2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour with I&D {by Kate Yetter}

  2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour

Kate's layered mail art addition to her garden journal is full of her favourite colours and dimensional Grunge Paste packing a big punch. With lots of super stencilling it just might inspire you to jazz up your envelopes next time you send anything through the post.

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Kate with you today, and I'm here to share with you a piece of mail art.

When it comes to favorite colors, I have so many. It just has to be bright and not brown. For this project I chose orange and green as they are my favorite colors to see in the garden. I recently made a garden journal to record all my findings from this years garden but I didn't have any pockets so I decided to decorate an envelope to store my plants markers.  

 

I started with a blank envelope (from the dollar store) that I painted with Fresco Finish Chalk Paint (Persimmon) and stamped an alphabet stamp (I&DW5). I had a scrap piece of book paper that already had a stenciled image so I used that in the background.

I stenciled a few flowers in the background and colored them in using Fresco Finish Paints (Firebird, Persimmon and Cheesecake). I then used Grunge Paste through a stencil and dripped Fresco Finish Paint (Verdigris) once it was dry.

I always love using Grunge Paste as it adds wonderful texture in the background. You don't even need a lot of it to make an impact.

Since this is a garden journal, I wanted to make sure my focal images were nature themed. I chose stamps that reminded me of the garden. To create the embellishments, I stamped my images (I&DP3, I&D06), cut them out and painted them with Fresco Finish Paints. 

Lastly, I layered the stamped images front and center as my focal point and made a border around the edges with a black pen.

 

Embellishing envelopes is one of my favorite things to do, whether I am sending them in the mail  or using them as storage. I hope you will grab a box or even use those extra envelopes that come with the bills and see what you can create with a little bit of paint and stamps.

Until Next Time,

Kate

Blog: https://kateyetter.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kateeyetter/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/katesscrapyard/_created/

  

2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour with JOFY {by Jo Firth-Young}

  2021 Topic 10: My Favourite Colour

We do love a JOFY mini book, and even better when it's a pink-black-gold combo! Jo goes through her back catalogue to show just how perfectly all her stamps can work well together in the background and of course she also manages to find the perfect focal points to adorn each page beautifully.
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Jo Firth-Young (www.jofy.co.uk) here with you today, and I'm here to share with you a small concertina book I made using my 'favourite' colour - I say my 'favourite' colour but it really is so hard to pick just one colour isn't it?!!

I chose PINKS, - including HOT pink - the gorgeous Cerise. Hot pink seems slightly rebellious - it says 'look at me!'  It makes a statement doesn't it. I've teamed it with Sherbet, Gold and black to quieten it down a little... but not too much. lol

The mini book I created (final size 8x8cm) came together quite easily - I didn't start with any expectations of what it was going to be... but I took inspiration from an even smaller book I have on my desk (I do love tiny 'junk'/art journals!). 

It features lots of the small designs that are on my stamp plates and I've been wanting to make a slighter larger project using phrases. 

So I gathered up Smoothy card and paints and just started playing - I used lots of bits of 'this and that' - I had FUN making it, no pressure.  I used many of my favourite techniques - and all that HOT PINK colour!! 

The finished book just makes me smile- it has a really positive feel to it - I chose to feature lots of the little phrases & words that are dotted among my JOFY collection - I wanted to give them their '5 minutes of fame'. lol

I started by creating a master-board on a 13x6in panel of Heavy Smoothy. I painted it with diluted Sherbet Fresco Finish paint, used stencil PS250 to add small spots in Cerise and larger spots in Kitsch Flamingo Distress Oxide.  

Then, I added letters (JOFY101) in Gold Fresco Finish to break up the pink and add a touch of shine to contrast the matte pink paints. I intentionally left 'open' spaces.

Once all the painted layers had dried I added more details: I stamped blocks of small dots (EM57), and drew around the large dots with Stabilo All pencils in white and black diluting the lines with water.

I folded the panel into 4 x 3in strips, cutting off the remaining 1in strip.

 

I realised that 4 rectangle panels didn't give me enough space to work on - not enough pages, and I thought rectangles might be slightly restrictive so I cut the rectangles into 8 7x7cm squares - much more versatile and more pages! win win!

Now to decide what colour card to mount the squares onto for the concertina structure.  I often try out several backgrounds colours before making a decision - its definitely worth looking at different options - some might surprise you!  I tested white, black and my firm favourite: kraft. The different background colours definitely create a different look - the white is fresh, the black is very dramatic and the kraft gives a softer look. I decided on black for my book- a change from the white or kraft that I might normally reach for.

I measured and cut a strip of black card to mount the squares onto allowing for a border to frame each piece.

.... and when all the background details were finished I sewed each panel in place.

 

Here are pairs of page with the details of stamps used... details on the panels are die cuts, stamping, stenciling - created from pieces cut/created for this piece and from project 'left-overs' - repurposing bits and pieces. I really like adding all these little details to these small pages.

'Life is good.... ' is from JOFY46.  The numbers on the right hand page are from JOFY88 - this was a 'scrap' piece saved from a previous project (its always worth hanging on to interesting bits and pieces). These numbers were part of the planner sets I designed but it great to see them being used for something else.

The left hand page features bud stems from JOFY26 and 'Grow' from JOFY97 is part of a phrase but works just as well on its own.
I heat embossed most of the images stamped in black - the gloss of the embossing is a nice contrast to the matte Fresco paints.
The flower on the right hand page is JOFY61, and this page features one of the background stamps I added for more detail on some pages - the white embossing really makes it pop.

 

 

'Be a rebel' (great phrase) comes from JOFY50 - the ombre painted word uses Cerise and Sherbet. The flowers on the right hand page are from JOFY26 (shown above) - I stamped the flowers directly onto the background and added an additional one for added interest.

Here are the final two pages featuring JOFY72 (I like how the word 'you!' is accentuated by embossing it in gold), and JOFY102. 

Black and pink is such a great colour combination isn't it! and with those pops of gold and white!! Fabulous! 

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, to take another look through your stamps sets - look for the smaller stamps that are tucked in around the bigger images - bring them out, play with them and make them the feature of your pages - there are lots of little treasures in those sets - I'd love to see what you create!  

Take care

Jo

Website: www.jofy.co.uk

Pinterest: @jofyjo

Facebook: JoFY Jamboree! group

Twitter: @jofyjo

Instagram: @jofyjo

Teaching dates - ONLINE workshops
28.08.21  Loobi Crafts, www.loobicrafts.co.uk ...Wonderfully Wintery

Every Friday until December:  Festive Friday, 18.00 (UK time), in my Jamboree group: Free demo/Card making class