Tops and Tails

We have had loads of fun selecting new stamps to release this month, and the result is "Tops and Tails".

These 6 plates are jam-packed with wonderful flowers, unique dragonfly (ladies?), as well as pretty summery treats.

When I first started stamping about 13 years ago, I used to collect dragonfly stamps. They are so versatile, and I really enjoyed making them to use as embellishments, so I am really excited about this particular release ..... I couldn't wait to tell you all - I haven't even made any samples yet!

New Trends for Summer
Have you noticed how these guys are having another comeback this summer? The World's largest trade show (CHA) where all the big craft companies of the world come together to launch new products was held in Anaheim, California earlier this year, and there were certainly a healthy smattering of winged things in many new releases. Silver embossed papers with glitter trails featured butterflies and dragonflies of all sorts of styles. They were very striking and beautiful. It seems that dragonflies and butterflies do the rounds about once every 5 years, but they never really go out of fashion, they are always popular.

Ideas for these stamps
You can colour these winged beauties, use them for backgrounds in a tone on tone style, but my favourite thing I used to do most often was to cut out and layer them up. I would stamp up a storm, then sit in front of the TV in the evenings trimming out all the dragonflies. The base would be plain-ish card (coloured or white), and then I would stamp the wings in vellum so you could almost see through, or acetate, or a different coloured cardstock. Armed with wire for antannae and sicky foam pads I would layer wings and antannae onto the base piece. I bought some cool pink, blue and green wire recently and I think those, with 2 small seeds beads for the 'blobs' will be a perfect touch to a simple card. Sometimes the wings would get a touch of holographic glitter glue. They seem to need that little bit of glitzy sparkle. These embellishments are perfect finishing touch on a wrapped gift, just pop one on the ribbon, and then one on the matching gift tag.

I think these doodle style images also look lovely stamped and embossed - not just for look, bit this can also serve a good purpose: if you emboss its easier to colour keeping within the lines, and when you use watercolour pencils, crayons or paints embossing helps your puddles stay within the designated area!

Winged summer creatures suit all kinds of cards for all kinds of people, young, old, male or female. If you'd like to add some of these to your collection, they are available to order online now.

Blog Special Offer
As a summer gift to you, all orders over 25.00GBP get free shipping - worldwide! You need to use this coupon code in the cart to qualify for the offer: T&TBLOG
NB.This offer is valid for 15 days from today, and expires on June 30th, 2008.

PS Don't forget to check out the new minis...they are gorgeous, I'll post later in the week with some examples!

Leandra

Through the arched window

In this post I'd like to share with you one of the classes I have taught the last 2 weekends here in England and in the Netherlands. It's a mini book with niches and decorated pages, loaded with fun techniques with Distress Inks and Sprays. The actual book is 13 pages long, here is a sample of a few of those for you to enjoy.

This project is based on a submission we received from Linda Baldock , one of the very talented Aussies on our DT. She is an EP (Embossing Powder) nutter, and has inspired me to dig out mine and start playing with them some mroe - great for texture, or that hint of magpie glint that I always need to have somewhere on a project.

Linda has the ability to use EP and create texture so deep and structured that I am gobsmacked every time I sneak a look at her blog. She must use truckloads of the stuff...every week! But it's divine, and I'm sure in real life it must all look so much more amazing than the pics can show. You must check out her blog.

The 'arches' project, in this version, is in blues and browns, in general the blue pages have doorways with the door cut out, and the brown pages have doorways stamped (sometimes) but the rule of thumb was that brown pages were not cut out. The pages alternate blue, brown, and the substrates vary and repeat between card, calico, metal, transparency. The book grew to 12 pages for the full day class version.

The backgrounds are done with a variety of distress ink techniques combined with water, mica powders and re-inkers. I have used both plain ink sprayed with various depths of hue (reinker in a mini mister with water), and the same laced with perfect pearls. We also used glimmer mists, because there is tons of colour and mica powder options which my magpie- sparkly- girl side of me just can't refuse to use! More is more sometimes - right? Why use one sparkly spray when you could use 5! LOL We repeat stamped from Urban Snapshots the gorgeous doorways from Arched Apertures (USAA2, USAA3)

The left page is walnut ink spray background, over-stamped in Walnut stain. Decorated with a gessoed AB page stamped in Jet Black (Mini #35) . The lampost (USAA2) was stamped and embossed onto blue metal, then cut out, textured with metal tools from behind and glued down. The eyelet with the flowers holds the swing door with the bingo number on it (seen on the front cover picture above). The right hand page is calico sprayed with broken china, then the arch is stamped in Jet Black Archival ink. Secured the calico to card, and then the arch was trimmed out with a scalpel or scissors.


The arch was stamped in Broken China on the left. so how do you line up the arches on both side of the same piece of card? Answer: stamp through the hole.
TIP: We trimmed out the stamped arch on the calico side, then placed the stamp ink side up on the table. Using the calico doorway- hole as a guide lower the card down onto the stamp while looking through the hole to get perfect alignment.
Along the left page, the lace stamp from Ink/Dog: Buttons 2 was stamped on transparency film, then dried and painted with Gold Acrylic dabber from the reverse. Nice border, and an easy pattern to match.
The page on the right started with Claudine Hellmuth's Peeled paper technique. Apply gel medium to the card, press an AB page into the gel, burnish, then pull the paper away to leave some of the ink transferred, but also some softer edges of AB remain. Now gesso over the top, dry, and then spritz generously with vintage photo distress spray. Dry the puddle with a heat tool to get the stain effect. Nice.
The page turner is a tab made from Cream Ten Seconds Studio metal, embossed and sprayed with Patina glimmer mist. The glimmer mist will puddle in the recesses and dry permanently on this metal. A touch of Jet black archival ink highlights the pattern.


The brown left page is glimmer mist straight onto a semi-gessoed page. Glimmer mists puddle like flecks on gesso when dry whereas distress inks seem to leave larger stains. I like both! On the right we have the large frame (USAA3) stamped on transparency, and under that is aluminium embossed with the Ten Seconds diamond pattern and alcohol inked with Stream and Terracotta ink. I like the way it glints through the transparency - magpie style-y!

But it is nice how the tranparency looks good over the gesso/ glimmer background too.
I put black card behing the metal page to support it and sprayed with glimmer mists that had pale mica pigments in them to reflect back some light. The top-hatted dude is from Ink/Dog: MON2.
The Poet tags are stamped onto blue metal and I used eyelets on the tags. The frame to the right was inked with a few Distress Inks: Scattered Straw, Vintage Photo, Broken China and Faded Jeans. Then the niche cut out.
Through the niche you can see the embossed metal page which was painted with some new paints available from LB Crafts, the cool thing about these paints is they don't scratch off metal, you mix your own colour of pigment into the 'carrier/ base', and then you can also add in gel type substance to turn the paint pearlescent/ metallic, and they have cool waxes that you can rub over the top to catch highlights. Watch their website or call them for more information about this product.

I also created a paint from Vintage photo re-inker mixed into the base to apply to the metal ...you can see the sample her in the middle of the right page....hmmm muchos experimentation to be had with this product!


Wishing you a great weekend! We have the kids off school for the next week, so I am hoping for warmer weather so we can get the pool out and start praying for a great summer. Well it can't be worse than last year can it? I think Summer was on a Wednesday last year here in England!

Leandra

And the winner is.......winners are....

After much deliberation, discussion, impartial judges' opinions...we have had to make some decisions. Yes it's been tough, but we kept coming back to the 'brief' which was using your stamps in an 'outside the box' kind of way.


So the winning entry is LyLy from France with her altered Wii remote (wiimote). She has collaged it with squiggly stamps and using bright colours, added a pink ribbon and button for the 'handle' and she assures us it still works perfectly well! Her partner would have killed her doing this out of the blue, but with the competition as an excuse she got away with it and now has plans for the rest of the wiimotes too!!!





As the items we received pics of were so wonderful we have decided to issue some 'highly commended' prizes to the following in the order of date the entry was received:



Liz Gale (England): stamped head - very unusual substrate to work on, and generated the most comments, both on and off the blog! I still can't believe she got away with using pink!






Helen Chilton (England): Stamped hall table - Stamped in staz-on, then sprayed with glimmer mists, and highlighted with coloured pencils/ white accents. All done in bright colours with Pierrot stamps, and the brick arch from Architecture. In the centre are 4 'coasters' of stampbord, stamped in the same manner and scratched back to reveal highlights. A stunning masterpiece, and I can't wait till she sends it to me......kidding....I guess we'll just have to make our own, but I am amazed at how the stamps fit perfectly...well done Helen.



Christal Gill (Texas, USA): frame which she painted silver, andPotting Shed. Chris made a stamped inside and out to look like a metal shed, Using the "bloom' set of stamps from the Cat's Meow Collection, she then created bunches of flowers, grass, pot plants, and decorated the whole 3-D item just perfectly. We love this potting shed and the little white picket fence finishes it off perfectly!










Michi Michaelson (California, USA): Birdhouse. The things you can do with a wooden box! Michi's entry was one of the last to come in, and I think she probably used the most stamps from Ink and the Dog collection possible on such a small little bird box. She also managed to hang some lovely shrink embellishments with beads charms and wire dangles. I'm sure the birds will love to peck at these sparkly 'toys'. On the box she use Kaleidacolour spectrum ink pad which gives fab bright colour and variation of colour to the piece. She spritzed the inked samp with denatured alcohol, then huffed and stamped onto glossy card. This helped the colours merge and blend, but she still seems to get great definition of image which impressed us! Those birds are going to fight over who gets to live in this house.


The Highly Commended players will be getting a goodie bag of bits from PaperArtsy coming your way real soon, and Lyly our winner - watch the post for your full set of minis worth nearly 200GBP ($US 400)!!!


Congratulations to all who participated. Thankyou for taking time to play with us, and share with everyone your creativity. The work you do is such an inspiration to us here at PaperArtsy and the many people who read our blog. We are excited that stampers, scrappers, newbies and experienced people all took the time to submit projects, and we hope more of you will be inspired to join in next time.

The most common comment was that this forced you to try something new, be it a canvas, card, or 3-D item - everyone stepped outside their comfort zone to try something different, and everyone seemed surprised at how much they enjoyed the process and the challenge. On personal note, this is how I have discovered my personal style, by trying something completely different, and stretching myself to learn new methods and styles. usually its a swap or challenge that has forced me to jump in the deep end. it can be scary at the start, but after a while you wish you'd taken that big step sooner and just got on with it! LOL.

We'll be announcing another mini competition very soon, so keep thinking outside the box!

Leandra

Last call for competition

I was away in The Netherlands teaching at Art Journey on May 9/10, and then this weekend just gone I was at LB Crafts near Milton Keanes, England. What a wonderful time I had at both stores.

One of the classes was called 'Through the Arches' - a small book based on a submission from one of our down under Design Team members Linda Baldock. You can see what she did here . At LB Crafts we turned this into a full day class with lots of embellishments using Ten Seconds Studio metal, and decorating the pages.....it went from a little book , to a fat book! But oh what fun!

I have been trying to upload photos of this project for the last hour, but no luck. My connection must be dropping out, we are wireless and it happens occasionally.

While I was away these last 2 weekends, loads of people were talking to me about the "Big Fat PaperArtsy Competition". Everyone is very excited to see who the winner will be......and boy have we got the tough end of the job here..... choosing.....just one.....how can it be possible......???

Technically everyone has until midnight tonight to get their entries in, this is a last call reminder, and some more pics of all that is amazing to show you...will be coming later today as soon as I can sort out this connection issue.....

Good luck everyone, the winner will be announced tomorrow 22nd May!!

Leandra

Check this out!

Wow, the big fat competition entries coming in are amaaaaazing!! We challenged you to 'think outside the box' and use your PaperArtsy stamps in the most unusual ways possible. Well you guys are awesome!

Here's just a small selection of what we have received in recent days.

Betsey made this beautiful box stamped, inked masked and embellished beautifully.

She writes: Just wanted to let you know that my recent order arrived a few days ago. I have been having so much fun using them. The stamps are really beautiful and have really helped to motivate me to get stamping again. I have been passionate about stamping for years, but at times, I find that the cares of everyday life take over, and I start to drift away. This past year, I took a new job, and have been extremely busy getting adjusted to it. In the process I have neglected my passion for stamping. This past weekend has inspired me again. I find myself lying in bed, thinking of a new project and doing all I can not to give in to the urge to get going on it!

Daisy tells us she has been working on new surfaces never tried before.

Well for me the most original things I've done with a PaperArtsy stamp are to alter a jigsaw piece and to make a triptych frame, which had 12 individual inchies on it.

I love your all stamps & certainly don't have enough of them.

Details on how each were made can be found on her blog.
Jigsaw http://distinctly-daisy.blogspot.com/2008/04/je-taime.html
Triptych http://distinctly-daisy.blogspot.com/2008/01/dream.html

Liz has a partner in crime here, and has certainly managed to think outside the box. We all had a great laugh and wondered if Clive had any idea about the colour Liz used!

She writes: The most unusual thing I have stamped on is - Clive's head. I'm sorry the photo is not too good, he wouldn't fit in the scanner. Nor would he let me heat emboss - spoil sport. Plant a hair and it will grow? We can but hope! VBG, Liz :)

Valerie has been practising some new techniques using her Stamps from the PaperArtsy French Collection. (Available exclusively in French stores via our distributorACICAM in France, go to their website to see their stockists)

Shrink, UTEE and distress inks all feature here

She writes: Here is from France my "little" realisations for the competition...Sorry, I'm new in scrap :) ! I used paper, Distress Inks, embossing powders, UTEE, shrinking paper, and of course Paper Artsy's stamps !

I like the new collection (Squiggly Ink) with the swirls and curls and the small houses (so cute!). I went to Paris last month at the SMAC, it was such an honor to see her doing mixed-media at ACICAM stand...Go on Leandra !

Cordially from France,
Valérie :)

Lastly Joy made these amazing little houses, I want to call them ice houses as
they remind me of Ice sculptures. She has used UTEE and you can go here to find out more http://alterme.typepad.com/. Aren't they adorable?

So how do you play along? We want you to send us your photos (jpegs to newsletters@paperartsy.co.uk) of the most original thing you've done with a PaperArtsy stamp, no holds barred. The comp is open to anyone worldwide and the prize is a full set of 42 PaperArtsy Minis. Value £197 GBP (approx $400 USD). We'll post a selection of the entries each week here on the blog for you to see and we'll announce the winner on May 21. So get on your bizarro thinking cap and show us what you can do.

Technique Loaded Tag Project

Yesterday Sally Cendral (who keeps popping up unexpectedly at Stamp and trade shows in either France or England) sent me a series of photos she took while I was making a tag for her at Ally Pally recently.

As I have just mentioned the gold texture "happy accident" a couple of posts back, I thought it was timely to share with you a whole project using the idea, with a few other techniques thrown in too.

Step 1.
Apply ink with a Range mini brayer to a blank tag.

To get a soft effect like this, run the brayer over your craft sheet a few times first to soften and reduce the quantity of ink on the brayer, then lightly skip the brayer over the tag with hardly any pressure. You can pick up more ink from the craft sheet until you are happy with the effect on the tag. Try this technique with 2-3 colours



Step 2.
2/3 fill 2 mini misters with water. Add to one 4 drops of Peeled Paint, and to the other 4 drops of Broken China distress ink.

Spray the ink quite close to the tag and use loads to saturate the tag (more than this picture shows...this is only half sprayed!). For contrast, spray each colour in 2 or 3 different areas, then dry with a heat tool.
TIP: you can start with spraying ink straight onto a blank tag, but if you apply ink with a brayer or cut and dry foam BEFORE you spray you will get a much deeper and more interesting background colour.





Step 3.
Once dry, overstamp in the same colours. I used Squiggly Mini #8 in Broken China, and the tree branches (SISC5) in Peeled Paint. (I prefer to stamp blue over blue and green over green to add more depth to the background.)

In the Centre of the tag I have stamped the Heart from SIBM1.




Step 4.
Apply glossy accents to the centre of of the heart. Pour Gold embossing powder onto the wet glossy accents. Heat to melt the EP, and 'boil' the glossy accents until it all hardens (about 2-3 minutes) with awesome textural lumps and bumps.





Step 5.
Its also a good idea to heat the tag from the reverse side to help the glossy accents dry. You can control the texture by moving and holding the heat gun in different positions.







Step 6.
Apply Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber to textured grungeboard wings. I like to use my finger to rub the paint into the grunge, it makes the effect with metallic paints really shiny. Dry the paint.
TIP: Use sandpaper on painted grunge. You will create matte and shiny contrasts - the sandpaper roughens the raised poortions of the grunge.






Step 7.
Apply a contrasting Distress Ink (Aged Mahogany here) to the grunge with Cut 'n' Dry Foam. The ink will sink into the sanded areas where the sandpaper distressed the surface.









Step 8.
Wipe excess ink off the shiny Gold painted areas of the Grungeboard.








Step 9.
Make holes with a paper piercer through the grungeboard and the tag, and then sew the wings into place with soft wire.

This is much faster than using a needle and thread, and is a nice textural embellishment. Its also easy to add small beads as you go.





Step 10.
For final but striking effect, use the Ranger Inkssentials white pen to outline the details of the Squiggly Mini #8 swirl stamp.

Tip: Try adding German Scrap inked with Alcohol Inks (lettuce and stream would look great) at the bottom of the tag. SOme gold ribbon with prima flowers would look superb at the top too.

Baked Beans...

OK here is an entry in the spirit of our competition. Original uses of PaperArtsy Stamps. We received these yesterday.They are decorated baked bean tins! Here's a quote from the artist...

"The strangest thing I have stamped on so far are ..... baked bean tins!

Please don't Beanalise me for my poor photography!!! Can I enter as many times as I like? If I can get OH while he is sleeping I could cover him in stamps like an all over body tattoo!"

Bring it on that's what we say. Let your imagination run wild!

Get your entries in you have until May 21st to have a chance to get your hands on a full set of PaperArtsy Minis