evening with a post about transparent art.

I made a card using two different transparent techniques: stamping and painting onto a transparency sheet to make the card and stamping, painting and shrinking some shrink foil to make ,jewels'. The card can be sent with or without a cream-white card inside it. I used the wonderful Lynne Perrella stamps for the card, love them !

Step One:  Lightly sand a piece of transparency sheet (acetate) and stamp the ,leaded glass woman' (LPC033) on the other side with StazOn ink Jet black.

LPC033

Step Two: Paint the sanded side of the piece using Fresco Finish paints, every small area a different colour. I used Glass Blue ; Yellow submarine ; Beach hut and London bus, and Toffee for the woman's hair. Colour the eyes with a white gell pen.

Step Three: Sand a piece of Shrink Plastic- translucent, and stamp lots of gemstones, suns and ornaments on the other (not sanded) side. I used LPC004 ; LPC005 and LPC019 for this. 

LPC004

LPC005

LPC019

Step Four:  Paint the stamped images using the same four colours as above on the sanded side. Just a thin layer of paint will be enough. At the big ornament it's nice to use more than one colour  (as shown).

Step Five: If dry, cut out the suns, gems and ornaments and shrink them with a heat tool.

Beautiful jewels will appear :-D

Step Six: Cut a piece of transparency sheet (21 x 14 cm) (and a piece of cream-white cardstock, same size) and fold in half. Stamp the woman onto masking paper, cut out and mask the centre of the front of the acetate card as shown. Stamp the border of the front with text (LPC014) and black StazOn ink.

LPC014

Step Seven: Remove the mask, glue the cut out woman onto the card (a very little bit of Glossy Accents on the corners) and add your self-made gems on the card with Glossy Accents. Try to create a pretty composition. Insert the cardstock if desired.

As you  see you can create ,real' leaded glass by painting the backside of a transparency with Fresco Finish paints ! I used Translucent paints for this piece to keep everything very transparant. The paint works very good with Shrink plastic as well. Hope you will give it a trie , have fun !

Liesbeth Fidder
Liesbeth's Arts & Crafts

Oh Liesbeth what stunning colours, you have created the jewel elements beautifully. The Lynne Perrella stamps are perfect for this style. The use of shrink plastic aswell as acetate adds just that tiny bit extra dimension. Thankyou ~ Darcy 

We would love to see how you interpret this Transparent Art topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #1: Transparent Art, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas, particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

Links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Transparent Art link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, January 17th. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

2016 #1 Beautifully Transparent {by Wanda Hentges}

 2016 Topic 1: Transparent Art

Hi everyone, Wanda here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you a post where I'm working with a transparency along with some gold leaf and also a technique once called Caught In Crystal to make a card.

Years ago there was a popular technique called Caught In Crystal using clear glue (Crystal Lacquer was popular and might be why it was called Caught In "Crystal"), ink, and often glitter along with tissue paper on the back of stamped transparencies.  I'm tweaking the supplies but the basic technique is as fun now as it was back then.   

Step One: I started with a piece of transparency larger then I would need.  I did this because quite often while working on the back, I get some product along the edges on the front and I wanted to be able to trim the piece down to get rid of any messes.  I stamped the flower from EEV10 onto the "back" of the transparency with Fresco Finish Little Black Dress. 

EEV10

Still working on the back, I painted in the flower with Duo Embellishing Adhesive. This goes on white, dries clear, and is sticky when dry.  Over the adhesive I applied gold leaf flake, pressing it down all over the adhesive and burnishing it well with my finger.  Any excess gold leaf should be put into a container and saved as every little bit can be used. The brush marks from applying the adhesive I consider a bonus as it really give the look of added texture to the flower.  The transparency was turned over and the words stamped on the front with StazOn Jet Black Ink.

Step Two:  The colors I chose for the transparency are Fresco Finish Beach Hut, Glass Blue, and Zesty Zing.  Each color was mixed into a puddle of Gloss Glaze along with one drop of Metallic Glaze.  After mixing each color well, transfer the colors to the back of the transparency using a palette knife and drizzled on extra Gloss Glaze.

Step Three:  Take a piece of white tissue paper larger than the transparency, crumple it very well, open it and lay it over the transparency pressing it into all the color and glaze causing all the puddles to spread out over the transparency.  I had some corners where there was no glaze and I just picked up the tissue, added some glaze and pressed it back down.  You want the tissue adhered everywhere.  Set this aside to dry completely.  

Step Four:  Once the tissue was completely dry I trimmed down the piece and went around the front edge with a Gold Krylon Pen.  I cut a piece of heavy smoothy 1/4" larger on all sides than my transparency, stamped the sketchy diamonds (EEV07) with Archival Inks Forget-Me-Not and Buttercup, distressed the edges and attached the transparency to the center with double stick tape.

EEV07

Step Five:  On the front of my folded white card I stamped the same flower I used on the main panel - twice on the left, masking the first flower before stamping the second, and once on the right.  (I'm so sorry I forgot to take a picture before attaching the main panel!!)  To "ink" the flower I used paint, a mix of Gloss Glaze, Beach Hut and just a bit of Glass Blue for the flower and Hey Pesto for the stem.  I dabbed the colors onto the stamp with Cut 'n Dry Foam and stamped onto the card repeating the "inking" for each flower.  Be sure to clean your stamp before the paint dries on it. 

I painted in the flowers with watered down Glass Blue and Hey Pesto and dried them.  I somehow dropped a blob of Hey Pesto onto the farthest left flower.  When I noticed it, I wiped it up and repainted the flower.  You could still see a little green but not bad.  I loosely went over the stamp lines of the flower petals with a white gel pen.  Then, to give the flowers a more "faded" look, I scraped Fresco Finish Snowflake over the front of the card allowing some spots without Snowflake.  After drying the Snowflake paint, a wet paintbrush was used to splatter on Beach Hut.  

Metallic embroidery floss was tied around the main panel and it was attached as shown with foam mounting tape. 

I hope you can catch a glimpse of the shimmer in the colors from adding that drop of Metallic Glaze.

I love today's card. The techniques are quite easy and fun!!!  I just might put this card into a frame.  Thanks for reading to the end and I hope you are inspired to play along with this first theme of the year.  If so, don't forget to link up your project so I can some take a look!!  You all inspire me!!!!!

~Wanda
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Oh Wanda this brings back memories of a great technique, back in the day we used Johnson floor cleaner(as the lacquer) on the back of the acetate. It is making me smile, and making me want to revisit this technique. A beautiful end result, the layers and little touches of shimmer are perfect. 

We would love to see how you interpret this Transparent Art topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #1: Transparent Art, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas, particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

Links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Transparent Art link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, January 17th. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

2016 #1 Icy Cards {by Anneke de Clerck}

 2016 Topic 1: Transparent Art

Hi everyone Anneke here.  

I'm happy to be back here tonight with a blog post about transparent art. I have two cards for you on which I used two interesting transparent mediums: Glass Bead Gel by Golden and Mica Flakes by Finnabair. To embellish the cards I've created a few flowers using a wax paper technique.

I love transparent papers and mediums, they are perfect to use on winter themed projects. The moment I heard about the transparent topic I knew I would make some icy cards. To create these shabby chic cards I've chosen a soft color combination: kraft, light blue, white and silver.

Below I will walk you through the making of the first card. I'll show you how I did the background and some of the embellishments. I've added the second card as extra eye candy. There is a description at the bottom of this post.

Let's get started.

To start I've cut a 4 x 6" (10 x 15 cm) panel out of corrugated cardboard. I randomly applied heavy gesso by Liquitex to the panel with a palette knife. 

After drying I applied Glass Bead Gel by Golden the same way. This gel takes a while to dry, I let it dry overnight.

I diluted some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Mermaid with water to color the background. The beautiful light blue color enhances the icy look.

Finally I added some 'Frosted' Mica Flakes by Finnabair. I applied gel medium with a brush and sprinkled the flakes on top. I love the transparent effect of the flakes. At that point the background of the first card was done.

I've made a few embellishments for the cards as well. First I've created flowers. I used an old technique, sandwiched wax crayon shavings in between two sheets of wax paper by ironing the sheets. You can easily find more details on this technique on Pinterest.

After ironing the wax paper I stamped spirals on top with a spiral stamp and Mermaid. For this blogpost I could work with the brand new EEG15 stamp set by Emma Godfrey, a very versatile set! 

After cutting out the 'flowers' I ironed them again, to secure the layers.

I decorated white ribbon by stamping on it with a small stamp from the EEG15 set and Mermaid.

I punched a silver heart out of an old button card. I love to use unusual materials on my cards :)

To put the card together I first adhered the stamped ribbon together with some zigzag ribbon and cord. I sewed some beads in the centre of one spiral flower and arranged two flowers on the card together with some gauze. To further decorate the card I looked for a few silver embellishments in my stash: a button and a metal piece.

I finished the card off with two sculpure flowers by Tim Holtz and a paper clay heart.

For the second card I created a background by applying PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics Chalk, Mermaid, Buff, Blue Oyster and Caribbean Sea to a card panel with a plastic card. I added white squares using Snowflake paint and a stencil (Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Tiles). I stamped on top with stamps from the EEG15 set and the same paints. After drying I added flowers using the JOFY PS009 stencil and Glass Bead Gel.

I finished the card off with corrugated cardboard,  frayed gauze, ribbon, a crumpled wax paper flower and silver thread.

I'm fond of working with Glass Bead Gel because it dries beautifully and transparent when applied in a thin film. As you can see on the second card it looks awesome when used 'raw' and uncolored. But I do like the effect of the light blue paint on top of the Glass Bead Gel on the first card too. The perfect medium to use on shabby chic cards!

For the wax paper technique make sure to work with a medium heat iron, don't use steam and put an piece of kraft paper on top to protect the wax paper and your iron.

Because I had no wax crayons in my stash I used oil pastels, not quite the same. The melting of the shavings wasn't wat it had to be but I'm happy with the result though :)

I love the fragile transparent flowers.

I hope I've inspired you to make some cards, an art journal spread or a canvas with an icy look yourself now. Or why not try the wax paper technique? I would love to see what you come up with.

Have fun creating!

Anneke
http://somefiddlingonthekitchentable.blogspot.be

Gorgeous cards Anneke, they look totally wintery and frosty with your clear, blue and kraft layers!! Fabulous how the glass bead gel worked out through that JOFY stencil! Beautiful, thank you for sharing!

We would love to see how you interpret this Transparent Art topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #1: Transparent Art, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas, particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

Links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Transparent Art link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, January 17th. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.