"Beautiful" metallic book {Paperartsy Blog}

   

Hello again, my friends. I'm over on the Paperartsy blog tonight, sharing a fabulous book with a metallic look. This combines many of my favourite things, such as bookbinding, monoprinting, doodling and, of course, Paperartsy and Emma Godfrey's stamps and stencils. 

  

Luckily for me, all my pink and purple shades of Fresco acrylics are all in the same box. That made things easier.

I unearthed my mini hexagonal Gelli plate, something I hadn't used before, despite buying it several months ago! Then, alternating the first four purple colours, Blueberry, Purple Rain, Lavender and Wisteria, I used the gel plate as a stamp. I wasn't bothered about the little bits that missed. I think that adds to the effect. Anyway, they eventually get covered with stencilling. I carried on filling the Smoothy Card with the same four colours. 

By placing Emma's gorgeous mask (PM008) over the already printed hexagon, I 'stamped' over it with the same hexagonal plate covered in the first four pink shades of Fresco paints, Plum, Sour Grapes, Sugar Plum and Pixie Dust.

Then, by removing the stencil from the plate, it leaves you with a negative print which you can then press onto the cardstock...

I carried on with positive and negative masking until the whole sheet was filled. Some of the hexagons looked wonderful. Others not so...

Nothing that a black and a white pen couldn't fix though...

Finally, the main part of the cover was done. What it needed now was some flowers! You can never have enough flowers. 

I stamped up a good selection of Emma's flowers using sets EEG14 and EEG22 and painted them using Pansy and Moonlight for the purple flowers and Sherbet and Orchid for the pink ones.

After fussy-cutting the gorgeous blooms and then curling them over a stylus tool, I decided that I wanted a magnetic closure. 

The best placing for the magnets was under a flower and inaside the front cover. 

I made a bookmark from one of the offcuts and its own little pocket inside which would hide the other magnet.

Out with the Treasure Gold in Royal Amethyst. I rubbed it over the edges of the book, the flowers, the bookmark and the pocket.

Everything was looking shiny-shiny and beautiful. Now I just had to put this fabulous book together. The hardest part was tearing the cartridge paper edges. It's a bit rough on your fingers. I laminated the bookmark, then made a tassel and bound the book with silver thread.

I stamped and heat-embossed the "Beautiful" in silver, then gave it a drop-shadow as it had got a bit lost in the madness behind. Then I added the gloriously shiny flowers and, after what seemed like an age, the book was finished. 

Ta-daaa! 

I hope I've inspired some more bookbinding projects with you. I'd love to see whatever beauties you make. Thanks for sticking with me. I promise the next post will be shorter! 

Probably.

Love and peace, 

Wendy x

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Awash With Aqua - PaperArtsy Blog

Hello friends! Today I'm going to share a star book with you. It's a seven-point star and each 'point' is made up of three parts. There's a lot of paper used here, but don't let that worry you. Once the components are prepared, it's really easy to put together - I promise!

I started, as I often do, with a masterboard (or two) using all of the aqua range of PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics...

...although, in the end, I mainly stuck to Mermaid, Caribbean Sea and Beach Hut. I had a 6"x6" book in my  mind and decided that Heavyweight Smoothy Card would be perfect. That all changed in the end. 

As I mentioned, each 'point' of the star book is made up of three main parts. In my book, each part consisted of papers measuring 15", 13" and 11". All of these (already coloured) pieces are folded in half and joined at each end with double sided tape.

Then each outer section is completely adhered to the next to form the star shape. I brayered Fresco paints onto the large pieces, used Distress Oxides (Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio) on the middle pieces and sprayed Lindy's Stamp Gang (Starburst - Shabby Turbine Teal, Flat Fabio - Caribbean Blue) onto the small pieces. The overall size of the book finished up as 7.5"x5.5", which was determined by the larger section of each point.

I didn't have any aqua coloured ribbon for the closure so I stained some neutral seam binding with a combination of Peacock Feathers and Cracked Pistachio Distress Stains. Perfect!

I adhered the ribbon around the outside of the book with double-sided tape before I began the covers. I used Fresco brayered Smoothy Card, adding more interest and accents with masks and stencils from Emma Godfrey (PM006) and Kim Dellow (PS040), and smaller stamps from Elena (ZA15) with Ranger Archival Ink (Aquamarine). 

I adhered the painted papers around two pieces of mountboard to form the front and back covers.

And so, at last, the real fun begins. Using ElenaZinskiArt stamps from her new release (ZA13 & ZA15), I used Jane Davenport's bright watercolours in the same aqua shades. My reasoning was that I could use the same umbrella theme of aqua but they would look a bit different to the background if I used a different medium. Giving focal images the 'pop' they deserve is challenging when using a single colour scheme. Well, these  gorgeous new Zinski stamps deserve the biggest pop ever.

Finally, some doodling - my favourite thing to do. I used Prismacolor pencils to add definition to the focal images, Sakura Glaze pens on the flowers and dangles and highlights all over with a white Signo Uniball pen. All that was left to do was to adhere the covers securely with double sided tape and glue (those covers are staying put!)...

...and mat the pages and my very first star book was finished. 

I hope I've inspired you to try making a star book of your own. It really is much easier than it looks. Of course, the size, colour and embellishments are all down to you.

All this talk of Star Books is making me want a coffee...

Love and peace,

Wendy x


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Mixed Up Mag Issue 7 Jun/Jul 2017

Hello, my crafty friends. I'm so happy to tell you that I have a tutorial in the latest issue of Mixed Up Mag.

 

In case you've never heard of it (in which case, where have you BEEN?), Mixed Up Mag is a wonderful online publication that is guaranteed to spark your creative juices, inspire you to try something new and excite the senses so much that you ditch the laundry and pick up your paints.

Issue 7 is a book-making special with several different ways to make your own books. And who doesn't love books? My tutorial (P54, if you're interested) is on making a coptic-stitched book. I made a sketchbook and liked it so much that I kept it for myself. Because I can.

Front cover

Mixed Up Mag is interactive and has articles that enable you to swipe photos for more views and even has embedded video tutorials to accompany the step-by-step written articles. My sketchbook tutorial comes with such a video. It's 40 minutes long, so Editor, Katy Leitch, advises you to get yourself a cuppa and relax while you watch it. I took it slowly (no sense in rushing, right?) so it's a bit easier to follow than some others.

Back cover

I hope you get a chance to take a look and I'd love to see anything that I may have inspired you to make. It's easier than it looks, I promise. 

See how to download this fab online mag here.

Love and peace,

Wendy x

Houses And Flowers And Birds, Oh My!

       

   

  Hello and Happy New Year!               

I am very excited to announce that Paperartsy have just released new stamps from Elena Zinski Art. I'm even more excited to announce that I, along with Lauren Hatwell, am one of Elena's wingmen!

Here is Leandra Franich with some of our samples...

Elena's new stamps are definitely born to mix and match. Hold onto your hats...

And to accompany these gorgeous stamps are some fun sentiment and quote stamps...

I love the birds, so I grabbed all of the birds from all of the sets, put them all together. There's always one, isn't there? ...

I covered a #8 Manila tag in Bora Bora, then stamped all of the birds onto Smoothy Card. Doing this made it easier to place the characters and the very cool quote. I had already fussy cut the branch, which I extended by masking with Post-It. Then I cut out the birds, but not the legs (life is way too short for those sort of shenanigans!)

Next, I stamped the birds into place and heat embossed the sentiment with Versafine Black Onyx ink and clear embossing powder, then paper-pieced the birds on top of their legs. A little bit of shading with Prismacolor pencils and the tag was done.

ZA05, 06, 07, 08 

Phew! There's a lot to get through this time.

More birds next and Elena's flower houses deserved a look-in. I stamped one that looked like it could hang as a bird house. Then I wrote the 'new home' sentiment with a black Pigma Micron pen...

...added flowers and leaves and a branch for the house to hang from and then painted the card using Bora Bora, South Pacific, Tinned Peas, Haystack and Pumpkin Soup. I then added more dimension with Prismacolor pencils.

ZA05, 06, 07 

Next, I cut out 5 pieces of Smoothy card at 2.5" x 3.5" for ATCs (artists' trading cards - my favourite!) Leaving one white, I painted the others with Rose, Bora Bora, Tinned Peas and Haystack.

I then stamped directly onto the cards and painted up the flowers and birds...

ZA06, 08 

Oh, well, I had to. This bird just looked like he was striking a pose, so he became John Travolta and the mirror ball was a flower 'tummy' that I heat embossed in silver and coloured in with a Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen.  It's funny what you can see when you sit and contemplate the stamps.

ZA07 

These flowers looked very much in love to me, so I surrounded them with hearts and painted them up.

I love the fact that you can look through some of the flowers. But, of course, it works both ways. You never know what might be looking back at you. I think a wee monster escaped from an earlier stamp set...

ZA02, 07 

More pretty flowers now and those fab sentiments...

ZA06, 08 

"More!" I hear you cry. Well I seem to have a thing about patterns and birds. Oh, I just love the birds in these sets. They're so full of character, they seem to have their own stories to tell...

The leafy corners joined together nicely to create little boxes for the birds...

ZA05, 07, 08 

Very convenient for a 6x6" Smoothy card base.

I've had a great time creating different samples from this Paperartsy Zinski Art release.  I hope you have as much fun too. I'd love to see what you make and I hope I've given you some inspiration.

Don't forget to check out the Paperartsy blog now for even more inspiration and a list of worldwide stockists. Enjoy!

Love and peace,

Wendy x


Paperartsy Fresco Acrylic paints used: Tinned Peas, Snowflake, Haystack, Pumpkin Soup, Rose, Claret, Bora Bora & South Pacific
Paperartsy Smoothy Card: 


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