My Heart {with Eclectica³ Sara Naumann stamps by Gillian Simson}

Hello everyone, Gillian here. I'm delighted to be back this side of the blog again sharing my canvas board heart.

I applied random layers of Hint of Mint and Evergreen from the Lin Brown Ltd Edition Set2 to a 9x12 Canvas Board using a palette knife.

Next I added some Plum, making sure to dry in-between the layers. It looks way to bright at this point so I added some more Hint of Mint to knock it back. I then went on to add some Grunge Paste through the Mini Gothic Romance 6x6 stencil.

I then went over the Grunge Paste areas with some French Roast.

Next I randomly applied some Hint of Mint to a piece of Kraft Cardstock before stamping images from ESN11 using Archival Ink Jet Black .

I then applied layers of  paint to a piece of corrugated card again using a palette knife {love the effect}. 

I then stamped the heart image from ESN11 onto an old book page and the quote onto some Kraft Cardstock before cutting out. I added some Treasure Gold Spanish Topaz to the Grunge Paste textured areas and a little twine inbetween the hearts. Time to put it altogether.

Thanks for coming by tonight and hope to see you all again soon.

~Gillian~

 

A huge thanks to Gillian from all at PaperArtsy HQ. This is a great project, love those touches of Treasure Gold. Lin's paints provide a gorgeous mix of colours for the background, a perfect setting for the corrugated card. 

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Oct 1st 2014 and Oct 31st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014.

Journal cover {with JoFY Stamps and Stencils by Helen Lindfield}

Hello, Helen here, and I’m thrilled to have been asked by Darcy to create something for the PaperArtsy blog tonight. I’ve been using rubber stamps for over 20 years and right now I have an extensive collection of PaperArtsy products which I use all the time. You can see what I get up to on my blog – my style has changed considerably since then from cardmaking, to all kinds of mixed media projects which are my current favourite.

For the challenge, I opted to decorate the journal cover I’ve been using for Darcy’s monthly journal challenge that we’ve enjoyed during the year, and I have used stamps from both of Jo Firth-Young’s new Paperartsy stamp plates 25 and 26 and decorated it with some Prima trinkets and mechanicals My journal is the square 7x7 (approximately) hardcover but there are loads to choose from in the shop

I started by sanding the cover lightly and painting with a couple of coats of PaperArtsy Fresco Paint in Chalk. I stencilled flowers from Jo Firth-Young’s stencil plate PS009 using Fresco Paint Dusty Teal, from Jo’s first Limited Edition set (oops, this has now run out, but there are lots more delicious shades to choose from- you could use the new Turquoise(Limited Edition 2), mixed with Beach Hut or South Pacific). Luckily Chalk is still available in Jo’s new paint set. Once the Dusty Teal was dry, I stamped the flower from JOFY25 in black archival ink over the stencilled flowers.

JOFY25 

On tissue paper, I stamped the large flower from JOFY26 twice, and masked and stamped a third time (for the back cover) and just twice for the front cover. I painted the flowers with a mixture of Amethyst and Dolly Mix (from the same sold out Limited Edition set) for the back cover and Amethyst with a tiny amount of Chalk for the front cover, I wanted these to be slightly bolder. Using matte medium I glued these to the covers. For the spine I used the tall spiky flower and coloured it with Limelight/Guacamole and Dolly Mix/Chalk for the flowers.

JOFY26

For the decoration on the front cover I used some of the lacy flower trims to sit behind my Mechanicals and Trinkets. I painted the Mechanicals and Trinkets first with Chalk Fresco (using cut and dry foam) and then mixed a spray of Dusty Teal and water, and spritzed. I sanded them a little, then brushed them with Treasure Gold in White Fire and Aquamarine, polishing them with a cloth to buff them up. I also used two paper Prima flowers. I found some coloured brads in my stash that nearly matched exactly, and added Treasure Gold to them too.

I assembled the painted trinkets on the page, playing with the layout before I glued everything down with a heavy structure gel, and matte medium, to be sure they’d stay put!

I can’t quite decide which is my favourite part of this project, but I am really pleased with how the trinkets have come out. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have used a different green for the leaves of the flower on the spine of the journal, so they matched better with the rest of it, but we learn as we go!

Thanks to Darcy and all at Paperartsy for asking me to take part.

Helen. 

A huge thanks to Helen from PaperArtsy. What a wonderful way to decorate your journal, it will look such a treasure in the bookcase. Well done on using up your precious Limited Edition paints, it is perfect that you used them on a special project that you get to keep.Your trinkets tie in so well and frame the stamping beautifully. 

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Oct 1st 2014 and Oct 31st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014.

GD: Lelainia Lloyd Project #3 Happy Hallowe'en

"Hello everyone, Lelainia here with my final project of the week. Since Hallowe'en is just around the corner I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make a quick card. I don’t make cards very often, but Hallowe’en is such a fun holiday and most people aren’t expecting to get a card in the mail, so it’s the perfect time to send them a little handmade goodness and say hello".

I started by taking a sheet of laminated paper and cutting it into strips just a bit wider than the width of my masking tape. If you don’t have any handy, you can always use a sheet of scrap plastic. Recycled milk jug plastic works well or any flat plastic packaging you have lying around. You just want something you can stick the tape to, but still have it remove easily. 

Next, I put a piece of masking tape on each strip, leaving a bit hanging over the end to make it easy for me to peel it up later.

I used Limelight, Spanish Mulberry and Autumn Fire to paint each of the strips of tape. I did two coats. I recommend allowing these to air dry-you do not want to apply heat to speed up the process, as this is going to mess with the tackiness of the tape. Once the paint was completely dry, I used my bone folder to smooth out any air bubbles that formed underneath. You will want to have a smooth surface for stamping.

I decided which direction the tapes were going to go and stamped them in that direction accordingly. I used Black StazOn Ink to stamp the bat stamp from HPHW04, the spider web from HPHW02 and the tiny circles stamp from EEV06.

 

Next I stamped the tree image from HPHW02 on a piece of Smoothy White Stamping Card using Black StazOn Ink. 

I used my Prima craft knife to fussy cut the tree image out. The key to doing this is to work slowly and carefully. I do really small sections at a time. This took some time, but I found it quite relaxing. I put some music on and sang along while I worked on it. It really does help! *grins*.

After I had the tree all cut out, I cut my card base 7 inches tall x 5 ¾ inches wide from Smoothy Cardstock. I peeled the tape with the cob web off the laminated strip and positioned it across the bottom of the card, leaving about a ½ inch from the bottom.

I then peeled the strip with the small dots and positioned it vertically, ½ inch from the right hand edge, overlapping the cobweb tape end at the bottom. Next, I added the bat tape vertically, overlapping the dot tape slightly and lining it up to overlap the cobweb tape at the bottom. Once all the tape was on the card, I used my bone folder to make sure everything was stuck down firmly.

I wanted to fill up some of the white space, so I took my Mini Sketch Grid stencil and used Pumpkin Soup to fill in that area. I overlapped the stencil just slightly over the edge of the tape at the right and bottom.

After the paint had dried, I put a piece of double sided tape just on the back of trunk of the tree image and positioned it centered over the stenciled area of the card. I purposely didn’t glue the entire tree down by adding adhesive all over the back because I wanted the tree to have a 3D effect. By not sticking the branches down, they just naturally sit above the background and give the piece some depth.

Finally, I used PolyShrink to create a shrink charm with the words “Happy Hallowe’en” from HPHW04 set of stamps. I shrunk the Polyshrink using my heat gun and Teflon sheet. (Remember to remove your cutting mat from your work surface so it doesn't get warped when you're using your heat gun!) When the charm was cool, I used double sided tape to adhere the charm to the card. Finally, I trimmed a bit of the excess white border around the 3 sides of the card with my paper trimmer.

Easy-peasy! It was great fun creating my own decorative tapes and definitely something I will be doing again. They’d look great in my art journals or on mail art! Again I hope you have been inspired to go create art and join in with the monthly challenge. Until next time!

~Lelainia~

A huge thanks from all at PA HQ ... Great use of the tape/stencil to create such a funky backdrop for the tree, love the added depth to the tree and the warm/bold colours are visually striking. Thanks Lelainia for sharing your creative process once more.

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Oct 1st 2014 and Oct 31st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014.

October Challenge 2014

Hi everyone, Darcy here. 

Thanks to everyone who joined in with our September challenge. We had an amazing month of inspiration. Our brand new Guest Designers are now familiar to you all, we also saw some gorgeous things from a handful of random guests and of course our signature designers at the weekends brought you everything from canvasses, candles and cards to boxes, frames and journals...with all manner of projects in between. We also had two experimental posts, fabulous fun!

You know we love seeing how you interpret these ideas in your own projects so keep them coming. Thanks too for all your support and comments over the month, it means a lot to our designers, and they read all of them. 

The winner of the September Monthly Challenge is: Janet

Please get in touch with Darcy (darcydotneedles@hotmail.com) to find out how to claim your prize. 

The final page of the journal challenge has now also ended, huge thanks to my little troupe of journallers who joined in. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing your pages over the past 8 months, you all made great trees for the last page. 

The winner of the August Journal Challenge is: Craftyfield

Please get in touch with Darcy (darcydotneedles@hotmail.com) to find out how to claim your prize. 

October Challenge {2014}

Our challenge is now a monthly one, open from the first to the last day of the calendar month. 

We would love you to join in. We know our designers come up with utterly fabulous ideas, and often this makes you want to have a go and play along too. So go and make something, blog about it and share the link so we can see what you've been inspired by!

If you are prompted to creative-action by any of this month's guests who blog between Oct 1st and Oct 31st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity to this post.

You will go in the draw to win £50 (this includes VAT and postage) to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. (Think of it as £40 prize with £10 to cover the VAT and postage costs, worldwide) 

You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014. Please ensure you are familiar with our guidelines below

Challenge Etiquette:

1. The challenge is to show how you have been inspired by our designer(s) to try a particular technique. Your entry should contain:

- a mention of which designer inspired you and why, and 
- a link in your blog post to that designer's original post on the PA blog.
The whole concept of this challenge is 'play along with us'. You are encouraged to put your own twist on ideas you see on our blog, don't feel obliged to copy an idea exactly.

2. The link must come directly from the specific post on your blog where you have explored the technique/ idea mentioned in point 1 above. You cannot link to the home page of your blog, or we will be unable to find the post to leave you comments. (NB. Linking to your home page also looks like you are spamming us to drive traffic to your blog)

3. Spam links will be deleted. We did have someone who linked to a competitor's product launch/ website, so it does happen.

4. We prefer your post is created exclusive to our challenge. Multiple challenge links in one blog post is poor etiquette and generally makes you look like a blog-candy grabber. We know you have busy lives, and it's easier to do multiple links, but from our point it can result in a conflict of interest. 

5. You are welcome to use stamps/ products/ substrates you have to hand from a variety of companies, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it's lovely when you do! Try to be sensitive to these things :)

6. You can enter as many times as you like. We don't want to restrict your creativity or participation!

6. Entries can be inspired by any post on our blog for the duration of that same calendar month.

7. The winner of the random draw will receive a £50 credit to be redeemed on the PaperArtsy Website. We request that one of your purchases is an A5 rubber stamp. You can add any other items to your basket, but the final total (including VAT and postage) must not exceed £50 The voucher can only be used once, so you must redeem it in a single transaction.

8. The first day of every month (in this, the Challenge post) is when the winner of the month will be announced, also, in the same post, the link for the new month is posted. It's your responsibility to claim your prize coupon from Darcy: email her darcydotneedles@hotmail.com

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