Monday, 4 August 2025

Box & Cards with NEW Tracy Scott products {by Liesbeth Fidder-de Vos}

Hello everyone, Liesbeth here with you today, so nice to be back. For this post I have been exploring the new Tracy Scott products that were introduced a few days ago: three brand new stamp sets and three new stencils!


Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you my box and lots of cards. My plan was to have fun experimenting, combining and discovering the nice, funny, Egyptian style stamps and stencils...and I did!


As you can see it got a bit out of hand, it's quite a lot! The reason is.. I really couldn`t stop! :-)



These beautiful supplies were sent to me: PaperArtsy Stamps TS099, TS100 and TS101. And PaperArtsy Stencils PS474, PS475 and PS476.


I never have a plan in advance, I just go with the flow while creating. But this time I found a small blank pizza box (24x24 cm), it asked to be decorated. For the background of the box (and a stack of cards) I also used two A3 pieces of white cardstock. I'd love to show you the process!



First I took the two big pieces of cardstock and started to create two 'master boards'. Using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish-Matte Glaze I glued some different torn pieces of old book paper to create structure.


After a thin layer of gesso I started painting the surface with my favorite colours: PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Blue Lagoon and Limelight. The paints were applied with a wet baby wipe.


Using the three stencils I started to decorate the masterboards. For some contrast and vivacity I also added the Fresco paint colours Scottish Salmon, Guacamole and Glass Blue.


With some small sponges, this  colours of Fresco Paint and some gesso I continued playing with the stencils onto both papers.


Time for the stamps! I used lots of different stamps of the stamp sets, perfect for this background and so perfect in combination with the stencils! I used Tsukineko StazOn inks: Jet black, Cactus Green, Blue Hawaii, Mustard and St. Valentine.


The masterboards are ready to use!




Onto two A4`s of PaperArtsy Smoothy regular white stamping card I stamped almost every stamp from the three stamp sets TS099, TS100 and TS101. The ideas immediately started bubbling in!


I cut them out and coloured every piece part with water colour pencils and water.


I cut the masterboards in different pieces for cards and ATC`s. For the top of the pizza box I needed a big square, 22 x 22 cm. I sponged the edges of the cards with black ink.


This way I arranged the different cards with all kind of combinations and bits and parts of the stamps. So much fun!


I coloured the sides and edges of the box with blue ink and stamped the small flower and Egyptian characters with white and black ink. Now the big cat card can be glued onto the box lid.


Onto one of the cards I used a piece of Tracy Scott`s printed tissue paper PT04. I tore out the bee and painted the backside of it with Fresco paint Snowflake, let it dry and glued it onto the card with Matte Glaze. (one of the pictures below)

I matted everything onto blue cardstock and ..ended up with a nice box and a lot of cards!


The pizza box...ready!


The top of the box with the cat and its new big ears, It's sitting onto two 'feather things', the same as the one the flowers are on. The scarabs are the cat`s guards.



Here I used a piece of printed tissue as I explained before, and I outlined the edges of the white stencil print with a black fineliner.


The cat with its own ears, but here I gave it other wings.


Three ATC cards, I used small pieces from the printed tissue (script) and a black fineliner and a white gel pen.


How I love the big dragonfly! The cat`s wings this time was the bow, I just cut it in half. I decorated the cat with the big masque and the whiskers.


A joke! The 'hair` is two wings I cut off the cat, the mouth is pieces of the scarab!


A detail of the dragonfly card.

I really loved playing with the new Tracy stamps and stencils! So many possibilities and combinations...I enjoyed and had so much fun! So much that it was almost impossible to stop.

Hope I inspired you! Keep creating and have fun..!
See you next time, have a nice day,

Liesbeth

Friday, 1 August 2025

Envelope Pocket Tags with Sara Naumann products {by Victoria Wilding}

 


Hi everyone, nice to be back with you again.

Victoria here with you today.

This year on the blog, we have free rein to do a deep dive into a PaperArtsy product range of our choosing. For this post I have been exploring Sara Naumann products, many of which provide a mix of text, vintage ephemera and nature themed images. Sara’s designs call to my creative being and my love of paper projects.


Today I'm looking forward to sharing with you a project, turning envelopes into pocket tags, which hold a range of ephemera. Playing with lots of different elements in a project is a lot of fun and makes use of so many of the stamps in a set.

There’s an endless range of options with this project, from how you decorate the envelope pockets, to what ephemera you include. I kept things fun and playful, with the gel plate and simple stamping.



I decided to use two of Sara’s stamp sets, ESN21 and ESN34. The insects and birds work nicely together and the mix of stamps and text gave me lots of options for creating the ephemera.

I love a soft and dreamy colour palette, so I selected four PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics in Chalk (FF83), Haze (FF217), Powder Pink (FF220), Stardust (FF222). And I picked out stencil PS449 for some subtle background detailing, as it has some big open space in the design.



To start, I decided to add some background colour and texture to the envelopes using the gel plate. I added a layer of Stardust Fresco Finish Acrylic to the gel plate and put the stencil on top. I then pulled a print on a piece of Smoothy White Card (SCA4).


Next I added a layer of Chalk Fresco Finish Acrylic and pulled the print on an envelope.


I repeated this with another two envelopes, using a different combination of coloured Fresco Finish Acrylic (Haze then Powder Pink) and Chalk Fresco Finish Acrylic.


To finish the enveloped and create the tag appearance, I opened out the top of each one and punched a small hole, before adding a reinforcer for extra strength.



The next step was creating the ephemera to go into the envelope pocket tags. Using the card prints from the gel plate, I die cut several tags and labels in different shapes and sizes. I chose sizes which would extend out of the pocket and add extra visual interest in the finished piece.


I then used the ephemera stamps for the sets to create some labels, simply stamping the images in Archival Ink.


Next I added some of the text stamps to the tags. The quotes added larger visual details, but I also wanted some smaller background text, so I picked out stamp Mini 61 (MN61) from my stash.


I then added the bird images from ESN34 to the rounded tags and the leaves from the same set to the rectangular tags.


This is the ephemera stash complete.


Now I wanted to add some final decorative details to the envelope pocket tags. I decided to add a main focal point to the bottom of each one, stamping the images first in Archival Ink. I then used Distress Watercolor Pencils to colour the images on the stamps and print again on white card. This technique creates stamping with a watercolour effect. Once dry I fussy cut these and glued them over the top of that part of the stamped image.


I then selected some blue and green fibres and threaded these into the holes at the top of each envelope tag, and added a selection of the ephemera to the pocket.



For one final little detail I added some silver foiling to the outside edges of the envelopes.


I love how all these tiny little details transform a simple envelope into something different.




The finished envelope pocket tags are a great showcase for Sara’s designs. They invite you to look more carefully to discover new details and whilst each one is similar, they are all unique. Here are some close ups of each envelope pocket tag.




I hope you are inspired to have a go at creating your own envelope pocket tags. I’d love to see what you make, so find and tag me on socials (links below).

Until next time, wishing you a happy, creative week.

Victoria