Day 5: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 5: Featuring Jo Firth-Young 
using Nut and Meg plate 5 

Yes we do have an abundance of Joanne's on our Design Team, but this is the last one you will meet. This, our 3rd lovely and very talented Jo Firt-Young also writes fabulous articles for Craft Stamper. Yes we do move in high circles here at PaperArtsy.

Jo F-Y has graced the cover, no less, of a Stampington Wedding Publication, and has all kinds of official “crafting and teaching” qualifications. I have known her for over 8 years – she was a regular attendee of the monthly PaperArtsy classes we taught here in Essex way back before we made Rubber Stamps. And back then I was instantly wowed by Jo's amazing way with colour, she would create the most sunning altered books, and I really thought she should be teaching us, not the other way around! 


Jo is also one of our co-teachers at ArtsyCrafts retreats. She has a great sense of humour, and is one of the few on our Design Team who live near PaperArtsy World HQ. I adore her attention to detail and the huge variety of things she produces. She has a really unusual way of bringing her ideas to fruition, far more well thought out, tried , tested, sketched and planned than most of us splodging peeps, so we probably should call her a “proper” artist! (and then she would blush) Jo is a non-tooting crafter, and we need to recognise her talent with a huge booming fog horn. You can check her out on her blog here.

Birds are in the House 

by Jo Firth-Young

Jo was here at PA HQ just as the new Rum & Raisin papers came off the press, so she managed to create this sample and incorporate the new papers into her project. She used the following rom the pack of 28 papers: Blue damask, Green text, Stripe, Red. 

The birdhouse panel:
Cut a white piece of card 8x23cm.  Stamp birdhouse (SINM5) at the top in black ink.  Colour

On a separate piece of card stamp the parcels from the Christmas tree image (Nut and Meg plate 3) 3 times. Colour in and cut out.

Arrange the parcels at the bottom of the white piece of card under the birdhouse (don’t stick down yet) because you need to draw a long post connecting the birdhouse and the parcels. Take the parcels away and around the base of post draw ground grass and tall stalks – run some of them up the post. Colour in.

Rearrange the presents around the base of the post and attach.

The tag:
Cut a piece of chipboard 12.5x26cm. Shape the top to look like a tag.

Cut a piece of the blue damask paper 21cm tall, and a piece of the green script with text 8cm tall. Do not trim the width of the paper at this point, keep it the A5 width , as it comes in the Rum and Raisin pack.


Border punch the bottom edge of the blue panel. Run both of the patterned sheets through a glue machine, or use you preferred adhesive on the back to secure to the chipboard. Position the green sheet at the bottom of the chipboard tag, trim the sides to fit. Centre (widthways) the pattern of the blue sheet onto the tag, and attach to the tag so it lies over the green paper. Trim.

Tie a piece of ribbon around the tag a third of the way up positioning knot to one side.
Punch hole at the top of the tag, add eyelet.
Attach the stamped panel.

  
Stamp the ‘do not open…’  image (Noel Plate 4) onto a piece of the red "Rum & Raisin" paper and cut out. Embellish with a gold pen around the edges. Attach to the card over the top of the birdhouse panel.
Thread ribbons through the holes at the top of the tag.

The reverse of the tag: 
Cover with a piece of white card/heavyweight paper.

Stamp flourishes (Noel plate 4) in gold over the bottom third over the tag.

Cut a piece of striped paper 5cm high and attach to the tag – overlapping the stamped images.

Draw around the edges of the entire tag with a gold Krylon pen.

And here's the finished project ! A huge tag!

A big thanks to Jo for this sample, she will be back on another Xmas day, so keep checking back!

Just time for one more sample with Nut and Meg plate 5.

Copper Birdhouse

by Leandra Franich

Create a background of stamped ferro highlighted with copper precious metal colour accents. Make a chipboard panel with painted terra-texture. Make a tape-metal sandwich of the copper metal pieces, and use a teflon pointed tool to highlight the stamped design. Use a herringbone wheel on the stars to add interest. Secure copper pieces to the background with Claudine Hellmuth multi-medium (Matte). Stamp the lights (SINM1) onto appletini green metal, make a tape sandwich for extra strength, cut out and drape around the frame. 

 

PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 5 and Noel Plate 4 on EZ Mount PLUS a Rum and Raisin Paper Pack, making a prize worth £23.40. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, 8 Sept, 2009, and is open to all players worldwide.

Day 4: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 4: Featuring Jo Capper-Sandon 

using Nut and Meg plate 4

Jo has a huge following, no doubt if you are in England you are familiar with her work from Craft Stamper magazine. However she has also featured as guest artist for Stampington too. A testimony to her talent. Her style I simply adore. She manages to be economical, clever, humourous, elegant all at once, and yet she doesn't "overcook" things. She can do "messy" stuff, and yet it looks tidy and almost minimalist. Her projects look "just right", they have just the right amount of embellishment, a great balance of colour and contrast. She has an innate ability to put things together in a very beautiful way with her amazing amazing eye for detail and you find yourself studying all of those little details. I’m sure you’ll enjoy her ideas with this stamp. Check out Jo's blog here: http://jocappersandon.blogspot.com/

Santa’s Invite  

by Jo Capper-Sandon

It’s amazing how using a different shape, in this case round, and a touch of crackle can make such an impact. Jo has created an invitation anyone would be excited to get! Get organised for your Christmas party early this year and impress your friends with an invite like this one!

Coat a sheet of red paper with bronze Viva Croco Crackle. This is a one-step crackle, and the way you apply the croco determines the type of cracks you get. Splat it with a spatula to make peaks, and you will get rounded cracks. Streak it on in a linear fashion, and you get longer cracks like these. It takes about  4-6 hours to crack in a warm room. You can speed it up with a heat gun, but it's probably better to be patient and wait. 

Once dry, glue to a round folded card. For this you want a strong glue, like Claudine Hellmuth Multi medium (Matte).

Stamp the elf using black permanent ink (eg Archival Jet Black, Ranger) and draw a pair of legs to match. Cut out.
Stamp on white the invitation words and then lay them onto red card .
Colour the elf and lay up onto two pieces of circular card along with the invitation panel before fixing to crackle card base.
To embellish, add holly (taken from the tag stamp from the same plate) and a star charm.

A big thanks to Jo for her beautiful project, we'll be hearing more from her later in this feature on another day, so keep checking back! Next we have another project from Julie Harrington, and a vintage touch from Joanne Wardle.
 
Vibrant Elf  

by Julie Harrington

When Christmas is in the middle of summer, like it is for Julie in Australia, the traditional colours often go out the window, and we celebrate with vibrant summer colours. Xmas work functions take the form of Bar-B-Q’s on the beach, or drinks outside in the evening sun. Julie explains how she made this bright card:

This party invitation is a hybrid project; digital and stamped. I printed some scrapbook paper from a Designer Digital Christmas kit.  I started with a base white card background ( ½ an A5 size) so that the invite would fit into a normal little envelope for posting in the mail easily. 

Next I stamped out all the pieces – the elf’s head and legs from SINM7, the party invite from SINM4 and coloured those with coloured pencils. 

I then assembled the striped paper onto the white base, and stamped down the 2 longer sides using the border stamp from SINM6 and coloured the Holly leaves and berries. 

I stamped the words “Christmas Cheer” from SINM3 along the top and bottom. To finish just assemble all the pieces.  The blue paper beneath the invite stamp is a piece of card left over from playing with the Pearl Blue Viva Precious Metal Colour paint, which was actually mixed with transparent crackling paint. I used a paper punch to give the edges some interest. 

And to finish today's post, a wonderful olde worlde tag from Joanne. Check out her blog to see more from Joanne.  http://madebyjoanne.blogspot.com/

Vintage Santa Tag

by Joanne Wardle

Stamp in black archival ink the Santa (XM4) onto white card with Sepia Archival Ink (Ranger). Cut into a tag shape. 

Lightly sponge Tea Dye Distress Ink onto tag and then spritz with water to spread the colour. Dry with heat gun. Colour portions of image using fired brick distress ink as a watercolour, by inking a craft sheet and using a wet paintbrush. 

Over stamp with text and postage stamp from Ancestors plate 2, with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and emboss with Vintage Photo Distress Powder. 

Distress the sides of the tag with a Tim Holtz paper distresser, and age with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Attach lace and a button at the foot of the tag, and an eyelet at the top.


PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 4 and 7 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting (September 7, 2009), and is open to all players worldwide.

If you want to stay in touch with the goings on at PaperArtsy, you can follow Leandra on Twitter (@PaperArtsy) or become a friend of Leandra Franich on Facebook. Or subscribe to this blog. We love hearing from you so it's nice to get feedback via all these forums.

Blog Winners from Days 1 & 2

Drum roll please.....we consulted the randomiser and it picked the following lucky people:

Winner Day 1 ( who will receive Nut and Meg plates 1 & 5) is Julie Corfield

 Julie Corfield said...(our Amazonian Goal Keeper from down under...this will make sense if you are a friend of Julies on FB)

Love the christmas tree stamp and the different looks you achieved with it! That moose is too cute too!!!  

Winner Day 2 (who will receive Nut & Meg 2 and Xmas 1) is Margriet ( a regular commentor on this blog! Congratulations!)

 Anonymous said...

Lovely icy snowman samples of Joanne and a very cute metal snowman. That paint is really beautiful. Margriet

I am thrilled for you both, please email me your postal addresses to sales@paperartsy.co.uk and we'll get your prizes off in the mail this week!

Leandra

Day 3: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

Day 3: Featuring Linda Brown using Nut and Meg plate 3
Linda is the owner of LB Crafts, one of England's first established stamp shops, and she keeps the shop extremely well stocked with a fantastic range of inks, paints, stamps, papers, and many unusual items for the avid crafter. Linda's classes are amazing, and always sell out fast. People flock to see her demonstrate at shows she attends around the UK becaue they know they will always see her do something new and interesting at each show. Take a look at her blog, or go and visit LB Crafts online. Lin and I have been working together for about 18 months to bring you ArtsyCrafts weekend retreats twice a year. It's been so much fun for us to pool our skills to bring an event we thoroughly enjoy teaching, and in the process we have become great friends too.

 
 

Christmas Canvas by Linda Brown

This is a delightful project, and a really nice piece to have on display for Christmas in your home. The Canvas is set into its own wooden frame (available from LB Crafts) and could be decorated in all manner of ways. 

Lin has covered the wooden frame with metal embossed with texture wheels, painted and glimmer-sprayed, but you could also use the Croco Crackle, or Terra and Ferro textures to create other stunning effects for the edges too.

Paint the canvas with Viva Precious Metal Colours, and over-stamp in Archival ink with the words from SINM8. Tear a piece of paper, overstamp and stick onto the canvas with matte gel medium.

Stamp the tree and baubles onto Pearl Metal. Puff out the tree baubles, and squiggle in between with a Teflon tool. Paint the baubles gold and blue lagoon with Viva PMC paints, and the tree olive.

Repeat this process for the remaining metal elements (presents, baubles, star etc) and decorate with freestyle patterns or texture wheels.

Strengthen all the metal elements with a tape-metal sandwich before securing onto the canvas. Make wire "legs" for the tree.


A big thanks to Lin for sharing this wonderful idea with all our favourite products! 
You can see both Lin and Leandra demoing together on her stand (LB Crafts) at Alexandra Palace for The Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show, London, on September 26 and 27.


Today we also have a few other contributions, here's one from Julie Harrington, a quick idea with the baubles.

Digital Baubles Card 
by Julie Harrington

For this fast idea, Julie printed a digital paper “Let It Snow”, and over-stamped with SINM3’s baubles in black ink. 

The quote can be found on SINM6 onto a blue background, and framed with an acetate-printed frame. Black ink is rubbed around the edges.

You could also try this idea with the new PaperArtsy Christmas papers  - which funnily enough are in the same colour scheme. Reds and blues with a touch of green. See them here.

And what follows below are some cards I did using these new Rum and Raisin papers which we received from the printers yesterday! They are a delight to work with, and make it fast to put together cards. 

They can be stamped and embossed, or distressed with ink and paint and they match perfectly with Olive, Red, Turquoise, Sea Breeze, Coastal Blue and Pistachio paints from Kaisercraft. As you will see below.

Joyful Christmas

by Leandra Franich

 Stamp the baubles onto white card with Black pigment ink, emboss with clear powder, and colour with a waterbrush dipped onto Broken China Distress ink. Build up the colour to be darker at one side. Overstamp with the words from SINM8. Cut out.

Position the baubles onto the red paper from Rum & Raisin as shown, then emboss the quote in the centre bottom. 

Lay the red paper onto pale blue, and accent with brads. Secure to Navy blue card.

We Three Trees

by Leandra Franich

Trees like these ae easy to work with. Glossy accents dimensional galze (Ranger) or Stickles glitter glue works well on the dots, or try punching them out to let the layer behind peep through.

Paint a piece of old book paper with kaisercolour Coastal Blue and Pistachio. Dry. Stamp and emboss the tree 3 times in clear with Black Pigment ink. Repeat for the star 3 times. Cut out and save the presents from under the tree for the Family Stockings Card.

Arrange the trees onto the white background, and place a piece of striped paper to the right hand side. Stamp and emboss Christmas Cheer at the bottom of the card in black with clear EP. Place a poinsettia flower on the card with a brad to secure.

Lay the card to pale blue, then navy card.  

Family Stockings 

by Leandra Franich


Every Christmas we hang up the kids stockings on the mantlepiece, and each has one I made back in the day when I was a keen quilter.  They all love their stockings, and this card reminds me how they look. I love having a winter Christmas after many warm ones in New Zealand, it's great on Christmas Day to be snuggled in front of the fire, but I do miss the NewZealand boxing day when we head off to the beach with our chicken and ham sandwiches.

 

Stamp in pigment black ink the stockings 3 times onto the pale white paper from the Rum and Raisin paper pack. Emboss with clear embossing powder. Colour with Peeled Paint and Broken China Distress Ink using a water brush swiped across the ink pad. Dry. Cut Out.

Draw a "line" to hang the stockings from onto a blue background, and stick the stockings to the paper. Lay this layer to blue, then white backgrounds. At the foot of the card are presents leftover from the "We Three Trees" card. Arrange across the foot of the card.

Layer to Pale blue then Dark Blue Card stock. It's a nice touch to swipe the edge of each alyer of card with either Broken China or Peeled paint Distress Ink.

A Copper Christmas  
by Leandra Franich

Paint a chipboard panel with Kaisser Colour paints (Sea Breeze, Antique White, Turquoise) blending the layers as you work. Overspray with walnut gold Glimmer Mist. Edge the panel with jet Black Archival Ink.

Stamp up a panel on turquoise card with the background words from SINM8 in black ink, and edge with black. Lay both these onto a square panel of card as shown.

Onto copper metal stamp the tree and baubles in black stazOn ink. Outline the baubles on the tree with a Teflon tool, and from the reverse side, use a ball and cup to puff them out (remember to puff on a fat embossing mat, then refine them with the cup on the acrylic mat). Use a paper stump while the metal is on the acrylic mat to smooth out in between the raised baubles.

Make a tape sandwich with the stamped metal, humungo tape and card. Outline the design lines on the tree presents, and on the baubles you can add freestyle squiggles. Apply black paint to the squiggled baubles and rub off the excess paint to leave some in the design. Cut out all the metal elements and arrange on the card. Stamp Happy holidays in black on the painted panel. Assemble as shown.

Well that lot should get your minds spinning for today! Sunday is a great day to be creative, so we hope this will inspire you to think about what you might do for a creative Christmas this year. Please share our blog feature on your own blogs and spread the word about our fantastic Design Team and what they are doing over the next 10 days.


We shall be announcing blog winners shortly for days 1 and 2 and the prizes will be in the post this week! Thanks for all your fantasti comments.


Leandra (PaperArtsy)

 ,
PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we’ll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 3 and Nut and Meg Plate 6 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting (06 Sept 2009), and is open to all players worldwide. 

Day 2: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

PaperArtsy Twelve Days of Christmas

Day 2: Featuring Joanne Wardle using Nut and Meg Plate 2

Joanne is the newest member to our design team having only been with us a couple of months, but we have already realised she is a whirlwind to keep up with - she gets the “fastest stamper in the West” prize for turning out beautiful projects faster than the mailman can deliver them.  She has a fresh clean style which works well with these Nut and Meg stamps, but she is equally versatile with our collage images, and extremely creative with her ideas to boot! Take the time to check out Joanne's blog.



Snowman Pennant 
by Joanne Wardle

This is a fun way to add some Christmas Cheer to your home. And a great project to do with the kids if you get roped into helping out at school this Christmas. Joanne describes the process:

Cut a triangle from a 7”x5” piece of white card. Rub faded jeans distress ink onto a craft sheet and spritz with a silver mica based spray. Dab the card onto this and allow it to dry. This creates an easy background paper versatile for all kinds of projects.

Once the paper is dry, spray it with the silver spray again for extra sparkle.

Stamp the snowman (SINM2) and holly decoration (SINM2)  onto white card and cut out. Colour the snowman with markers and add clear glitter glue to the edges of the snowman with stickles.
Stamp Merry Christmas directly onto the triangle in black ink.

To embellish, stamp the snowman again onto blue mirror card and cut out just the buttons and attach to main image. Punch a snowflake from blue mirror card and attach with a snowflake eyelet.

To complete, secure the holly decoration and snowman in position, add two white eyelets and silver wire to hang.

 Snowman Acetate Card 
by Joanne Wardle
Acetate is such a great substrate to use for a card. The added dimension it brings from using the inside of the card as a backdrop for the front decoration is simple yet a very striking idea.

Using a piece of acetate 15cm wide, 16 cm tall, cut a 5cm deep triangle away from the top, and fold to form an unusual shaped card.

Stamp snowman (SINM2) onto the white card, colour with markers and cut out. Stamp text background (XM4) onto white card and trim. Stick this to the inside of the card. Cut a slightly bigger piece of green card and stick this behind on the outside of the card (this will give you somewhere to write your message).

Adhere the snowman to front of card - lined up with text. Embellish with a snowflake punched from double sided adhesive, and add glitter. Add a strip of double sided tape to front and add glitter to that too.

 Gift Tags 
by Joanne Wardle

Use A7 cream card (i.e. A5 cut into quarters) folded in half, this is a great size for a small gift tag or card. 

Stamp the snowman (SINM2), directly onto the card in brown permanent ink. Colour with watery distress inks. Stamp text background (XM4) onto scrap of cream card. Cut out some words and attach with 3d foam.

TOP TIP: To create a watercolour effect with Distress Ink, either apply ink to craft sheet, spritz with water and pick up with a brush, or pick up colour direct from ink pad with a water-logged brush.

Thanks to Joanne for these wonderful ideas. These are quick and easy for those of us who need to get cracking on this year’s cards for the masses!

Christmas Spice Bag 

by Joanne Wardle

This fabulous little idea would look superb on any Christmas tree this year, and what’s more, its smells scrummy!

Stamp the Holly Image from the Ink and The Dog Collection (Xmas Plate 1) in Jet Black Archival ink onto a fine weave fabric . For example, white cotton or calico. The finer the weave of the fabric, the better the quality of the image will be.

Dry, and decorate the berries with red sequins and seed beads. Sew into a little pouch, and fill with Christmassy spices. If you leave the top open, you can re-fill each year. Attach with a clip to your tree.

Terra-Metal-Man of the Snow 

by Linda Brown (LB Crafts)

Lin is my partner in crime for the ArtsyCrafts events which we design, teach and plan together. (PS I think there is only 1 place left on the second weekend retreat) This little guy is one of the things she has been demoing at recent shows with the new Nut & Meg stamps.

Apply Viva Décor Golden Orange Terra texture directly to an arch-shaped piece of chipboard, making it thicker on one side that the other. Use you finger tool so you can feel the depth of the texture. With a damp stamp, press into the texture with Mini 44.

Dry the terra with a heat tool, or set aside to dry naturally (about 15-30 mins).

Apply Black kaiser colour paint over the top part of the arch and terra with cut and dry foam. Dry.

Stamp the snowman (SINM2) onto Pearl metal with Black StazOn ink. Use watered down Gold and Olive Viva Décor precious Metal Colour Paints with a fine paintbrush to colour the buttons, scarf, gloves, nose and hat of the snowman.

Use Gold Precious Metal Colour to highlight parts of the orange and black texture on the chipboard.

Make a tape sandwich with the stamped metal, Humungo tape and cardstock, and outline the stamped lines of the snowman with a pointed Teflon tool. Cut out, and stick the card-backed snowman to the chipboard with Matte Gel Medium or Glossy Accents.


 A huge thankyou to Joanne and Lin for their fantastic and inspiring ideas for today's post.



PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we’ll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 2 and Xmas Plate 1 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting (05 Sept 2009), and is open to all players worldwide.

Day 1: PaperArtsy 12 Days of Christmas

PaperArtsy Twelve Days of Christmas

As our lives settle back to normal with the kids back at school and Christmas fast approaching, we thought we’d spend 12 days featuring the new Nut and Meg Christmas Stamps from PaperArtsy's Squiggly Ink Collection as created by our lovely Design Team people.

PaperArtsy recently released some new Christmas stamps called Nut and Meg. Not only will we focus on those stamps, but you’ll see some other Seasonal favourites sneak in along the way. We hope you enjoy this feature. Please leave a comment, and each day a lucky person will win the featured stamps of the day.

Day 1: Featuring Julie Harrington and Nut and Meg Plate 1
Julie is from Australia, she is the designer of our Urban Snapshots collection. Julie is an avid photographer, and her creative-style evolves in a new direction every year. Currently she is into digital scrapbooking, and she blends this with a more physical mixed media approach. She loves strong colours, and we enjoy her vibrant, unique individual approach to her creativity.

For the Birds 
by Julie Harrington
Using our new little papermache birdhouse, Julie made a colourful roost for the little metal squiggly bird. Julie describes how she made this:

Coat the sides of the house with the Ice Blue viva paint and the top with the Metallic Blackberry  colour. 

Once dry I stamped the little snowflake from SINM1 on the walls. Then I mixed a little of the Ice Blue Precious Metal Colour with the Viva Transparent crackle and I painted that crackle mix onto the walls.  It was pretty amazing.  It has actually crackled the bottom layer of paint as well so that what shows through is the natural colour of the Paper Mache box. 

On the roof I put some of the Platinum Crackle Paint which I mixed with a light moulding paste.  It crackled beautifully, and shows the Blackberry through from underneath really well, plus you get that crunchy snow-like texture from the moulding paste. 

For the decorations I stamped the lights from SINM1 and cut them out.  Coloured them to match the colour scheme and attached them to wire which I strung around the roof. 

I also stamped out the presents from SINM3, coloured them in, cut them out and glued them around the bottom of the bird house. 

For the metal bird I used the little bird from the birdcage on SINM6 onto Kiss Me Pink Ten Second Studio Metal. I cut the bird out and stuck it onto the perch.  I thought the roof needed something so it’s got this old flower off one of those house decorating flower stems that were all the rage about 15 years ago, with a sparkly, white brad in the centre.

Down Under "Frozen" Christmas 
by Julie Harrington 
This card uses a lot of left overs from other papers that have been made while cleaning up excess Viva Decor paint off brushes etc. Choose a selection of papers that work together, and stamp the tree SINM1 on each of the papers. Cut out all the tree segments. Punch circles from the lefts overs of these papers.

Onto a paint-streaked piece of card arrange punched circles randomly, and draw wobbly circles around each punched piece. Now decide which of the coloured segments to use for the tree, and stick them onto the background.

Stamp and cut out the present, and stamp the bird (SINM5) colour and secure on the present.
Smother the entire composition with Viva transparent crackle paint.
You can’t see it in the picture very easily, but the texture from the crackle is a relly nice effect. It makes the whole card front look like a scene "frozen" under clear ice.


 

Viva le Tree 
by Julie Harrington
Start by stamping the reindeer (SINM1) onto white cardstock using Weathered Wood Distress Ink.
Then using a credit card, scrape Viva Décor Precious Metal Colour Paints (Lime  and Pearl Grey) over the top until its as messy as you like it.
Stamp out the tree 4 or more times onto 4 or more different background papers.  Cut out the different layers of the tree and choose a selection to make up the tree. Glue onto the background.  

Stamp out the Christmas lights (SINM1) and the presents from (SINM5).  Cut out.  Glue some presents directly onto the back ground and using foam pads position others so that they sit raised off the background.
Place blingy brads or other buttons on corners.
Assemble using double sided tape or dry glue onto green card stock to match the viva paints used.

Rudolf picks caramel for 2009 
by Julie Harrington

The Reindeer card (or moose as I keep thinking of it) is a quick and easy card for Christmas.

Stamp out reindeer onto white cardstock and then colour using colour pencils or watercolours.  I used a caramel Bo Bunny paper as the backdrop.  On a piece of contrasting plain cardstock stamp the small snow flake and on an even smaller contrasting piece stamp out “Happy Holidays”.  Assemble.  I used glitter glue on some of the background dots on the card, the presents and on the reindeer’s stars and antlers.



A big thanks Julie for her inspired ideas with these stamps and paints.


PaperArtsy Blog Giveaway: Please leave a comment and we'll randomly draw a name to win Nut and Meg Plates 1 and 5 on EZ Mount worth £18.80. This offer ends midnight GMT the day of this posting, and is open to all players worldwide.

Bijouterie - Viva Les Earrings

This project combines everything: Viva Ferro, Precious Metal Colour Paint, Wooden Beads, Rubber Stamping and Copper jewellery findings. Ohhhhhhhh...... the excitement, I can hardly contain myself!

I made these in 10 mins. (I try to do things fast! lol) and Millie (my trusty assistant) took the photos as my hands were a bit tied up. The reason the right one is focussed and the left one isn't is because we told the camera (Marks' I phone) to do that.....and then we had to run out the door to a football tournament, so I didn't get to take more in the same light.....nevertheless.... here's how we did it all.....

Step One: Ferro

Use a spatula (no cleaning required - mine is a coffee stick) to apply Viva Ferro paste (can you see its a little sparkly?) to the base of the wooden bead. I used graphite, but any colour will do based on the colour jewellery you prefer. I'm a blue girl so that's where I was heading, and I had graphite open already, but I could have done the same thing with any other Ferro base. 

Ferro comes in loads of colours...check out the Golden Orange or Golden Iron ...in fact all the colours are wicked...you know you need them!

Apply a layer about 1mm thick, you can smooth with your finger once you have a good amount on the bead. See how I used a toothpick to hold the bead? Makes it easier.

Step Two: Texture

Now select a rubber stamp. I used Mini 44 because I wanted a texture with a deeply embossed stamp, but i was also thinking SM08 would look cool too. The rubber on this stamp is a very deep 1-2 mm. It's nice to roll the bead along the script because you can't see where it starts and finishes.

TOP TIP: Make sure to wet the stamp with a babywipe first. This makes a good release agent, plus clean up is easier, and that's a good thing!

If you aren't happy with the job you did, you can smooth off the paste with your finger and repeat. Or you can add or remove ferro if you have too much or too little. 

Experiment a bit until you find out what works best...maybe square beads would be easier to stamp each side??? We have those in stock too....check them all out here.

Step Three: Paint

Shake up your Viva until the ball clacks about to mix the metallic pigment thoroughly. This colour is turquoise. 

Apply a spot to some Cut and Dry Foam. Dab the spot onto your craft sheet so you get a flat even layer, and then while holding the bead on a toothpick ( or cocktail stick or whatever you like to call those pointy things...my Dutch friends call them kabab sticks!) dab all over with the paint. Note how the paint doesn't go into the recesses, it sits on the top, and the black crevices are a nice contrast to the gorgeous turquoise colour.

We like this. It's easy! And sparkly!

Step Four: Peaky contrast

How about introducing another colour? Paint always looks great when you do this, and on a dark colour like turquoise, a pale shade will pop in contrast too. I used bronze and it picks up the texture of the Ferro to add another layer of interest.

Look in the background, and you can see I'm doing beads the opposite way too, Bronze on the base and Turquoise on top. 

Imagine the possibilitie for a matching necklace, bracelet and earrings. And even though these look metallic, they are not heavy because the base is wood, plus for those people who are allergic to metal, this is a great solution!!. No more jewelery avoidance!

Step Five: Findings

using the new Bijouterie findings in copper from PaperArtsy, you can quickly make these beads into earrings.

I am not the greatest, nor the most experienced jewellery maker in the world, so if I can do this it must be easy! Take a flower end cap (these are soft so you can wrap the petals around your bead) and put it onto a copper head pin.

A star spacer or simple round bead looks nice at the top, or you can simply make a loop with round nosed pliers. Trim off the excess wire with wire cutters.

Next attach the loop you made to a copper earwire finding and you did it! New earrings in 10 mins!

Here's a piccie of the supplies that I used to make a this project. 

If you enjoyed this project, then book onto Leandra's Jewellery workshop (ref# S4, Saturday 14:15 -15:15) at the Artisan show on October 3&4, Warwickshire Exhibition Centre, Leamington Spa, where you will get to have a go at making these yourself. 

On Sunday Leandra is also teaching workshop #S7, 13:00 - 14:00 which will be Stamping and texture embossing metal with Ten Seconds Studio tools. You will decorate the cover of a mini book made with the brand new PaperArtsy Papers.

The Artisan show is sponsored by Traplet Publications (Publishers of Beads and Beyond and Craft Stamper magazines) and the focus of the show is stamping and jewellery making. 

Drop by the PaperArtsy stand to check out Leandra demoing with new Christmas Rubber Stamps and new Christmas Papers from PaperArtsy, Ten Seconds Studio Metal Products, Viva Decor paints, Kaiser Colour Paints and PaperArtsy's Bijouterie Jewellery findings.  

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