Grid Background Card and Notebook inspired by Anneke De Clerck for Paper Artsy

On Paper Artsy, a new Guest Designer, Anneke De Clerck, made a Mini Book/Notebook from scratch using a bookbinding, and a wonderful background paint blocking technique that I wanted to try. I am entering the Paper Artsy September Challenge.

I used Smoothy Heavy Weight Card and went about it a very long-winded way as I used Eclipse masking strips to form grid lines. I've now ordered a mask which will be easier but probably a different sort of effect. This took me ages. I started off like this. with Marlin, Evergreen, Plum, and Dusty Teal.

Then I added some lighter, brighter colours.

And the dry brushing of Chalk. I really like the metamorphosis into pastels! I will definitely do this again!

In fact I did!

Here's the card and notebook I made, and I have some left from the first sheet to make something else too. Thanks, Anneke.

Huck Finn Anchor

I had a wonderful time on Sunday at the Big Stamping and Scrapbooking Show at Ally Pally, and as always, the best thing was meeting up with lots of lovely people!

I had had in mind as I walked around that I wanted to join in the Country View Crafts challenge this month which is Nautical, using my Huckleberry Finn stamps by Artistic Outpost, and I saw this anchor on the MDF man stand. I thought it would be perfect! I painted it with Fresco Finish in Sky Blue with some dry brushing of Chalk, and some South Pacific around the edges and then used all of the stamps in the set with a selection of blue and brown archival inks to build up layers of stamping. I used Cobalt for the steamboat and Jet Black for the boys (Huck and Tom?) as I wanted these to be my focal points. I coloured the little boys with Fibralos. Does the Mississippi count as Nautical?!  I suppose it flows into the sea eventually!


I used the largest stamp with Huck and the Steamer on shrink plastic and tied it to the top with an anchor charm.

I am entering this into the Country View Crafts Challenge which is Nautical and the Artistic Outpost September Challenge which is Anything Goes.

Paper Artsy Canvas Transfer Experiment - Thorndon Hall Sketchbook

Here's another example of something I made using the canvas transfer experiment which I showed on the Paper Artsy blog here. I love the colours of the old Thorndon Hall papers and I have a stationery set I made a while ago so I wanted a matching notebook. This is another of the Reeves A5 canvas covered ones. By the way, Royal and Langnickel also do one. I used some of the older Paper Artsy stamps and layered them up on the canvas transferred background using different neutral shades of archival. For the flowers I stamped them on acetate and them painted them from behind with Fresco paints. I die cut the letters using a memory box set using more Thorndon Hall canvas transferrred paper. The tags on the spiral binding are Thorndon Hall transferred onto some canvas tags from Papermania.

There's a great prize up for grabs if you join in the Paper Artsy challenge before the end of September. Details are here.

Canvas Transfer Technique onto Chatsworth Paper - over on Paper Artsy!

 

I was delighted to be asked to show a technique over on the Paper Artsy blog where I've experimented with transferring Chatsworth paper onto canvas. I hope you will hop over there and see how I've done it and all the lovely products I've used and leave me a comment! Thank you so much! I've given a little bit more information below on how I made the two example projects and I will follow this up at a later date with some more things I've been making as there are so many ways in which you can use this technique. I made this sketch book and canvas:-

The sketch book is a Reeves A5 canvas covered spiral bound book which you can get from The Range or on-line. I popped it off the spiral binding to work on, and painted the edges with a mixture of Seaweed and Tikka Fresco Finish Paint. I then transferred the Chatsworth paper onto it using the method described in the Paper Artsy post. I used the design which features the flower which is like the design in the stencil PS005. I know you would think it is difficult to work around the spiral holes but actually it was easy to pop them out with my craft knife.

I added some extra stencilling of the flower using the same paint. All the stamps are from Darcy's EDY10, apart from the grasses which are from EDY09. I stamped the bricks to the sides of the cover with a mixture of Caramel, Tikka, and Cinnamon, to give the effect of a walled garden. I stamped the grasses in Marlin and Seaweed, varying the heights and doing some secondary stamping for depth. I stamped the birds at the top right in black Archival and the 'Turn your face to the sun' wording in Marlin (my new favourite colour!). So that was the background done!

Now onto the flower stem. I had prepared various pieces of Chatsworth transferred onto canvas. I stamped the flower stem using black Archival and cut it out, then stamped the individual flower heads onto a different design. I cut these out, distressed the edges with my craft knife, to emphasize the canvas texture, and cut into the petals slightly, and stitched different sized pearls into the centre for a quirky look. I love how you can stitch into the fabric nature of the paper now!

The stem wasn't as green as I wanted so I added a bit of Fibralo pen and blended with a damp brush. I stamped the leaves onto some greeny Chatsworth I had prepared and glued them on just at their bases. I used 3d foam at the base of the flowers so they were decoupaged on top of the layer below. For the Secret Garden wording on the bottom right, I used the stencil PS004 and mixed the Grunge Paste with Marlin. It is such a strong colour that it doesn't dilute too much when mixed with the GP, which I love! Once it was dry, I replaced the stencil and rubbed with Treasure Gold in Emerald.

 

For the canvas, I used one of the chunky 6 x 6 canvases from Paper Artsy and cut a 6 x 6 square of Chatsworth paper. I painted the canvas all over with a mix of Seaweed and Tikka and transferred the piece of Chatsworth to the top using the method I've given over on their blog. I wasn't sure if it would work so well on a less rigid surface but in fact it was just as easy. I used Tikka with a touch of Seaweed at the tips of the flowers through the stencil PS005 down the sides and on the top.

 

I used Marlin mixed with grungepaste through the Bloom and Grow PS008 stencil and once it was dry, replaced the stencil and used Treasure Gold in Emerald to highlight it. Now for the flowers! I used Darcy's EDY10 and just isolated the largest flower from the stem and black Archival to stamp it onto a selection of Chatsworth designs which I had transferred onto canvas. From then on I followed the method in Leandra's You Tube video here. I left the edges white to emphasize the canvas. I added leaves from the same stamp set, stamped onto green Chatsworth canvas sheet. I finished off with Treasure Gold in White Fire around the edge of the canvas.

In this photo I have transferred a couple of Chatsworth designs onto canvas on the left, but on the top right I have transferred it onto linen fabric which works just as well. In the middle I have stamped on a piece with black Archival using a Lin Brown stamp set and torn the edges. The bottom right is Thorndon Hall paper transferred onto a canvas board panel which would make a great book cover with a couple of book rings, or put through a Cinch or Bind it All:-

Here are the two final projects:-

 

There are so many things you can do with this technique, either transferring designs directly onto a canvas substrate, or preparing pieces of canvas sheet - you can then stitch it, die cut it, stamp on it, stencil on it, mould it around awkward shapes like frames, make a patchwork ....... If you are inspired to make something, there is an amazing prize up for grabs at Paper Artsy this month!

Leftovers and Doodling - Inspired (Loosely) by Jo Firth Young for Paper Artsy

 Lots of lovely projects as always on the Paper Artsy blog this week. I didn't intend to play along as I am meant to be doing other things but I was tidying my desk and realized I could make something from the left overs! I always love how Jo Firth Young does her doodling and I never doodle - daydream, Yes, but doodle, No! I had this piece of square Chatsworth on my desk where I had been doing another project using the lovely new Marlin Fresco mixed with grungepaste and I had a little left so I popped it through the JoFY circles stencil and then used Tikka through the flower stencil, so when I saw she had doodled around the circles I thought I would try it and turn the square into a card. I had the left over clay flowers and canvas stems from when I did the bottle with the Clay Flowers for  Paper Artsy, and the painted buttons from when I did the house with the button roof. I know that makes it sound like I haven't tidied my desk in a looooong time, but I put left overs into little baggies and then never seem to use them. So there it is.

I am entering this card into this week's Paper Artsy challenge.

Floral Hessian Canvas Inspired by Penny Nuttall for Paper Artsy

Over on Paper Artsy this week, Penny Nuttall was Guest Designer, and on night one she made a wonderful hessian book with fabric liner paper. I thought I would try to recreate the same look as an excuse to use a hessian canvas with a gessoed background, and use the stamps in a similar way to Penny - so I was totally inspired by her in making it even though it is much simpler. I used StazOn in Claret, Orange Zest, and Ganache. The script is from Hot Picks 1304 and the flowers are from 1009.  I added metal flowers from an old necklace which I rusted and enamelled with Fresco paints, and some rusted photo corners. It was very quick but I quite like it as a piece of home decor as I like to be able to 'put things somewhere' or give them to people who won't say 'what is it?'!!

I am entering this into the Paper Artsy challenge and also That's Blogging Crafty which is Something Stamped, and the Artistic Stamper which is Anything Goes.

Lynne Perrella Tea Cup Lady - Inspired by Keren Baker for Paper Artsy

This week at Paper Artsy has seen the swansong of the lovely Keren Baker who has a wonderfully imaginative and experimental but still clean and simple style which I love, and I will be sorry to see her go. On the first of her three nights she used one of my favourite stamps, the Lynne Perrella Tea Cup lady, and I was pleased to have such a different way to use her. She had cut the diamonds out of her bodice and teased pieces of organza through the resulting holes. It was very effective and fortunately I had replaced my craft knife from last time she had us doing fussy cutting, but I thought I'd do that part of the project earlier in the week, as A and E can get busy at the weekend! I really think it was the most fiddly and exasperating thing I have ever tried to do in crafting, and that's saying a lot! The cutting out part wasn't too bad, but I used a tweezers to pull the pieces of organza through the tiny holes, and every time I pulled one bit through, it pulled one of the other bits out again! Did any of you try this? I don't know if you can make it out in the photo but it is quite effective, like a ruffled bodice.

I did as Keren suggested and stamped the image several times. I used archival and layered up the teacup, the necklace, and the wording. I then coloured it with my new Fibralos. Did I tell you I bought Fibralos?!!! Then I recycled a canvas by reversing it and filled the back with white lace and painted the edges with Beach Hut. I finished it off with Teal coloured rose organza trim.

I am entering it into this week's Paper Artsy challenge.