2021 Topic 8: Nature's Treasure with JOFY {by Kay Carley}

2021 Topic 8: Nature's Treasure

We love it when a designer uses another designer's products. It is super-interesting to see the outcome, and on this occasion, Kay Carley has used Jo's stamps to create a wonderful floral, buzzing summer scene. Her explanation of the process she uses to build those amazing garden layers is super helpful!
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Kay with you today, and I'm here to share with you a decorated wooden hanging plaque that I created using JOFY stamps. With all the media coverage about bees at the moment I definitely wanted to create something involving these wonderful insects for my Natures Treasure project as we would be lost without our bees!

To go with the bees I chose to create a garden full of flowers for the bees to collect their pollen from. I've found that the trick to creating a pleasing, layered composition such as this, is to keep my colour palette quite contained, so although I have used quite a few different Frescos I've kept the colour palette to tones of greens, yellows and pinky/purples.

To begin my project I assembled three pastel colours of Fresco Chalk Acrylics to create a random background and chose a contrasting Fresco colour to stencil on top.

You can see that I kept quite an ethereal feel to how I applied my paint which was achieved by sponging (using a sponge wedge) rather than painting with a brush or brayering.

 

I also kept the stencilling soft as I didn't want any defined imagery at this stage - I just wanted subtle interest.

 

 

Next I wanted to create some foliage as a backdrop for my garden. It's important to get the backdrop right at this early stage, as it is quite hard to add it at a later date once all your imagery has been stamped and painted.

I chose just two colours of green for this and switched to using a No.8 round paintbrush. 

 

 

The secret to applying the paints to create this effect is to have a very wet paintbrush. If you don't have enough water you cannot get the two paints to mix and merge together to create this watercolour effect. Note that you can still see my original background peeping through. It's all about creating that depth early on.

 

 

Next up is to stamp your composition and have fun colouring it! I mainly used Fresco Chalk Acrylics for this but I did add some details using Polychromo pencils too. To sink the smaller flowers into the grass I only inked up a small amount of the stem. Once I got to the base of the panel I inked up slightly more of the stem to help with perspective.

You can see how I have layered up the imagery using a combination of JOFY stamps. Overlapping some imagery helps with creating depth to the scene. I also lightly stamped some wording into the background first using Ranger's Distress Ink (Picket Fence).

 

I chose two of Jo's stamp sets to create my scene with namely (JOFY26) and (JOFY30). (JOFY 26) contains both the little and big flowers thus allowing me to create lots of interest by dotting the smaller flowers all around in the grass. Whereas the larger flowers allowed me to create some depth and perspective when stamped in front of the beehive and each other. I also used a variety of Ranger Archival Ink to stamp my imagery namely (Leaf Green), (Olive) and (Jet Black).

 

To really frame the composition I needed to add some imagery around the sides of the panel so I delved into my stash of stencils to achieve this.

After stencilling leaves all around the panel I added some more of watered down Hyde Park in amongst those stencilled leaves to further help frame the picture.

 

You can see how I have purposely stencilled leaves over some of the flowers to help add that depth to the scene. 

 

Creating scenes like this does take a little bit of time but you can begin very simply by just overlapping a couple of images to create some depth. Perhaps try stamping an image and then stencilling something to slightly overlap part of your stamped image. The beauty of working with PaperArtsy's Fresco Chalk Acrylics is that many of the colours are opaque which makes it so easy to block out an image that is underneath, so no fiddly masking is then required! 

Love Kay x

Blog: Kays Crafty Corner
Facebook: Kay Carley

Facebook Group: Crafting with Kay Carley
Twitter: @carleycards
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At this current time, all of my teaching is being done online. You can find details of all of my past and current online workshops over on my Crafting with Kay Carley Facebook Group. 

2021 Topic 8: Nature's Treasure with EEB {by Jennie Atkinson}

2021 Topic 8: Nature's Treasures

Jennie has moved into the watercolor zone for this post, using infusions in soft, delicate ways to offer subtle shades with differing depths using a range of images from the EEB collection. I think it can be quite tricky to use infusions so softly like this, and her step out instructions are really useful to see how she does this.
~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) with you today, and I'm here to share with you a small watercolour folded book around our theme of Nature's Treasure.

The folded book has been made with just a few products and items but these are all little pieces that I like to use in my projects. I particularly love stamping flowers on dictionary paper and as these gorgeous blooms by Elizabeth Borer were fairly open I thought they would sit nicely over the text and allow a delicate colouring with Infusions.

We are currently getting some new windows installed in our 180 year old house, so rooms have had to be emptied and sadly my craft room has become a store for furniture. Even though I managed to gather a few pieces I surprised myself with using some unusual items!

I always like to start a project by gathering some bits and pieces which I think I might use. I couldn't reach my usual papers so used a piece of watercolour paper from my husband's stash - I don't normally work with such thick paper but it was a joy and allowed me to work with a lot of water. As the base was watercolour I thought that PaperArtsy Infusions would be the most appropriate to work with (The Sage and Terracotta). 

There are some of the usual tea dyed papers and ribbons, but in the top right hand corner are a few sheets of the wrapping paper from my PaperArtsy order (it was beautifully wrapped around all the paints and had hardly any creases in it at all). It feels like a thickish tissue paper and it was a great substrate to work with!

The stamp set gave me a mixture of stamps I could use as a background but also as the detail. There was also a lovely quote which could be used in itself, or broken up into smaller words.

EEB08

The torn piece of watercolour paper (12" x 7") got spritzed with a fair amount of water before adding a very watery mix of Infusions with a paintbrush.

I used the same watery mix of Infusions on my stamp, brushing lightly with the paintbrush - I was quite happy to get a distressed look.

And this was the effect ...... a lot darker than the background but totally co-ordinated! That is what is so wonderful about Infusions, you never quite know what you are going to get!

I wanted to add some extra blended elements onto the background and so turned to Raquel's lovely Nature stencil.

PS190

This gave me some lovely vertical lines and flourishes for corners, along with a sentiment for the back of the book.

Whilst the book was drying I had a lovely relaxing time stamping the flowers on the dictionary paper and painting them with very watery Infusions. You only need to dip the tip of the paintbrush into the Infusions otherwise the dictionary paper will go to pulp!

This is a very "loose" watercolour technique. I like to leave little bits of white showing and don't worry too much about going over the edges.

By this time in the progress of the windows I only had access to my sewing machine! So I made a number of panels for the book using the PaperArtsy tissue wrap as my base. This is not a good photograph because of the light from the machine, but when trying to adhere lots of fragile light pieces such as the dictionary and tissue paper, I find sewing is far better than trying to glue things together.

The inside panels are more pockets stitched only along one side and the bottom edge. The vellum allows other items to be added, even little tags placed underneath. 

I even raided the kitchen cupboards - you can see little snippets of coffee filter papers!

I cut some small tags from some of the painted pieces I didn't use.

Not everything goes to plan! I didn't like the light coloured lace on the front, so covered it up with some ribbon and embellishments. As I was making panels quite separately from the actual book it was not always easy to see what worked but I am always happy to keep "adding" until it looks right - the beauty of collage!

I shall certainly be using this thick watercolour paper again as it works so well with watery Infusions. I have no idea of the weight, but it comes from the local Art Shop in A2 size. Stamping flowers works so well on dictionary paper and I loved how beautifully the Infusions allow a loose water colouring effect. Such versatile little pots of lovelineness ! 

And do have a go at working with the PaperArtsy tissue (packing) paper - one side is quite waxy/glossy and the other more matte. It was lovely to stamp on and I did manage to paint with the infusions. It just didn't quite fit with the design I was  planning but it certainly worked well as a light base for adhering my panel pieces.

Sometimes it is quite refreshing to work with just a few, and different, products and I was creating in different parts of the house to my usual (my board was balanced on the utility room sink and the sewing machine just outside the linen cupboard !). Elizabeth's beautiful stamps were however the base and I could sit and paint them forever ..... which I did in the greenhouse!

As always thank you for joining me.

Jennie x

Blog: Live the Dream

Instagram: atkinsonjennie