2022 Topic 07: Specimen Jar {by Liesbeth Fidder De Vos} with Vintage Ink and the Dog stamps

Hi everyone, it's Liesbeth here with you today, and I'm here to share with you my Specimen Jar project! However it's not a jar...it's an altered book with niches and drawers, in a vintage style.

Starting a project like this, I never know where it will end... I was inspired by this two wonderful stamp sets! Very vintage and a bit mysterious, they made me think about a cabinet book with secret holes and drawers. So I just started with that idea and this is what I made!

5 cards in the side opening.

Two niches and two drawers.

I challenged myself to use ALL the stamps in the two stamp sets, and it worked, I did! :-) I used PaperArtsy Vintage Ink and the Dog ID05 and ID10. I really love them!

The basic item for this cabinet book is, needless to say...a book. I used an old one, a nice blue color, gold printed at the spine. A newer one works too. I chose the color combination blue/turquoise/brown/off-white, so these four PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paints were perfect: Captain Peacock, Blue Lagoon, Chocolate Pudding and Nougat.This combination always works perfect for a vintage style. (And the blues are my favourite colours).

 

The cover of my old book is made of blue fabric, with a nice golden print, so I decided not to paint it and just leave it the way it is.

Let's start: The drawers are made out of two small match-boxes. I used the last part of the book, a stack of pages as thick as the match-boxes. I drew the size on the side of the book and also a niche in the center.

I also drew the match-boxes and the niche onto the top page.

Using a glue stick, I glued the edges of all the pages of the ,drawer part' together... yes...every page. ;-)

Onto the first page of the book I drew a house shape, using the house stamp as a guideline as shown. Again, I glued all the pages under it  together, until about 10 pages are left between this house piece and the drawer piece.

Now the big job started: carefully I cut the layers off, until 10 pages are left (Tip: put a small cutting mat in between).

I also cut out the hole for the drawers and the niche. I glued the boxes into the holes. I covered the sides, the cutting edges, of the big niche with a strip of bookpaper for a nice finish (no picture). Now I also glued the ten left over pages together to cover the niche and the match-boxes. Everything is glued together now.

Using the Fresco Finish paint, the two blues, Nougat and a tiny bit of brown, I painted the insides of the house niche and the boxes. I mixed the paints on my brush and I didn't work very neatly for a nice old and weathered effect. The left page and around the house niche I painted with Fresco Finish Nougat, Distress ink Vintage Photo, water and a little brown paint I made spots and smudges, again to create an old effect.

I stamped the left page here and there with the fern and text stamp using Distress ink Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs. With these two Distress inks I also sponged the edges of the entire book and the match-boxes to create a very vintage look.

That border stamp is so perfect for this!! I spread a thin layer of Fresco Finish paint Blue Lagoon on a piece of paper and used it as an ink pad. I stamped it at the bottom edge and on the small pieces at the top. Later on I also stamped it with Distress ink along the niche.

Using black ink (Tsukineko StazOn Jet Black), I stamped some texts in the niche. I covered the sides with lace and made a cardstock shelf at the bottom of the niche.

In this phase I still didn't know exactly how I was going to finish it. If I start stamping like crazy, the ideas always come naturally! :-) So I took pieces of brown, white and kraft cardstock and started the stamping. I used almost every stamp of the two beautiful sets! I used the black StazOn again, and also Ranger Archival Coffee.

Then I realized I needed a bit more colour, so I painted a piece of kraft paper very raggedly with the four Fresco paints. I started with Nougat and after that I added Fresco Finish Crackle Glaze here and there. After drying I painted the colours with an old credit card and (the right piece) with a pallet knife. I stamped some of the texts onto this painted cardstock.

Now it was time to put everything together and combine things, and to fill the boxes and niches! I cut out lots of the stamped images and assembled them till I was satisfied. Of course I had lots of left overs, but I will use them later, I never throw things like that away! I painted the faces with pink watercolour and sponged the edges with the Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs Distress ink using a blending tool. I used a colour pencil (red) and a white gel pen here and there.

Time for some embellishments: I inked one of the text stamps wth StazOn and rolled small bottles over the stamp.

Using PaperArtsy printed tissue paper (you can also stamp on tissue paper yourself) I tore out small pieces of text and glued them into the match-boxes using gel medium. I also glued some small shells and pen nibs in the boxes and  added ring fasteners at the outside.

I composed five cards/tags to keep in the niche on the side of the book. I combined lots of stamps and also affixed some metal pieces and  sometimes an extra layer of black cardstock.

Left page finished.

Right page finished. I attached the stamped house and wings using 3D foam tape.

The little bottles are filled with mini beads, glitter, tiny shells, and I tied string around them. I also added some metal stuff and glued everything with tacky glue.

Detail of a drawer.

At the very last minute I decided to stamp this wonderful stamp onto the front cover of the book, using gold embossing powder. 

I think it's all done now!

Oh how I love to do this kind of time-consuming projects, it was so much fun! The process of combining the different PaperArtsy stamps is great! Cutting out the niches is the hardest part. If you can't or don't want to cut this much, why not try something like this in a shadow box, or onto the backside of a canvas? There are so many possibilities! Hope you give it a try and hope you will enjoy it as much as I did! Have fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Liesbeth

Blog: Liesbeth's Arts & Crafts

Facebook: liesbeth.fidderdevos

Instagram: liesbeth_fidder

 

2018 Topic #7 Kraft card: Collaged elements with VID {by Nikki Acton}

2018 Topic 7: Kraft Card

Nikki has opted for a kraft-white-brown ink colour scheme here. This has allowed her to play with all the elements and textures until she was happy with the arrangement. Sometimes it is a really good idea to strip back the colour and force yourself to work with a more limited palette than you otherwise might. Can you meet the challenge and have a go? Go on! ~Leandra

Hi everyone, Nikki from Addicted to Art with you today, and I'd like to share my designs using Kraft card, white and collaged elements.

I love the impact of white on Kraft and so decided to keep my colours minimal just adding brown ink to the mix. Having selected my Vintage Ink and the Dog stamp set to work with I knew I was going to chop them all up and create some collaged pieces! When I get a new stamp set I often stamp each one several times on scrap paper and play around with them - whole or in part to find compositions that work. 

I took the stamp set - ID08 and stamped each element in brown archival as well as another set with versamark and white embossing powder. I then began mixing and cutting and seeing what I could come up with! 

I love the eyes and the 'Take another Look' phrase but had to separate them all. Similarly with the numbers - I cut them all up to make smaller elements to add to the collage.

On the base of the card and tag I added paint with Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - in Chalk through a stencil  - PS036  and then randomly stamped the script stamp from the above set.

When it comes to arranging elements I try to follow basic rules of composition - although there is a time to break them and sometimes it works! On the card above I tried to create a triangle of three dominant areas of different sizes - this helps to guide the eye naturally around the piece.

Framing is also a great way make things stand out. When matt and layering cards I try to add matts of different framing distance from the next - but a great way to achieve this is to use ink or paint. You can see here how I have added a layer of Fresco paint to create a border for the Kraft card.

I had lots of fun playing with this stamp set! If it isn't something you already do I encourage you to play around with stamped images - cut them up, layer them, mix them. Even if it doesn't always work it might generate new ideas. 

Nikki

Blog: Addicted to Art
Instagram: @A2Acardscraft
Pinterest: nikacton

We always hope that you  learn something interesting from our blog. 

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2016 #20 Penny For Your Thoughts {by Jennie Atkinson}

 2016 Topic 120: Squares and Grids

Hi everyone Jennie here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you my first outing with the fabulous new Infusions and some of my favourite Vintage Ink and the Dog Stamps.  I missed the showcasing of the Infusions in the summer as I was on holiday so I am playing catch up to the rest of you! And of course I can now see why you have all been raving about them! 

My plaque uses the Infusions in different ways and a selection of stamps which were just perfect for the current topic.

Step One: I started with some smallish pieces of PaperArtsy Smoothy Card and experimented with The Sage and Golden Sands Infusions spritzing water on the cardstock first as well as spritzing to move the colour around a little.

Step Two: Vintage Ink and the Dog ID07 were my main stamp set and I used a few of my favourite Ink and the Dog to fill in the spaces on the plaque.

ID07

Letters 6

Petals 4

I did match the pieces with the stamps to show them off to their best, stamping with Jet Black Archival.

Step Three: Whilst planning the layout I realised I would need a background for some of the elements so used the Infusions with a paintbrush this time to create these woody feel pieces. I created a puddle of Infusions on my craft mat and brushed them on in one direction with a large paintbrush.

Step Four: And then it was time to pull it all together. My base board was ordinary greyboard covered first with Gesso and then a coat of Prima Crackle Paste. It warped a little when it dried so I had to layer it onto another layer of greyboard covered with black cardstock.

I love how the Infusions blend to create different depths of colour - you wouldn't think this could all come out of one small little bottle of loveliness!

Scraps of left over cardstock were die cut to create leaves and a label. The flower just got squished in the puddle of Infusions on the craft mat !

Needless to say the rest of the Infusions set is now on order and I can't wait to experiment with them further, however, I was very impressed with the different effects I achieved just by spritzing or painting with water. Certainly Sage and Golden Sands have a lovely vintage feel to them and I enjoyed combining them with the Vintage Ink and the Dog stamps. I hope you love these stamps as much as I do and will give them an outing now and again.

Jennie

Live The Dream

Thanks for sharing your first outing with Infusions, your results are fabulous. The woody layer is so effective, it actually does look like a wood veneer. I like your careful positioning of stamps too, making the most of various areas of colour. ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Squares and Grids topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #20: Squares and Grids, 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. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Squares and Grids link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Oct 30th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.