2018 #3 Watercolours: Sense of Time - A Handmade Journal with ESN {by Lynne Moncrieff}

2018 Topic 3: Watercolour

I still pinch myself when we get a lovely project to share with you from Lynne Moncrieff. Her gentle muse leads her into a dreamy tone on tone patchwork of soft, ethereal papers. They could be found objects from an attic of a bygone era. Watch and delight in how she brings this journal together. It wasn't as easy as she originally envisioned, but she makes it all look like it was super easy in the end! ~Leandra

Hi, Lynne (Adorn) here and thrilled to be sharing a handmade book.

When Leandra unexpectedly extended the invitation to write a post for the Watercolour Topic I had no direction in my mind, I was in a quandary, a quandary that had me with two false starts.  Watercolours are beautiful, instantly taking me down Memory Lane, to school Art & Design classes. Those memories brought ideas of working with delicate washes in pastel, Springtime colours but it was not gelling as a project. It wasn't until I stopped forcing myself to make a decision on a project, instead, gathering a stack of various found/re-cycled papers: handmade photo album, brown packing paper, PaperArtsy packing paper and simply painting them. The result of this painting session,  a handmade book,  place for quiet, contemplative thoughts.

The beauty of watercolours, is the gentleness and serenity they bring to brown, black and dark blue and with a hint of Twinkling H20s, in particular, a delightfully muted gold, brings a gentle shimmer to the papers.  This subtlety evokes shimmering sunlight, perfect for this nature themed handmade journal.

Transforming the papers is time consuming and involves space to spread out especially as I prefer to allow the items to air dry, allowing the paint to settle, to not be disturbed by the forced heat from a heat gun.
 
The paper below was re-cycled from a PaperArtsy delivery.  I decided not to iron the paper, allowing the watercolours to pool around the creases.

Once all the papers were left to dry thoroughly, it was time to stamp and I dived right in, inking up EAB, ESN and ELB all bringing a sense of nature and thoughtfulness which I wanted to express with this handmade journal.  I actually inked up even more stamps but decided to focus on the main ones.

ESN18

ESN03

EAB01


ELB30

Partially inking up an ESN text stamp, without placing it on an acrylic block and simply stamping randomly onto the pages, removes a blank page appearance and brings further interest to the pages.  On this double page, as I did on other pages,  a torn piece of watercoloured paper stitched/adhered is another way of adding texture and interest without adding bulk which could interfere with any future journaling.

The landscape pages (of the photo album pages) were what inspired me to not simply fold the pages in half but to play around with them as their length allowed me to create staggered pages, with a wee flap here and a wee flap there!  Flaps and stitched pockets are perfection for journals, areas to secret away thoughts.

A mini diary, simply formed from a piece of the painted paper, stitched together with brown re-cycled paper to make the pages,  tucked inside a pocket and  flap on both pages.  The pockets formed from papers which were machine stitched to the journal pages. 

Watercolours bring a particular essence, a dreamy quality, a particular fluidity which heightens the handmade paper (from the photo album) that form the actual pages of the book.

Torn, stamped pieces of papers were adhered to the pages above, not so intrusive that they would inhibit journaling but enough of an accent to bring interest to the pages.

As a side note:- the book was bound by threading nettle yarn, through the two holes already punched in each page of the photo album pages and wrapping around a twig.  This not only bound the book but the yarn, twig and addition of a feather also create visual interest and sets the scene for the nature essence of the book.

Never be limited to only using watercolours with watercolour paper.  Experiment with found/re-cycled papers from around the home.  There is nothing as soothing as settling with that stack of paper and paints, transforming into beautiful papers to incorporate into your art.  If you studied Art at school, then it is possible, like myself, you were bound with rules but this is Mixed Media, it is not Fine Art, so free yourself from any constraints that are possibly embedded and enjoy the therapeutic process of allowing yourself the time to enjoy painting papers and if your artistic soul desires, take those papers a step or two further, creating a journal. 

My two tips to leave you with are 1) always take extra time to paint more papers/textiles than you will require for one project  2) use your least expensive Gesso to prepare the re-cycled papers. 

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

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The current topic link Topic 3: Watercolours will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 4th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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2018 #3 Watercolours: Journal with ELB {by Autumn Clark}

2018 Topic 3: Watercolour

I do love it when one of our bloggers shows another side to their creativity, and today, Autumn, who I generally associate with Vintage colours, has brightened things up with a vibrant journal made with Lin's stamps. I can also see my new favourite Seth Apter stamp has snuck its way into the mix too!! Fabulous! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone!  Autumn Clark with you today to share a bright and happy little journal made with the lovely images from PaperArtsy Eclectica³ {Lin Brown} Collection (ELB33).

These dreary winter days find me held up in the craft room.  Creating this cheery project seemed to put some spring in my step.  I hope you'll test out these easy to replicate ideas for a journal of your own.

I was curious to try the mesh/sponge stamp as a repeating pattern and inked it up in a striped fashion, adding three colors of ink per stamping.  I worked  the colors in a rainbow around my journal boards.  To achieve the watercolor effect, I spritzed the inked stamp a few times and let the colors bleed into the board as I stamped.

The fun part was layering other stamps and embossing over this base.  I used the gorgeous geometric design from the new PaperArtsy Eclectica³ {Seth Apter} Collection (ESA08) embossed in white.

I embossed the dots from Lin's plate in blue, but it stuck to my wet base.  I used this opportunity to brush off the unwanted powder and make a nice block of color, which I grounded by splashing watered down Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paint (Snowflake), (Jade) and (Glass Blue).

For my focal point, I made some watercolor backgrounds and stamped my sentiment and beautiful wheat, which I fussy cut.  I embossed a butterfly from PaperArtsy Hot Pick set 1506 (HP1506) and layered him over a bundle of string.

I made a couple of inserts for my journal with watercolor paper covers and plain pages inside.  I did a random watercolor on each page, then stamped images in coordinating colors over the blocks of color.  I added a bit more white embossing and script from PaperArtsy {Ink & The Dog} Mini Stamps (62) in black for a final bit of contrast.  These will be the bases for journaling and/stamping later, hence the simplicity.

Perhaps one of the most underrated stamping technique is variegated inking?  I hope you've been inspired to mix up some colors on your rubber stamps today.  I'm sure you will find making your own repetitive patterns quite stress-relieving and meditative.  Why not make some spring in your crafty space?  Happy stamping!

Cheers, Autumn

Blog: SewPaperPaint
Facebook: Autumn Clark
Instagram: @sewpaperpaint
Pinterest: Autumn S Clark

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

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

You must complete step 1 AND 2 to be entered into the draw. 

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2. Make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page.

The current topic link Topic 3: Watercolours will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 4th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy creative apron. Please make sure we can contact you as a prize winner - it helps if you share your contact info from the platform you opt to use.

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2018 #3 Watercolours: Tracy's Flowers with ETS {by Claire Snowdon}

2018 Topic 3: Watercolour

Bold contrasts come naturally with these new stamps from Tracy Scott. Claire has highlighted this perfectly with ecoline watercolour pens and great use of white space. There are some awesome watercolour markers/ brush-pens out there as a wonderful alternative to pans, tubes and traditional watercolour methods, and many wonderful ways to work with the markers too! 

Hi everyone, it's Claire Snowdon with you today, and I'd like to share with you a clean and simple style card I created using my Ecoline Watercolour pens along with some lovely new Tracy Scott stamps!

I love using my Ecoline pens to watercolour with as they are so highly pigmented and easy to use - they give a great finish.

I really enjoy creating cards in a simple and clean format as a direct contrast from my art journalling pages - Tracy's flower stamps are so bold and striking they make quite a focal point.

By using masks whilst stamping the flowers and leaves I was able to create a sense of depth on my card - I chose to enhance this by using foam pads to raise the flowers up from the background.  All the flowers and leaves on this card are from the PaperArtsy Eclectica³ Tracy Scott stamp series: Plate ETS16, and the cute little border stamp from ETS14.  (stockists listed here)

The quote I used is from a Paperartsy Eclectica Alison Bomber stamp plate - EAB01 (stockists listed here)

The fab little funky border stamp was the perfect way to add an edge to the bottom of my card.....I gave it a very gentle wash of colour so as not to detract from my main focal point above.

You don't have to be an amazing watercolourist to create some lovely flowers - this card uses only five watercolour pens.  And if flowers don't float your boat there are lots of other lovely new Tracy stamps which would look fab in a watercolour style too.

Thanks for visiting today,
Claire

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

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You must complete step 1 AND 2 to be entered into the draw. 

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The current topic link Topic 3: Watercolours will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 4th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

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2018 #3 Watercolours: Tag: you're it with EDY {by Carol Fox}

2018 Topic 3: Watercolour

This is not only the first post of the new topic. But it is also a sneaky new product announcement! Darcy has created some fun new stamps for us! If you have been following her, you will know she is in year 2 of her illustration degree at university. At the end of her first year she did a series of drawings of funky little people for her first assignment. They had all the features that I had always envisioned Darcy would one day do as stamps. Naturally I emailed her and said 'those need to be stamps!', and now... here they are for you to enjoy!

Back in the day when I first saw Darcy's creativity, she had posted some amazing fabric dolls she made; long striped legs, and interesting characters, and a hint of that style is exactly what I saw in these character stamps too! So here we are, many years later, and we finally have the stamps I imagined Darcy would do so wonderfully! I cannot wait to use them and come March, you will be able to buy them from your PaperArtsy stockist! They are officially being released today to our retailers at Stitches! Congratulations Darcy! ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Carol with you today, and I'd like to share with you a background I made using Fresco Finish Paints on watercolour paper. I did a similar technique using distress ink but I thought it would be fun to try it with Fresco Paints and the Colours in Tracy's latest set were so bright and loud they seemed to just call my name. As I wanted to get drippage and bleed I had to really water the paints down and this is why I used watercolour paper as I knew it could withstand the amount of water I would be using without curling up and looking like it wanted to die. I had great fun creating my backgound, it was very freeing and childlike to flick the paint and let it do its own thing on the page.

I decided to make a couple of tag sets for my project, a double tag card and a set of 3 using a watercolour background which gave a lovely dreamy feel to the projects.

I worked on the smoother side of the paper and just splatted lots of watered down Cerise Fresco Finish paint onto a very wet sheet of paper (I spritzed it madly) I got lovely bleed with the paint.

More spritzing and other colours from Tracy's paint set added, as I let the paper dry between layers there was no colour seepage, just clean bright layers. You can see from the shiny bits where it's still wet how much water this got thrown at it.

Going in to add interest with Stencil PS092, Such a nice basic stencil pattern for backgrounds, I think this one will become a favorite for me.

Finally using a sponge and bottle cap to break it all up with another layer of colour before cutting it all up for my cards. The great thing about a background like this is that when you cut it up, you can turn it to get the individual pieces to suit what you are making.

Once I had cut my background, I added stamping using the background elements from Darcy's new stamp sets EDY20 and EDY21. (These stamps will be available from PaperArtsy Stockists from March 2018) I used Fresco Finish Pea Coat Paint from Tracy's set neat from the bottle to stamp with and then used Stencil PS001 and Snowflake paint to knock the whole thing back a little bit.

I now stamped the images from the above sets, took them downstairs and had a lovely evening colouring and watch TV. I was pleased with the matches I got from my colouring pencils as these tied all the colours together nicely.

My large tag card is actually what I made my husband for Valentines day. The hearts  from EDY20 stamped and popped with a red colouring pencil directly over the watercolour background added a lovely touch. Little Black Dress Fresco paint and a stitched border stopped it all looking too pretty and gave it just the touch of grunge that I like.

I thought my little set of tags would make a nice housewarming card using the stamps from EDY21 again adding grungy edging and stitching hanging them all from a big jump ring to give the impression of a big jangley key ring.

I did experiment with a few different weight watercolour papers and I came to the conclusion that from this technique the cheaper ones were better, as these also tended to have a smoother reverse which was the side I used as I thought this would be easier to rubber stamp onto, and also they were thinner and therefore easier to cut out and stick to my tags. I used about a 230gsm as opposed to my "posh" pad that is 400gsm. I was happy that the Fresco Paints kept all the colour intensity when thinned down with water, I was worried I would get weak colours, but all I got was translucency which for this worked great. I assume they are so heavily pigmented that this is why, But Leandra is the brains in that department, I am just like "ohhhhh pretty colour" not at all savvy when it comes to pigment etc.
I loved my play with this technique and it's defiantly one I will be using again.

Carol Xx

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

Our creative team love to read your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired!  

You must complete step 1 AND 2 to be entered into the draw. 

To join our challenge:
1. Leave a comment on the Topic Introduction Post and go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy Apron. 
2. Make something arty relevant to the topic, and link your creation from any social URL (eg. Instagram, Pinterest, Blog Post etc) sharing your original make to this challenge page.

The current topic link Topic 3: Watercolours will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, March 4th 2018, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a PaperArtsy creative apron. Please make sure we can contact you as a prize winner - it helps if you share your contact info from the platform you opt to use.

Good Luck! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!