Art in Bloom Collage {with Eclectica³ Lin Brown Stamps by Linda Cain}

Hi everyone, Linda Cain here. And we're ready to Create some ART!

We think Spring is finally arrived, so I thought some Flowers would be fun to play around with today.

This is a 14 centimetre (or 5 1/2 inch) square pressed wood plaque with a bevelled edge I found at a craft store on vacation. It makes a great stable substrate for this project.

It has two holes that will be perfect for adding fibre so it can hang on the wall. 

The entire plaque is base coated with Nougat Fresco Paint and a piece of foam.

The next layer is Grunge Paste I added this through stencils from Lin Brown, PS002 and PS003.

  

When dry, I started adding colour, keeping in mind the upper portion is sky, and the lower section is grass. Mermaid and Guacamole, then Pansy and Eggplant are all added with foam squares.

We're going for bright and contrast here, so using Prima Metal Flowers, I sponged on Caramel, Tango, London Bus and Eggplant to the flower on the left.

Lilac, Pansy, and dots of Eggplant are added to the flower on the right. When dry, I stamped with Red Geranium Archival ink and a script stamp from ELB06. I sanded it back a bit to reveal the middle area with a fine Sanding Block. 

This flower is painted with London Bus, Pumpkin Soup and Tango. When dry, I sanded it back with a very fine sanding block and polished the revealed metal.

  

I decided I wanted this to be Shabby Chic in nature, so I stamped another script stamp from ELB06 using Sepia Archival Ink. Then I took a cotton cloth and wiped it off. You can see the lighter images underneath the darker images of script. Heat set and stamp the image again leaving it the darker image.

The Leafy Branch is stamped with Mocha Mousse using ELB04. The cool thing about this cling stamp is you can bend them in different directions on your stamp block to make them go in whatever direction you want. Here it bends slightly to the right. 

I sanded down some areas of the Grunge Paste and then used a dark purple and olive green archival ink with script and dots from MN72 Mini. 

I like to add black permanent pen around images to make the color pop. That seemed to work here to define the images much better. Plus I added a few extra leaves here and there to balance things out.

The top flower pieces are painted with Pansy, Pumpkin Soup, and Guacamole and then wiped with a cotton cloth and polished. The Screw Nut has Caramel and Pumpkin Soup in a couple of layers to make a contrasting centrepiece on that flower.

Art in Bloom is stamped from the ELB01set onto White Stamping Card that was coloured with Distress Inks and layered onto black chipboard.

After adding the brads in the centres, I used foam tape to glue the flowers to the piece.  Use a strong metal glue to adhere  the far left flower.

The Natural Trimming seemed to keep with the theme and was easy to add with a couple of knots.

So, that's my little piece of Spring Shabby Chic that I hope will brighten your day and get your creative juices flowing. Have fun, and don't forget to add your pieces to the blog for a chance to win!

Your Friend in ART,

Linda

A huge thanks to Linda from PaperArtsy for this gorgeous hanging board. So many lovely details to see in the layers. We especially like the way the flowers are built up. Stamping over the grunge paste leaves is very effective, and shows how smooth the paste can be once sanded. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday April 6th 2014

Smile Card { Hot Picks Stamps & JoFY Paints by Joanne Wardle}

Hi, it's Joanne here again with another Quick and Simple Project. In fact it's another One Layer card. I'm using the gorgeous limited edition Jofy colours again, but this time just Amethyst and Dolly Mix.

This card is made with just 3 stamps: a splatter, a swirl and a sentiment. It could easily be recreated with other stamps and colours.

To create the line I used a post it note and then  repeatedly stamped the swirl from Noel Plate 4 This is one of the most useful Christmas plates I own, but that swirl is useful all year round.

I turned the stamp for different positions so it gets longer at one side, always overlapping the post-it note.

Noel Plate 4

I then did the same with the splatter from Hot picks extra 01

HPXT 01

I then removed the post-it note and stamped the sentiment from hot picks Xtra 03

HPXT 03

I then used an embossing tool to apply dots of Amethyst and Dolly Mixin a random way

The final step was to add lots of dots of glitter glue.

And that's it: A very quick, and quite pretty card, that could be used for any occasion with the use of the right sentiment.

I hope you enjoyed this quick make, and I'll see you back here soon. Joanne. 

Huge thanks to Joanne from PaperArtsy HQ. I think this is my favourite of your cards. I adore the dots of colour, and the straight edge gives it that professional printed look. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday April 6th 2014

Tiled Board {with Lynne Perrella Stamps by Sue Carrington}

Hello it's Sue here, back for another month and sharing a project with a tiled theme tonight.

I started by covering 5 chipboard coasters with pieces of paper from the Chatsworth collection. I also gave them all a coat of Matt Medium to protect the paper from the paint I was about to add.

I then started to stencil using Snowflake Fresco Finish paint using the new PaperArtsy stencils,  ELB 006, ELB 004, ELB 001 and JOFY 007 

I gave all of the coasters a wash of watered down Yellow Submarine and Tikka. Then I taped two coasters together and used JOFY 007 stencil. I used a mix of Chutney and French Roast first of all, then when it was dry I moved the stencil slightly and stencilled with Snowflake. I then started to build up the colour, drying each layer and re-positioning the stencil to add the next layer.

I made 3 smaller coasters using the same technique as the larger ones,  this time using the beautiful large stamp from the Lynne Perella 030 set. I then painted them using a mixture of Tikka, Autumn Fire and Claret.

LPC 030

The coasters are mounted on to a piece of grey board, I painted it with Chalk and then used Chutney around the edges and the areas that would be seen, no need to cover the whole thing.

Before I glued the four coasters down I dry brushed around  the edges using Chutney and a little French Roast then rubbed Onyxite Treasure Gold around the edges. I wanted each coaster to look separate and the joins to be defined.

For the centre coaster I used the JOFY 007 stencil with Snowflake just on the corners, my thought was that the stencilling would frame the image that I was going to mount on top. I then gave it a wash of watered down Tikka.

The centre image is from the Lynne Perella 027 set and I've stamped her onto Heavy Smoothy card. I stamped the two post mark pieces again on a separate piece of card. I then painted her and mounted the post mark pieces on foam pads.

LPC 027

I lightly brushed Snowflake mixed with a little Tikka over the Tando flourish, then brushed more Tikka and then Chutney over it. I brushed some Onyxite Treasure Gold around the edges of it and then stamped the words from the Hot Picks 1205 set. 

HP 1205

To finish I did a little more dry brushing around the centre and mini coasters and I stamped Mini 96 with Tree Branch Archival ink. The script is stamped with Potting Soil Archival ink using the stamp from the Lynne Perella 014 set.

MN 96

LPC 014

I hope you've enjoyed tonight's post as much as I enjoyed making it !

See you soon.
Sue

A huge thank you to Sue from all at PaperArtsy HQ. This is stunning Sue, so dimensional, so much interest built up in carefully thought out layers. Dry brushing is a great technique, it adds texture without extra bulk, and works perfectly over the flourish. 

If you would like to join in our weekly challenge with any of this week's guests who have blogged since Sunday night, then join in to link up your creativity HERE you will go in the draw to win PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by17:00 (London time) Sunday April 6th 2014

GD: Clare Lloyd Project #3: Sentimental

"Clare Lloyd back with my last project for my GD Semester with PaperArtsy ...sniff! I can't believe where the past 4 months have gone, but they do say time flies when you are having fun! Ok so here is my project sentimental".

My project starts with a large hanging chunky board which I paint in a couple of coats of Haystack Fresco paint. 

I then stamp all over the hanger with sentiments from both sets of stamps in the Lin Brown Collection using Black Archival Ink.

ELB05

ELB06

Now it is time for some Grunge Paste which I just added to the front of the hanger and I used a Stencil Girl stencil called Damask. Plus my favourite No2 palette knife.

Once the Grunge Paste was dried I painted a layer of transparent Fresco Paint called Zesty Zing all over the hanger.

Time for an embellishment. I painted an Eclectica Shapes 05 chipboard piece with Little Black Dress Fresco paint. Then stamped on top with more black archival ink and another sentiment from the Lin Brown Stamp Collection. 

Eclectica Shape 05

A focal sentiment for my hanging board. Stamped onto Smoothy White Stamping Card and matted onto painted card using Little Black Dress paint and more black ink stamping.

Here are all my elements stuck into place and I decided to paint the string cord on the hanger in Little Black Dress to tie everything together. There is also a large floral resin embellishment to finish of my flower stalk.

Thank you to everyone for their lovely comments over the past few months. x

Leandra Says: Clare another great project full of texture and interesting details. You have brought such a wide spectrum of ideas to the blog this semester! From faces to canvases and everything in between! A pleasure to see you in action! Thank you so much for inspiring us all! x

Gillian Says: A beautiful bold statement project to finish off your GD stint Clare. It has been a pleasure to see how you create, thanks for sharing. x

Darcy says: A small sneaky announcement, I wonder how many of you will notice? We have loved Clare's work over the past 4 months and you have loved it too. By popular request we approached Clare to continue contributing to the blog next semester... and guess what? She said yes! Shhh keep it a secret!

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Claire's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday April 6th 2014